By: Sarah Reitsma
Every patient interaction your healthcare system has, is a reputational risk. From delivering care to managing coverage, any communication touchpoint shapes how your brand is perceived. If you fail to connect consistently, you’re not just frustrating your patients, you’re fracturing their trust.
Forward-thinking organizations aren’t settling for upgrades, they know that’s not enough. Instead, they’re looking at the big picture and rethinking how they communicate. That shift in thinking is putting the focus back onto improving patient experiences which turns reactive fixes into proactive care. At the same time, any change to your communications platform must deliver measurable value through both cost savings and strengthening the way you connect with patients. But that kind of transformation isn’t something most organizations take on by themselves.
The truth is that successful healthcare systems rely on partners who don’t just deliver a product and walk away. They understand the stakes, your market share, the critical importance associated with protecting data, compliance, patient and employee retention, and adopting technology that drives transformation.
So, where do you begin when evaluating how your organization communicates as a whole?
It starts with pinpointing the communications hurdles teams are facing across all patient interactions. This includes clinical operations, scheduling, physician locator, care delivery, follow-up, referrals, and billing.
Many organizations have already expanded the ways that patients can connect, through multiple systems and channels. The next step is to ensure everything works together behind the scenes. Streamlining data flow, simplifying appointment scheduling, automating patient reminders on different platforms, and improving billing and insurance inquiries reduces friction and builds trust.
Once you’ve identified your communication challenges, the next step is to develop a focused strategy tailored to your organization. This includes involving the right stakeholders across clinical, administrative, and IT teams to ensure alignment and buy-in. It’s also the time to bring in a partner who understands healthcare, asks the hard questions, and brings you options you may not have considered.
With a clear strategy in place, the focus shifts to execution. This means deploying tools and workflows designed to tackle your unique challenges head-on. Platforms like Avaya Infinity provide the robust, scalable, communication infrastructure needed to unify channels, streamline workflows, and support seamless patient and staff interactions.
However, innovation isn’t complete once you’ve deployed a product; it’s a continuous process. Technology needs constant adaptation to evolving healthcare demands. To stay ahead, leading organizations are turning to AI to transform communication from a simple workflow into a strategic asset. Avaya Infinity gives your healthcare system a competitive edge by embedding AI capabilities that can automate routine tasks and personalizes communication in real time. By easing the workload on your teams, they can prioritize positive in-person interactions with patients who need direct care. Meanwhile, patients who don’t require direct contact get relevant and individualized communication through their preferred channels.
To fully leverage an advanced communication platform, a solid support structure is essential. That’s where Waterfield’s dual-coast Network Operations Centers come in; they monitor voice, data, and applications around the clock. Minimizing downtime and maximizing reliability reinforces the trust that your patients have with your organization, and it also protects you from costly operational disruptions.
The key to transforming healthcare communication is measuring your success at every step. First, that means evaluating how effectively you transition from legacy systems to a modern platform, with as little disruption as possible. Next comes measuring performance. Compare where you started, with siloed teams and limited data, to where you are now, with a cohesive platform that gives you visibility into patient engagement, AI, and team productivity.
Technology alone won’t cut it. Real transformation happens when strategy, execution, and support all work together. That’s how forward-thinking healthcare systems are protecting their reputation, sharpening their competitive edge, and setting the stage for long-term growth. Success depends on more than just the right tools. It requires those tools to work together with a partner who understands your world, challenges your thinking, and stays with you for the long haul.
