Rethink Patient Engagement Before and Beyond the Walls

The healthcare industry is undergoing a profound digital transformation, driven by shifting patient expectations, advancements in technology, and an increasing emphasis on personalized care. For CMOs and marketing directors, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity: how to harness the power of digital platforms to improve patient outcomes, while riding the line between protecting data privacy and creating meaningful engagement. Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) and Content Management Systems (CMS) are at the forefront of this evolution.

DXPs enable healthcare organizations to unify their digital touchpoints, deliver tailored personalized experiences, and support data-driven marketing strategies. These tools are no longer optional, they are essential for addressing thecomplexities of modern healthcare.

Why This Matters Now

Patients are demanding more control and convenience in their interactions with providers. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, the digital “front door” experience, including features like online scheduling, personalized recommendations, and secure patient portals, is one of the most significant factors influencing patient loyalty and retention. The challenge is to think beyond that "front door" and how do you meet the patient expectations at every step of their journey. There's a lot that leads up to the moment a patient walks in those doors, receives care and opportunity to continue that care. Think of this as "Before the Walls", During, and "Beyond the Walls".

The Opportunity for Marketing Leaders

Enter, your DXP.

As with any successful brand, the key is delivering a frictionless experience. Healthcare consumers will ultimately choose providers, facilities, locations that make access, scheduling, and care convenient and easy over those that do not. For CMOs and marketing directors, DXPs meet this opportunity at all steps of care we've defined:

• Before the Walls: Build your brand awareness and reputation leading towards informed patient decision-making with rich, searchable content and intelligent care-finding tools.
• During Patient Care: Simplify access, enhance engagement, and reduce barriers to appointment making, provider finding, location maps and wayfinding tools, reduce no-shows with personalized, responsive digital tools.
• Beyond the Walls: Nurture long-term relationships through targeted content, wellness support, facilitate payment, easy and secure access to EHRs and test results, and post-care communication.

Healthcare marketers have access to more data than ever before, presenting an opportunity to improve patient care. However, the key to success lies in transforming this data into actionable insights that enhance the patient journey while maintaining trust.

From Data to Actionable Insights

There's a reason why we've evolved the term Content Management System (CMS) to DXP. Delivering Content is no longer king. Experience is king. Those experiences are driven by more than day, but insight into that data.

Marketing leaders need a composable, flexible toolkit that works with your DXP:

• DXP: Streamline patient journeys with tools that unify data, enable secure personalization, and offer predictive insights.
• Advanced Analytics: Use data to refine segmentation, improve targeting, and forecast campaign success.
• Content Personalization: Develop dynamic content tailored to individual patient profiles, increasing relevance and engagement.

Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) are most powerful when they turn patient data into meaningful engagement across every phase of the care journey. From initial research to post-care follow-up, DXPs enable healthcare organizations to action real-time insights that improve access, communication, and outcomes.

Before the Walls: Guiding Discovery with Personalized Content

In the earliest stages, patients are searching symptoms, researching options, and evaluating where to go. DXPs allow organizations to personalize this experience based on intent, geography, and need.

How DXPs Help:

• Symptom-based search tailored to the patient's language, location, gender preferences, insurance, and health concerns.
• Content recommendations that align with browsing history and frequently viewed conditions.
• Provider and service line suggestions triggered by search terms, click throughs, or prior engagement.

How Nishtech Implemented This:

For a major healthcare system, Nishtech built a taxonomy-powered condition-to-care search experience within a Composable Digital Experience Platform and AI-powered search tools that dynamically served provider cards, relevant content, and nearby locations based on the patient's symptom search.

When Every Second Counts, Personalization Matters: Late night visitors to the site weren’t browsing, they were looking for help. Our analytics showed mobile users between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. were most often seeking directions to the ER. We personalized the homepage during those hours to display live ER wait times and the fastest route. One small change made the path to care faster, clearer, and far less stressful.

Making Search Smarter with AI: We integrated an Enterprise-AI Search Platform into a Cloud hosted SaaS DXP to deliver results based on what patients actually meant, not just what they typed. For example, patients were searching for “heart” but weren’t finding “Cardiovascular Care” in the hospital’s old system. With AI-powered search, the platform quickly identified this gap and adjusted relevance in real time based on a 3-week training window. Connecting patients to the right services. It also surfaced ER locations and orthopedic specialists when someone searched “sprained ankle,” helping drive more appointment bookings.

During Care: Enhancing Engagement Through DXP Platform Features

Once a patient decides to seek care, the goal is to make that experience seamless. Reducing friction and improving navigation using real-time, responsive tools.

How DXPs Help:

• Online scheduling, callbacks, and live wait times based on provider availability and location.
• Pre-visit guidance including dynamic content based on procedure type and patient profile.
• Wayfinding and check-in workflows personalized by campus, appointment type, or patient needs.

How Nishtech Implemented This:

• For a major hospital network based in the Northeast we built a DXP driven provider search tool that filtered by specialty, availability, insurance accepted, and distance, complete with integrated booking for new and returning patients and telehealth options.
• Configured Enterprise Personalize rules to surface pre-visit instructions based on appointment type (e.g., fasting requirements for labs, arrival windows for outpatient surgery).
• Designed a mobile-friendly campus guide within a Composable Enterprise Headless DXP that adapted wayfinding content based on the patient’s entry point, reducing patient frustration and missed appointments. Simple improvements such as best place to park based on the office you're visiting. By using a Headless platform, we were able to deliver content to the patient beyond the website, but within the mobile app and kiosk as they entered the facility. All connected to a single system.

Beyond the Walls: Sustaining Relationships Through Intelligent Follow-Up

After care, patients want support, not just access to pay your bills. This is where DXPs shine in continuing the experience and building loyalty.

How DXPs Help:

• Automated post-care journeys with educational content tailored to the treatment or diagnosis.
• Secure access to test results, prescription refills, bill pay and messaging through integrated portals.
• Proactive outreach for wellness programs, chronic care support, and feedback collection.

How Nishtech Implemented This:

• Used Advanced DXP Marketing Automation to build post-discharge content journeys, delivering rehab tips, medication reminders, and check-in surveys personalized by condition and procedure.
• Built event-triggered communications using DXP Marketing and Contact Management Features that encouraged patients to book follow-up care, attend recovery programs, or access support groups.
• Developed a feedback loop via patient satisfaction surveys tied to the care experience, integrating responses into dashboards for marketing and service teams.

The Opportunity for Differentiation

Organizations that prioritize privacy not only comply with regulations but also stand out in a competitive marketplace. The AHIMA Journal emphasizes that healthcare organizations using predictive analytics responsibly can gain a competitive edge by offering proactive, personalized care while safeguarding patient information.

When patients feel their data is safe, they are more likely to engage with personalized marketing and trust recommendations, driving better outcomes for both patients and providers.

Insights for Healthcare CMOs and Marketing Directors

In an increasingly competitive healthcare landscape, CMOs and marketing directors play a pivotal role in shaping patient experiences and driving organizational success. By leveraging the right tools and strategies, they can transform data driven insights into meaningful engagement and outcomes.

By leveraging DXPs across Before the Walls, During Care, and Beyond the Walls, they can turn fragmented interactions into a continuous, connected care journey.With the right tools and implementation and strategy partners, every click can lead to clarity, every message to trust, andevery touchpoint to better patient outcomes.