5 Digital Tools Helping Hospitals Close Equity Gaps for All Patients

There’s this moment that happens in hospitals every single day, and honestly, leaders feel it more than anyone. It’s when a patient with a disability waits longer than others because the right support staff isn’t available, or a rural patient struggles to access follow-up care, or a non-English-speaking family tries to interpret discharge instructions without enough help. And yeah, disabled hospital employees often deal with accessibility issues that shouldn’t exist in the workplace at all (especially when it’s literally the healthcare sector here).

So, when inequity keeps showing up like this, it affects outcomes, morale, and the entire experience of receiving and delivering care. Again, this is the healthcare sector; this shouldn’t be happening in the first place. As you already know, healthcare is supposed to work for everyone, but that only happens when organizations have tools that make equity part of everyday operations instead of an afterthought. 

Sure, tech can’t magically fix everything, but it absolutely helps leaders spot patterns, allocate resources fairly, plan more intentionally, and close gaps that might otherwise go unnoticed. Thankfully, there are finally some digital platforms out there that are helping healthcare facilities (be it private practices or hospitals) when it comes to closing this gap that unfortunately, so many are having to face. 

So, Unit4 stands out because it gives hospitals a way to plan and allocate resources in a way that genuinely supports equity. Now, getting specific here, leaders use its integrated planning and analytics to understand how budgets, staffing, and community needs connect, which helps prevent inequities that happen when decisions are based on incomplete or outdated information (which is actually very common). But it’s especially helpful when hospitals want to ensure disability services, interpreter programs, rural outreach efforts (which is a pretty major one for hospitals in rural areas), or accommodation teams receive the staffing and funding they actually need.

And the AI-supported workflows also highlight emerging disparities, giving hospitals a chance to act before inequities deepen. There’s a lot to offer here, and it helps that this can work well for both large and small hospitals, especially considering that most platforms like this tend to be geared only towards larger hospitals.

So, what makes Unite Us so special when it comes to this gap that so many hospitals have? Well, it gives hospitals a way to connect patients with real-world support systems that actually shape health outcomes. So, here are some pretty great examples here disabled patients who need transportation, rural patients without stable broadband (which is a major problem in rural areas), families needing food access, or anyone facing housing insecurity can be connected directly through the platform. The point here is that it helps close gaps that healthcare alone has never been able to fix.

But hospitals tend to implement Unite Us by building it into discharge planning, case management, and community health workflows, so staff can instantly refer patients to housing support, mobility services, nutrition programs, mental health resources, or disability services. While not all hospitals use this, those that are connected to the community tend to use this system or at least one similar.

So, Be My Eyes is known for its app, where people can volunteer and help those who are blind or have low vision. But the healthcare-specific version brings accessibility right into the clinical environment (and mostly only healthcare facilities know about it, too). So, it helps patients review paperwork, understand instructions, and navigate spaces more confidently. Plus, for disabled patients who’ve historically been overlooked or misunderstood in medical settings, it’s genuinely meaningful.

But hospitals implement Be My Eyes by offering it at check-in desks, outpatient clinics, and inpatient units as an on-demand visual interpretation service, giving staff immediate accessibility support without needing a dedicated specialist available around the clock. A lot of businesses already use this for similar purposes (and even those who aren’t in the healthcare sector). But it’s one of the simplest, most practical ways hospitals make their spaces friendlier and more accessible for patients who need visual support.

A lot of people personally use this service, but healthcare facilities can actually use this too. So, Healthify helps hospitals understand the real-life factors that shape health outcomes. It highlights inequities between urban and rural patients, between disabled and non-disabled patients, and between communities with different access levels to transportation, safe housing, or nutritious food (a similar one was already mentioned earlier, but this still deserves a spot).

So, hospitals implement Healthify by integrating it into EHRs or population-health platforms, which lets teams screen patients for unmet needs and refer them directly to community organizations. It’s basically one of the cleanest ways to track and identify potential inequities, so all populations can have strong support (and for hospitals to improve, too).

Rural areas where briefly mentioned a couple of times already, but undeserved areas as a whole is unfortunately becoming way too common in the US, especially with more rural hospitals closing down But Wheel gives hospitals the infrastructure to expand virtual care, which is essential for disabled patients with mobility limitations and rural patients who often lose access due to distance or transportation challenges (again this is unfortunately becoming more common). Fortunately, Telehealth is slowly becoming more common, and Wheel is helping with the transition.

Just keep in mind here that hospitals deal with constant pressure, and equity gaps only widen when leaders don’t have the tools to understand who’s being left behind. But of course, it’s also policies and government changes that are unfortunately only adding more challenges to hospitals, too. 

But these platforms at least help hospitals identify disparities earlier, allocate resources more thoughtfully, support diverse patient populations more effectively, and make decisions grounded in real insight instead of assumptions. While some focus on accessibility, some on social determinants, and others help hospitals plan and resource their equity efforts with more accuracy.