If you have already shortlisted patient engagement providers, the next few days will decide whether the vendors can run your schedule and your consent log, or only a sample they built for the slide. We have compiled patient engagement RFP questions for that hour. They are not another process guide for building the list.
Print them into the packet. Ask them while someone from the front desk, someone from the EHR team, and someone from privacy are in the room. Use one anonymized test patient and one real no-show from last month.
What this scorecard decides
Can the patient engagement platform join your chart ID, write a confirm back into the slot, stop a message when consent flips, open a care-gap list that matches the record, and hand you an export if you leave.
Read the document in this order. A vendor who is strong only on templates is still a messaging tool.How to run the questions
Give every finalist the same pack: one test patient, one upcoming visit, one missed visit, one opted-out flag. Score what you see. Do not score the story they tell about other practices.
If a vendor asks to swap in their own demo patient, note that. Patient engagement software evaluation questions only work on your structure.
The eight patient engagement evaluation questions
Ask A thin answer sounds like You should see How does this EHR patient become the same profile that gets the text? We integrate with major EHRs. Your patient ID on the engagement record, named objects for Epic, Cerner, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks or Greenway. If the patient confirms from the phone, when does our slot change? The front desk will love the reminders. The calendar updates in the same session, on your scheduling path. What fires at 72 hours, 24 hours and 2 hours, and after a miss? We have reminder campaigns. Those three windows on this visit, plus a path for last monthâs no-show. Flip this patient to opted-out. What still sends? We are HIPAA compliant. Nothing goes out. The log shows the event, the channel and the time. Show the overdue recall that already exists in the chart. You can build any segment. A list that matches the clinical flag, not a marketing tag someone typed. When does the after-visit survey fire, and who sees a low score? There is a feedback module. A trigger after this visit and a named owner for the alert. What do we pay, and what milestone does it follow? Pricing is flexible. A unit leadership already reports: kept visits, closed gaps, or retention. If we leave, what file do we take and when? You own your data. Logs, surveys, referrals and consent in a named format on a BAA date. Identity comes before templates
The first question is not âcan you send SMS.â It is whether the person on the appointment row is the person on the message. If they stay as two records, recall will miss people who already visit, and privacy will not be able to prove who was contacted.
Write it in the RFP as: how does our EHR patient ID become the same profile that confirms a visit and answers a survey? You want the method and the objects. NextBee lists two-way EHR sync on the patient page. The written answer still has to name yours.
Write-back is the front-desk test
A reminder that creates a second to-do list is not engagement software. The useful question is whether a one-tap confirm or reschedule updates the slot the practice already runs. NextBee offers instant confirmations and scheduling integrations with Zocdoc, Athenahealth, and Kareo. Watch it happen. Do not accept a video of a different clinic.
The missed visit is the product
Practices pay for the hole in the schedule, not for the pretty 24-hour text. Ask what happens after a miss, and whether a waitlisted patient can be offered the slot without breaking consent. A healthcare marketing platform can sit next to that path. It cannot replace it.
Consent has to survive every channel
âHIPAA compliantâ is not an answer. The answer is a BAA plus a log that suppresses email, text, and push together. Ask to export that log for the test patient. If the vendor needs a week to produce it, you already know what an audit will feel like.
Care gaps are not a newsletter list
Ask the bidder to open the overdue item that already lives in the chart. If they build a segment from a spreadsheet instead, the clinical team will not trust the tool, and they will be right. Population lists by diagnosis, risk, or gap only count when they share the same ID as the visit.
Feedback and reviews are two jobs
A survey that waits for a portal login will miss the hour when the visit is still fresh. Ask for the trigger and the owner of a low score. Public reviews are a later lane. Keep them honest and separate so compliance does not have to unwind a âonly happy patientsâ rule. Context on what patient incentives may look like sits in our patient loyalty program note. Counsel still reviews the design.
Price and exit belong on the same page
NextBee ties fees to revenue milestones set with practice leadership. Ask every bidder for the unit and the person who measures it. Then ask for the export: engagement records, survey responses, referral history, communication logs and consent events. NextBeeâs patient page states the practice keeps the data and receives a complete export on termination. Put that bar in the packet so a thin âyou own your dataâ line cannot pass.
Teams that also run lapsed-patient work can keep a retention platform stream beside this RFP. Do not pour that stream into these eight questions. A win-back email is not a write-back.
Run the eight questions on your test patient
Send the EHR name, one upcoming visit, and one miss. We will answer the table in that order. The BAA and the exit format sit with the milestone.
Use Invite Us to RFP.
