“Historically, restaurants have done a better job of taking reservations than doctors’ offices,” says Mike Rickman, chief development officer at Brookwood Medical Center. “Now at Brookwood, you can make an appointment while looking at the physician’s real-time calendar.”
He’s referring to the online option rolled out last August for patients to make appointments with specific doctors. “It’s going well. Much better than what we thought,” Rickman says.
In the first four months, 400 people had utilized the service. “The big spikes in usage are after-hours,” Rickman says, when people often start to feel ill or start thinking of personal tasks. “And they’re done in less than five minutes, particularly if they’re an existing patient. No more waiting on the phone.”
Baptist Health System is planning to offer online appointment scheduling, as well. “Then at their convenience, patients can search for, find and make appointments at one of our clinics,” says Jim Grammas, executive director of ambulatory solutions.
Baptist won’t focus on same-day appointments, though, “simply because if you need that, it’s some sort of emergency,” Grammas says. “That’s a better interaction for a call, where a person on the clinic side of the phone can make an informed decision about when to work them in.”
Baptist plans to use their current patient portal through their NextGen EHR software, and focus on existing patients at first. “It’s fairly straightforward with the way we use it,” Grammas says. “The physicians identify the appointment times they want to make available online. It’s very physician-friendly.”
But new patients present a real challenge to appointment software systems, because appointments need to be notably longer for new patients versus established ones. “Trying to merge those two needs into a single flow of online options through the same portal can create difficulties,” Grammas says. If a new patient gets scheduled in a ten-minute slot, it backs up scheduling and creates dissatisfied patients. Baptist is looking into using entirely different software for new patients.
Brookwood uses a real-time online appointment portal called ZocDoc for both existing and new patients covering seventeen OB/GYN, ENT and primary care physicians spread over seven locations. “We liked that ZocDoc had a proven track record. They book over 2.5 million appointments a month. That’s a pretty good run rate,” Rickman says. It also integrates with a wide spread of electronic health records (EHR), making acclimating to additional practices easier for Brookwood.
ZocDoc shows a real-time appointment calendar for each physician. “You see the whole week and all of that physician’s availability at that moment. It’s a real slot, not an estimate. So you have a time that we expect to see you in,” Rickman says.
65 percent of Brookwood’s online users are now new patients. “We thought it would be great for existing patients, but it’s panning out with new patients. We can also get pre-certification online that you normally fill out when you get there,” Rickman says.
Surprisingly, no-shows have not become a problem at Brookwood. “When you book anything online, the perception is that people will bail on it,” Rickman says. “But we’ve not had a lot of no-shows. It’s comparable to what we saw already.”
Grammas says one hurdle is convincing the physicians to participate. “Once upon a time, they probably thought there was a loss of control of their day if they opened up to online scheduling,” he says. “But that’s a remnant of old thinking.”
However, new physicians just getting started are eager for online scheduling. “They want to find any way to get patients in the door as soon as possible,” Grammas says.
Baptist began piloting their online appointment option in February. They’re trickling out the option to more physicians as they hone the process. “We ultimately want to make it easy for even new patients looking for a physician to make an appointment right then, because they like what they see online.”
Brookwood plans to add more specialists to their online program soon. “They tend to want to see something work before they sign on. But a lot of specialties are asking to be included now,” Rickman says.
Rickman has specific advice to those looking for online appointment options. “Find something that’s tested and has a good history, because they will all tell you it’s going to work,” he says. “So do some due diligence to find references and another provider like yourself that’s using that product.”
But don’t hesitate to jump into online scheduling, he says. “There’s always fear until you take the leap. But any healthcare provider has to have easy accessibility,” Rickman says. “Opening your scheduling after-hours is a no-brainer.”