Health and digital: what do Swiss patients think about digital tools in healthcare?

Online medical appointment booking, prescription renewals, teleconsultations… patients’ expectations regarding digital healthcare are evolving fast! To better understand these new habits, we conducted a nationwide study in Switzerland in collaboration with Farner and MIS Trend.

Discover how Swiss patients use digital tools, the main barriers they encounter, and, most importantly, how to leverage these insights to enhance the patient experience while optimizing your medical practice!

 

Why are digital tools necessary in healthcare?

According to the survey, about one in ten Swiss patients experienced significant difficulties in their healthcare journey over the past 12 months. The main obstacles identified were:

 

• Difficulty accessing care: inability to get an appointment within a reasonable time frame
• Inefficient communication with their primary care physician
• Insufficient medical follow-up
• Lack of availability among doctors accepting new patients

 

These issues seem symptomatic of the current healthcare system, with a shortage of healthcare professionals in certain sectors. To address this, digital solutions can help streamline and simplify access to care.

 

Online medical appointment booking: a popular tool in Switzerland!

According to the study, online appointment booking has become essential for a growing number of Swiss patients.

 

Google: the first reflex for patients seeking a doctor

More than half of Swiss patients use Google as their primary way of finding healthcare professionals.

📍 | It’s worth noting that Google Maps is also widely used, by 25% of patients — highlighting the importance of having a Google Business Profile!

 

Awareness of digital health platforms: OneDoc leading the way

Another very popular option for finding a healthcare professional is OneDoc. One in two Swiss people has already heard of the platform!

🚀 | OneDoc is actually one of the most commonly used methods for finding a healthcare professional after Google.

Almost 20% of people search for a specialist via OneDoc nationwide. In French-speaking Switzerland, this figure reaches 44%!

Other platforms, such as Comparis, MedicoSearch, or cantonal platforms, account for less than 10% of mentions.

 

What barriers prevent patients from using digital platforms?

Although digital solutions are expanding, usage of online appointment booking still varies among different population groups. Here’s what we observed:

 

• Young people aged 18 to 29 are the most active users, with 55% using online booking.
• People aged 30-44 are close behind, at 52%.
• Education level and place of residence also influence usage:
  • 42% of users who book online have completed higher education
  • 43% live in urban areas
• Older individuals and households with modest incomes continue to prefer traditional methods (phone or in-person booking).

 

💡 It’s also important to note that 40% of respondents don’t book appointments online simply because their doctor doesn’t offer the option.

These results highlight the importance for healthcare professionals of offering online booking solutions to meet today’s patient expectations.

 

What other benefits do digital tools bring to healthcare?

Beyond appointment booking, Swiss patients see other major advantages in digitizing their healthcare journey.

Here are the top 5 features highlighted in our study:

 

Top 5 digital functionalities most appreciated by Swiss patients:

 

1. Online appointment booking (55%)
2. Online prescription renewal (47%)
3. Online administrative pre-admission (27%)
4. Online emergency triage questionnaires (25%)
5. Digital delegation forms (23%)

 

Teleconsultations are also appreciated by 15% of respondents.

 

Why are patients motivated to use digital health solutions?

For 57% of Swiss respondents, the main motivation to adopt digital tools is to reduce their healthcare costs. This is followed by improved healthcare management (51%) and better access to care, along with efficient centralization of medical data (45%).

 

The electronic patient record (EPR): still little-known and underused

Earlier, we mentioned complicated communication with doctors and insufficient medical follow-up as key challenges. This brings us to the EPR (Electronic Patient Record).

The EPR would address some of these issues by allowing healthcare professionals to include useful documents to enhance communication between doctor and patient.

However, Swiss citizens are not yet very enthusiastic about the EPR, with a low adoption rate: only 16% of surveyed Swiss people have one, and 40% don’t even know it exists. It’s worth noting that in August 2024, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP) reported an even lower figure, with only about 1% of the population having an EPR.

The barriers identified include: lack of encouragement from doctors (30%), concerns about data security (about 10%), and simply not seeing its usefulness (10%).

 

What concrete benefits do Swiss patients expect from digital tools?

To summarize the points discussed throughout the article, the main expectations of patients regarding healthcare digitalization are:

 

• Better access to care, notably through quick and easy online consultations
• Efficient centralization of medical data for optimized follow-up and better coordination among healthcare professionals
• A significant improvement in their overall care experience

 

How to effectively integrate digital tools into your medical practice?

Now that you know all this, you might be wondering which tools you can easily implement to meet your patients’ expectations and optimize your daily work.

Here are our practical tips:

 

• Offer online appointment booking as a complement to phone booking, to provide a fast and accessible alternative
• Create a Google Business Profile to ensure you are easily found on Google and Google Maps 💡 | Choose an appointment booking solution that includes a “Book Online” button to facilitate reservations
• Actively communicate about the digital tools available at your practice to encourage adoption among patients
• Use digital tools to improve patient follow-up and offer more personalized care
• Encourage teleconsultations for simple or follow-up consultations, to reduce waiting times and improve access to care

Study methodology

This survey was conducted online by OneDoc, Farner, and MIS Trend in March 2025, among a representative sample of 1,124 Swiss residents aged 18 and over (396 in French-speaking Switzerland, 434 in German-speaking Switzerland, and 294 in Ticino). The maximum margin of error is ±2.9% at the national level. Data were weighted to ensure regional and linguistic representativeness.

Discover all the findings from our study in our press release (DE)!

 

Additional sources

• Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) – EPR figures
• patientrecord.ch – All your health information secure in one place.