People can now accomplish nearly everything online, and patients are increasingly expecting the same level of convenience from their medical practice as they do from hotels, airlines, and restaurants. If you don’t have online patient scheduling yet, now is the time to start. Regardless of how big or small your clinic is, here are some tools to assist you successfully integrate online scheduling into your business.
Carefully assess software
Finding the proper software solutions that allow patients to see what’s available and choose a time slot is the first step in implementing online scheduling for your clinics. To figure out which software package would perform best for your clinic, you’ll need to analysis all of the options. Before you choose one, keep the following in mind:
Ease of use, both for your employees and for patients.
People can easily explore intuitive interfaces to locate available time slots.
Ability to tailor the programmer to your clinics’ and providers’ specific needs
Setup is simple, with no time-consuming installs or implementations.
For a small practice, affordability is important, as is scalability.
Staff Education and Training
The next stage is training after you’ve chosen the proper programmer. Some employees and doctors may be hesitant to switch from a phone-based scheduling system to one that allows patients to make appointments online, but it’s critical that everyone become familiar with the new system so that no one looks for workarounds or fails to use it as intended. Request a variety of training alternatives from your software supplier, such as in-person or web-based training, as well as on-demand training that workers can complete whenever they have time.
Patients Should Be Informed
Finally, it’s critical to notify your patients about this new function and the ease and advantages it will bring. You may send information to patients who have that information on file electronically via a patient portal, text message, or email, as well as mailers to all of your patients with directions on how to schedule online.
Allow for a period of transition during which many of your patients will likely continue to make appointments over the phone (as they have in the past), but gently encourage them toward online scheduling as soon as they feel comfortable to expedite workflows and minimize phone calls for your staff.
Patients are increasingly requesting online scheduling because of the convenience it offers. If you’re not sure where to begin, call GoDoctor for a demonstration of our online scheduling portal and to understand how simple it is to implement it in your clinic.
