Posted on March 11, 2022 in News
For most patients, flexible and convenient access to care is a priority when choosing a healthcare provider, and that means looking for the self-service options they want. Self-scheduling does away with common bottlenecks in access like long hold times. Patients don’t spend a lot of time trying to schedule through the phone, which can be extremely frustrating.
By empowering your patients to schedule their own appointments, you cut through the cumbersome process, improving patient experience. However, not all schedulers are created equal. Here’s what you need in an online scheduler to ensure ease of access:
Mobile-Friendly User Interface
It doesn’t matter if patients visit your online scheduler using their laptops, desktops, tablets, or smartphones. They should have the same experience across all devices. In a digital world where people, including healthcare consumers, mostly use their mobile phones to browse the internet, book appointments, and more, your scheduler must be mobile-friendly to capture patients who prefer using their phones.
Automated Reminders
People tend to forget appointments. There’s plenty that goes on in their day-to-day that their upcoming visits might not always be front of mind. Reminders are effective against no-shows that are inevitable and put a dent in your revenue. Yet, calling each patient to remind them of their upcoming visit takes too much time. An online scheduler that can automatically send appointment reminders via text or email will get more patients through your front door at a fraction of the time.
Integration
Your scheduler needs to integrate easily with the existing PM or EMR system to overcome the challenge of obtaining siloed data from different systems. This gives your front office staff a 360-degree view of patients’ information from a central dashboard, which boosts operational efficiencies.
Calendar Sync
With an appointment booking software that provides two-way calendar syncing, you’ll be able to optimize your office schedule while avoiding scheduling conflicts such as missed appointments and double-booking. Therefore, whenever patients pick timeslots, the scheduler will block those slots, making them unavailable. And if a patient cancels, another person can pick the timeslot as soon as your calendar updates.
Real-Time Scheduling
Some schedulers only offer patients the ability to request appointments. Patients go through the process of booking appointments online only to realize at the end that they have to wait for the provider to confirm their scheduled visit, which is usually over the phone. Unfortunately, this is what patients wanted to avoid in the first place. Real-time scheduling allows patients to view your availability in actual time. This enables them to book appointments right away based on up-to-date information.
Same-Day Appointment Scheduling
If a patient feels unwell, they’ll want to visit the physician on the exact day. Waiting for a couple of days or even weeks for their appointment causes patients to seek care in urgent care centers or emergency rooms. But in same-day scheduling, patients can get appointments on the same day instead of booking and having to wait for days or weeks. This type of scheduling is beneficial for your patients and practice.
Patients are seen faster and feel valued and taken care of, which enhances patient satisfaction. Also, patients won’t go looking for care elsewhere. As a result, you’ll attract new patients, retain existing ones, and increase revenue for your practice.
Take Patient Scheduling to the Next Level with MDprospects
Fueled by patients’ desire to self-schedule, MDprospects online scheduler will enable your practice to deliver a seamless experience that meets and exceeds patient demands. With the robust scheduler, playing phone tag will be a thing of the past, and more patients will show up for their visits.
Want to learn how MDprospect’s online scheduler can raise patient satisfaction scores and improve your bottom line while decreasing workload? Request a demo today.
