Super-Apps in Healthcare: Why One App Beats Six Portals

Alan
Aug 7
2 min read

The Headache of “Portal Sprawl”

Health systems have invested millions in patient portals, yet most patients still aren’t logging in. A national survey found 63 % of insured adults hadn’t visited their portal in the previous year American Medical Association. Even when they do, the experience is fragmented: 44 % of Americans report having more than one portal, and only 2 % use an aggregator app to pull the data together JAMA Network.

Hospital IT leaders feel the pain too. Nearly half still rely on portals for primary communication, but cite log-in/password hassles, tough navigation and poor perceived usefulness as the top barriers to adoption . The result? Missed appointments, crowded call centers and frustrated executives who keep buying yet another point solution to plug a gap.

What Exactly Is a Healthcare Super-App?

Think of a super-app as an “app of apps.” Instead of asking patients to download or bookmark separate tools for scheduling, telehealth, payments, wayfinding, surveys and more, a super-app embeds multiple vendor services inside one secure, branded shell. Patients log in once (biometric or SSO) and tap into every workflow from the same home screen.

Traditional Model	Super-App Model
Multiple URLs & passwords	Single sign-on & biometric unlock
Inconsistent UX	Unified interface & analytics
Point-solution contracts	Plug-and-play modules you can swap at will

The Pay-Off of Consolidation

KPI	Typical Improvement After Moving to One App
Missed appointments	20 – 35 % reduction
Check-in cycle time	≈ 40 % faster digital pre-registration
Call-center volume	20 – 40 % fewer calls as patients self-serve
Hard-dollar savings	One Medrics client saved US $3.9 M/year by merging booking, navigation & payments

How Medrics Delivers the Super-App Advantage

One “App of Apps” Shell
Our platform acts as the super-app container, letting you embed telehealth, ride-share, payment, RPM or any approved vendor behind a single icon .
Many Native Modules Out - of - the-Box
From e-check-in and indoor wayfinding to PROMs and AI chat, Medrics ships with a library of modules ready on day one .
No EMR Lock-In
Deep integrations with Epic, Cerner, InterSystems, All Scripts(and more), CRM, queue management and payment systems mean you keep the back-end you love while patients see one clean front end .
FedRAMP-Ready Security
As the only FedRAMP progressing patient-experience platform, Medrics meets the strictest U.S. federal security bar, peace of mind for CISOs and VA facilities alike .
Workflow & Location Intelligence
Our engine triggers the right nudge at the right moment, send a route on arrival, surface a refill reminder on exit, converting convenience into measurable ROI.