Tag: online scheduling
The number of urgent care facilities in the United States has topped 9,000 as of November 2019. The popularity of both urgent care centers and retail clinics is driven mainly by patients’ desires for more convenient, flexible and affordable access to care. Frustrated with long waits and inconvenient appointment times, more patients forego or completely abandon their primary care physician and flock to urgent care centers for care. A report from the Urgent Care Association found that one-quarter of patients seeking care at urgent care centers are unaffiliated with a primary care provider or medical home. This can put provider organizations in a tough spot financially as it forces them into a tight competition for business, both for new and returning patients – something many providers can’t afford to lose as they fight for revenue during COVID-19. Some organizations may think the only way to combat this trend, or at least stay ahead of it, is to create their own affiliated urgent care facility. While this does prevent lost business and revenue from patients leaving the organization, it is also a massive undertaking for any organization and an initial drain on resources, time and money. Providers can compete with this rise of urgent care facilities in more ways than simply building their own urgent care facilities. They can compete by offering same and next day appointments through online self-scheduling for patients into their already existing locations. By making same and next-day appointments available to patients through online self-scheduling, provider organizations can offer patients urgent care-like services for time-sensitive needs without having to invest or divert funds to build out their own urgent care centers. The availability to connect patients with quick, convenient care supports higher patient retention, making it possible for provider organizations to compete with others who have created urgent care centers. The lure of urgent care is its perceived convenience – walk-ins, same-day appointments, more flexible hours – but provider organizations can easily offer the same level of convenience to their patients with online self-scheduling. There is much less of a need to seek out other options for care when the provider you are most familiar with can also see you that same day. This is even more true during today, when patient volume is already scarce and the competition for business is at an all-time high. And with the vaccine roll-out underway, especially with retail clinics opening their doors for vaccine administration, the competition for business will be even stronger. In addition to building a better patient-provider relationship, keeping patients in-house for urgent care needs also fosters better care coordination. With medical history readily available, providers can more quickly and accurately treat an individual. Offering same and next-day appointments also helps to fully utilize physician capacity, which is often riddled with holes due to patient no-shows. Those open slots can be readily filled by patients seeking urgent care or those with timelier health needs. While millennials’ have largely been credited for the growing demand of urgent care centers, they’re not the only group looking for convenient access to care. The ability to schedule and access care in a timely and convenient manner is something everyone wants today – older adults, parents of younger children, and more. A failure to meet these individuals with the digital conveniences they’ve become accustomed to in so many other parts of their lives will only push them to new competitors that are in fact providing this experience. With the right technology, timely care is one of the simplest, yet most sought-after conveniences that healthcare groups can provide. Interested in learning more about how Experian Health can help your organization compete with urgent care and boost loyalty among existing patients? Contact us
The manual process for fielding scheduling calls isn't an easy one. Calls can take up to 20 minutes, and call center agents may have to comb through binders or spreadsheets of provider calendars and scheduling rules to book a single appointment. As a result, call center staff may only be able to place a handful of patients per day, despite receiving hundreds of scheduling calls. This not only contributes to a poor patient experience but can cause care delays and potentially push patients to seek care from surrounding competitors. Prior to working with Experian Health, call center agents at Heritage Medical Associates were manually scheduling patients with the process described above, and only able to place three to five patients per day with calls lasting several minutes. With Experian Health’s call center scheduling solution in place, call center agents now have access to all of the organization’s 135+ providers in a single digital platform. With an integration with Allscripts, call center agents can see all available appointments in real-time, identify the best provider and appointment for a patient’s specific care need and then book the appointment on the spot. Heritage Medical Associates has seen several improvements since working with Experian Health. Increased call center efficiency. The time spent on the phone for scheduling an appointment has been nearly cut in half — from seven minutes down to just four. With more time, call center agents can now place between 40 and 50 patients per day. Improved patient experience. Patients who called in to book an appointment, reported higher levels of satisfaction as they were able to navigate to the right provider and appointment more quickly. Enhanced physician satisfaction. By automating their scheduling rules, providers can ensure that any open appointment slots are booked according to their personal preferences. They can better predict their schedules and maintain control over their calendars with the new solution. Improvements to the bottom line. As each individual provider and separate location becomes more efficient, Heritage Medical Associates as a whole has been able to control overhead and has seen quantifiable improvement to its bottom line. “The physicians that I’ve talked with so far find that they have a more efficient and planned day, and it’s more relaxing. Their productivity is increased, and, at the same time, they’ve been able to reduce some of the stresses of their schedule.” — Jim Browne, Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Medical Associates Learn more about how you can improve call center efficiency and the patient experience with guided search and scheduling.
“It’s important to provide our patients with the absolute best access channels to quickly and seamlessly connect with the care they need. Experian Health’s solution guides our patients to the right care and digitally connects them with a confirmed appointment.” - Kaci Husted, Vice President, Benefis Health System It’s shouldn’t come as a surprise that patients today want their healthcare experience to mirror the flexibility and convenience that they are now accustomed to with other industries. Notably, patients want easier and faster access to care, and preferably without having to pick up the phone to call and make an appointment. Benefis Health System knew it needed to provide patients with a new and improved access experience. Patients were required to call the office during business hours to book an appointment, and while some may have been immediately connected with a scheduler, others would have to leave a voicemail or be placed on hold. The process was not only taking valuable time out of patients’ days but carried the risk of delaying care. With online self-scheduling in place, patients can schedule an appointment online with any of Benefis Health System’s 300+ providers, regardless of time of day. The solution leverages powerful decision support, which guides patients directly into the appointment type and provider necessary for the treatment they need. It’s good for patients and providers, as the solution’s accuracy prevents any misplacement of patients to the wrong provider or appointment type. Patients started using the self-scheduling solution almost immediately after it was available. Benefis Health System has since experienced the following results: Improved access to care. Patients of Benefis Health System have used the system to book many appointments outside of office hours, with 50% of its patient base booking after hours. Better access to urgent care. One of Benefis Health System’s urgent care centers has seen a large uptick in online self-scheduling. In fact, 52% of patients are scheduling appointments online for that location. Ongoing improvements with analytics. Benefis Health System is leveraging analytics to track how many patients use online self-scheduling and can identify when and where they might fall out. They can see the pitfalls and where improvements may be necessary and make those changes in real time to drive better conversion rates. Currently, 23.6% of patients who start the process are converting to a booked appointment. Interested to see how online self-scheduling can help your organization improve access to care?
In previous winters, anyone struck by a sore throat or fever might assume they had flu, and head to bed with a hot drink and some painkillers. This year, the looming specter of COVID-19 could prompt those with flu-like symptoms to seek medical care instead. Combined with a likely second wave of COVID-19 cases as lockdown requirements relax, healthcare organizations anticipate a surge in patients seeking tests and treatment this winter. To protect against a possible “twindemic”, where COVID-19 and winter flu season collide, providers will want to ensure the patient intake and access process is as easy and efficient as possible—and not just for regular appointments with a primary care physician or specialist, but for pandemic- and flu-related services like COVID tests, flu shots, and more. Online scheduling has been a game-changer during the pandemic: could it be the key to surviving a twindemic? With the right digital tools in place, providers can screen patients for their COVID-19 or flu risk before attending an in-person appointment, helping separate healthy patients from those suspected of having either illness. Providers can also leverage those same digital tools to streamline activity like flu shots, or even drive-through testing for COVID-19. Four ways to leverage digital scheduling for a twindemic These four steps could be key to protecting patients, streamlining workflows and reducing pressures on call centers during flu season as it collides with COVID-19: 1. Create screening questionnaires during patient scheduling As soon as the patient logs on to book an appointment, they are asked to answer a few short questions about their symptoms. A screening questionnaire can triage people wanting to get tested, while the answers inform providers of the likelihood of a patient having COVID-19 and if that individual needs to quarantine. After being screened, the system can direct patients through the correct channel of care based on the information provided. A similar questionnaire could be adapted during flu season for providers to assess and compare symptoms and risks ahead of time. Providers can even designate day and time slots available to patients for flu vaccinations, making it easy for patients to schedule on their own time and further minimizing the risk of unnecessary contact with other patients in office. 2. Direct patients to drive-through testing to minimize in-person tests Depending on the answers given during screening, patients may be directed to virtual and disease-specific care, such as drive-through COVID-testing. An online scheduling platform can easily be used to book appointments for tests, presenting patients with any available time slots, either same-day or a few days out. The platform can also record information about the patient’s vehicle to quickly identify patients and avoid bottlenecks in the drive-through. With so many patients hesitant to show for in-person visits today, a similar system for flu shots could serve providers well. 3. Use guided search to direct patients to the right virtual services Virtual care has proven both necessary and valuable during the current pandemic. Not only has it kept patients in close contact with providers and specialists, but it has helped providers capture revenue lost from the cancellation or delay of in-person appointments. Virtual care will be increasingly critical during a dual COVID-19/flu season. By asking the right questions during online scheduling, patients can be connected to the correct provider, whether virtual or in-person, for their needs and book an appointment quickly and easily. 4. Eliminate walk-through traffic at urgent care centers Urgent care centers are already known to be the ‘doctor of choice’ for many patients, but this could pose a few challenges for both patients and providers during a dual pandemic. Rather than be a gathering spot for patients with both illnesses, urgent care centers may want to consider switching to an appointment-only system, where appointments must be scheduled online or by phone. This can help reduce the number of in-person visits and walk-in traffic, which will not only help keep everyone safe and healthy but contribute to a far better patient experience as patients wouldn’t have to sit and wait to be seen by a provider. Interested in hearing more about how online scheduling could help your organization manage flu season as it collies with COVID-19?