Transforming your website into a true “digital front door”

Published by Bill Rogers, Founder of Orbita on Jan 18, 2023 3:07:43 PM

As you read in Part 1 of this blog series, patients often get frustrated when they search healthcare websites to find care.

They don’t know where to start. Should they go to the global search bar, the location search bar, the provider search bar or the chatbot?
They don’t know what to ask for. They can’t express themselves in a natural way like when they use Google (for example, typing “tummy ache” when the site expects “abdominal pain”). Instead, they are expected to use clinical terms or they will get no results.

Orbita’s new solution, Blaze, is the next generation of the digital front door, converting the provider’s website into an empathetic, interactive virtual assistant and guiding patients to the right type of care.

Leveraging the entire web page. Many providers offer a chatbot on the bottom of the site – but only a small percentage of visitors use it. In fact, Forrester Research found 43% of website visitors prefer to use the search bar. Blaze combines the best features of a healthcare chatbot and a filtered search experience.
Meeting patients “where they are.” Orbita Blaze empowers patients to ask their questions in plain English. This means they are directed to answers and information meaningful to them (not just a list of search results). The solution extracts details via natural language processing. For example: I need a female foot doctor that takes Aetna near me.
Leveraging conversational AI. Blaze enables providers to guide patients to different care options and, at the same time, educate them every step of the way. For example, if a patient seeks care for “pink eye,” Orbita Blaze will note this is also called “conjunctivitis,” explain what it is, and present options including urgent care, telehealth or primary care options that are immediately available.
10-step symptom checker and care guidance. Orbita Blaze can walk a patient through a 10-step symptom checker and help identify the most appropriate provider. Some conditions should be directed to a specialist, which might require a referral. If this occurs, Orbita collects insurance information and suggests the patient schedule a meeting with a PCP first if required.
Best location suggestions. Patients prioritize how quickly they can receive care. This means the closest location might not be the best option. Orbita Blaze features algorithms to suggest the best location for urgent or emergency care based on distance, wait time, and physicians or mid-levels with best availability.
Cost of care. Patients are also concerned about cost. Because Blaze can ingest their insurance information, it can present estimates depending on the care option.
Question-and-answer engine. The Orbita knowledgebase – Orbita Answers – includes questions people commonly ask. It gives a curated response with calls to action to guide the patient to the right experience – an improvement over typical search results that present only an auto-generated summary.
- In addition to finding care, patients might need other information such as visiting hours. Orbita gathers information about which facility the patient plans to visit and shares visiting hours.
Cognitive search. If a question is not part of the knowledgebase, Orbita uses cognitive search technology, markedly more advanced than functionality available on most health sites. Today, search results are based only on user-entered keywords, whereas a cognitive search understands the natural utterances patients use.
Guiding the patient. Blaze tackles the challenge of “disambiguation,” distinguishing between similar items, meanings, names, etc., for added clarity. For example, a doctor’s name could match a building, condition or procedure. The site visitor might search for “Kennedy.” Orbita Blaze would ask the patient, “Did you mean Dr. Kennedy or the Kennedy facility?”
- Likewise, when a patient looks for a primary care provider, age is important. Orbita Blaze probes for patient age – so a 90-year-old is directed to geriatric care and a two-year-old to pediatric care.

The next generation digital front door powered by conversational AI will help streamline access to information and care while reducing the burden on call centers. Plus it can increase conversion while enhancing the web visitor experience.

Want to learn more? Click here or email hello@orbita.ai to schedule time with us today.