Is Your Practice Making it too Hard to Book Appointments?

Posted on January 11, 2022 in General

Picture this: A patient arranged a visit for a comprehensive eye exam. On the appointment day, the patient learns there was an error in booking, and you’re unavailable, much to their dismay.

They choose to reschedule and leave disappointed. At the next visit, the patient is finally able to have their exam, and you request them to return in a months’ time to monitor their eye condition.

As the patient is leaving, they go to your front office desk to schedule their next appointment. However, they’re informed that the only available slot is three months away. It’s evident that you never passed the message to your staff, and the patient is left frustrated and in limbo.

In the end, the patient decides to look for another eye care provider. This leaves you with one less patient, and the cycle continues. After some time, you realize that the patient attrition rate is quite high, and your revenue is dipping.

The problem? A poor appointment scheduling system. The traditional method of patients coming to your office or calling your practice to book visits creates significant bottlenecks in the entire scheduling process.

Like in the above case, when you depend on sticky notes or word of mouth to pass information from one person to another, a lot of scheduling information is bound to slip through the cracks. And when the process of booking appointments becomes inefficient, your practice inevitably loses many patients, which ultimately puts a dent in your bottom line.

So, what can you do to attract new patients, retain current ones, and keep them from switching eye care providers? You need to take your booking digital. Allowing patients to self-schedule is a win-win for patients and your practice, and this is how:

It’s What Patients Want

Patients book appointments online all the time, whether it’s their next flight, car service, or dinner reservation. It’s so much easier, not to mention patients love having options. Because people, including healthcare consumers, prefer to schedule online, if your practice doesn’t provide this option, you could miss out on new patient opportunities.

On the other hand, self-scheduling enhances the patient experience as it takes considerably less time than traditional phone scheduling or visiting your practice. And when patients have a seamless experience, you’ll be top of mind every time they need care.

Increases Patient Satisfaction

A pain point of a vast majority of patients when making appointments is the long wait times on the phone or queues at the front office desk. With online scheduling, patients won’t have to play phone tag and spend too much time over the phone trying to schedule. They can book in only a matter of seconds, 24/7. This improves patient experience and drives patient satisfaction.

Gives Your Practice an Edge

A lot of patients turn to the internet to search for a new healthcare provider and learn more about their practice. Say a potential patient lands on your website at night or over the weekend and sees a CTA button for “book your appointment now.” They’re more likely to click on it instead of waiting until your regular office hours to confirm if you have an open slot for them.

That call to action button makes it easy for patients to schedule online. Thus, it gives you a competitive advantage over another practice that doesn’t offer patients self-scheduling. Besides, one survey shows that 80 percent of patients would change providers based on convenience alone.

It’s, therefore, in your best interest to prioritize convenience in every aspect of healthcare delivery, including patient scheduling. One way to achieve this is to enable patients to self-schedule. Booking appointments online offers patients the convenience they demand and expect.

Empower Your Patients to Self-Schedule with MDprospects

With MDprospects, your patients can book their own appointments with ease, anytime, anywhere. What’s more, the online scheduler from MDprospects offers real-time availability that makes scheduling a breeze.

Want to learn how MDprospects can help you increase patient satisfaction, fill your schedules, and save your front office staff valuable time? Request a quick demo today.