The Challenge
MedConnect operates a network of 120 hospitals and 800 clinics across the southeastern United States. Their patient portal — originally built in 2016 — had become a source of constant friction for both patients and staff.
Key problems we were brought in to solve:
- 65% abandonment rate on appointment scheduling flows
- No mobile support — built for desktop, unusable on phones
- EHR integration failure — manual data entry between portal and Epic/Cerner
- HIPAA audit risks — outdated security practices flagged by compliance team
- 8-hour maintenance windows — every deployment required Saturday downtime
The business case was clear: a 1% improvement in portal adoption translated to $2.4M in annual revenue from reduced call center load and increased preventive care engagement.
Our Approach
Discovery (Weeks 1–3)
We started with a comprehensive discovery: patient journey mapping with 40 focus group participants, technical audit of the existing system, EHR integration requirements with the Epic and Cerner technical teams, and a HIPAA security assessment.
The biggest insight: patients didn’t abandon the portal because they didn’t want to use it. They abandoned it because the scheduling flow had 14 steps and broke on mobile.
Architecture
We chose a microservices architecture to allow independent deployment and scaling of critical components:
- Patient Identity Service — SSO with biometric mobile authentication
- Scheduling Service — Real-time availability sync with EHR
- Messaging Service — HIPAA-compliant secure messaging with end-to-end encryption
- Telemedicine Service — WebRTC video with AI-assisted documentation
- Notifications Service — Appointment reminders via SMS, email, push
The Mobile-First Design System
Emily Foster’s design team ran three rounds of usability testing with real patients. The appointment booking flow was reduced from 14 steps to 4. Every interaction was optimized for one-thumb navigation on mobile.
Results
The platform launched on schedule in Week 22. Within 90 days of launch:
- Portal adoption rose from 34% to 78% of registered patients
- Mobile usage accounted for 67% of all portal sessions
- Appointment no-show rate dropped 22% (automated reminders)
- Patient satisfaction (HCAHPS digital) improved by 18 points
- Infrastructure costs reduced 35% vs. old hosting (AWS vs. on-prem)
"110Tech transformed our entire patient engagement platform in 5 months. The team's technical depth is exceptional — they challenged our assumptions and delivered something better. Our patient portal now handles 50,000 daily active users with zero downtime."