Factors that you should check while choosing patient appointment scheduling software
The patient's journey starts with their appointments. Coming right at the first of the patients' journeys and being the first phase of interaction between the patients and the practices, patient appointments are deemed crucial by both the patients and the practices.
The technological advancements have touched all the major industries, the companies working under them, and their operations. The healthcare industry has also witnessed the implementation of the new-age medical office software and solutions brought by industry-leading providers like GrowPractice to lift its game.
The digital influence has influenced the patients so much so that nearly 81% of the patients have mentioned that they want to schedule their own appointments via secure web services or portals. The patient appointment scheduling software can thus be counted among the most efficient tools today that are used in the healthcare industry.
Gone are the days when the patients needed to wait long hours for the telephone calls or wait at practices for appointments in long queues. With the appointment scheduling software that are available for the medical and dental offices of practices, it has been far easier and more convenient for both patients and practices both.
Why are online patient appointment scheduling software the need of the hour?
Patient appointment scheduling software today are largely changing the patient experience and improving the patient inflow and more for the practices, thereby significantly contributing to their growth. If you are still wondering why the online patient appointment scheduling apps and software are necessary today for the practices, then here are some of the most important reasons why you need them too:
Patients want appointment scheduling apps to book appointments
Patients today are more alert and informed than ever, which makes them aware of their conveniences and ask their providers for what they require to be happy and healthy. The patient appointment scheduling software is one of the most prominent demands of the patients. Latest reports revealed that over 65% of the patients prefer to go to the medical providers that offer the facilities of booking, rescheduling, and canceling their appointments.
Online scheduling software minimizes the patient wait times
Wait times have always been mentioned as a crucial part of the healthcare industry. These wait times have often been termed the nemesis of medical practices, which have failed to get the best of the patient wait times time and again. Wait times are regarded by over 80% of the patients as crucial for the overall patient experience, as per the latest surveys. Moreover, the patient wait times are also termed as the most frustrating part of visiting the doctor. The patients experience long waits at many of the windows of the healthcare practices, and it is the patient appointment window that often act as the most common detterents for the patients. This is why providers like GrowPractice are extending the most efficient patient appointment scheduling apps and other patient management solutions to help practics get over their regular loss of revenues due to long wait times.
Appointment scheduling apps are secure
The medical industry always looks to build a secure ecosystem, which will have all the data to itself and for itself. The medical data is filled with protected health information (PHI), which is safeguarded by the HIPAA guidelines. In the earlier model of manual appointments, the patient appointments, which contained valuable patient information and details remained vulnerable to security breaches and other risks. These vulnerabilities can easily be avoided now if the patient appointment scheduling software is from trusted providers like GrowPractice, which are fast and secured with multi-level security, advanced data encryption, and HIPAA-compliant.
Premium patient appointment scheduling software boosts patient experience
Patients absolutely love the patient appointment scheduling software, which makes patient appointments faster and easier than ever before. According to the latest reports over 30% of the patients walked out of their appointments due to long wait times. Premium patient appointment scheduling apps and software can certainly contribute hugely to boosting patient appointments and the patient engagement that is required throughout.
These are certainly some of the most important reasons why more and more practices and healthcare units are preferring online patient appointments. There are varied sets of patient appointment scheduling software now along with a range of other patient and practice management software and systems from GrowPractice that have eased up the practice workflow. However, many such practices often wonder what they should check before choosing a patient appointment scheduling app/software.
What should you see before choosing the patient appointment scheduling software for your patients?
Choosing the right patient appointment scheduling software is really important for the patients as well as the practices, almost as much as their need for having patient appointment schedulers in the healthcare practices. Here are some crucial factors that need to be checked before implementing the patient appointment schedulers in the medical offices of the practices:
Security of the appointment software
Preserving the security of the patients and the PHI is one of the main aims of the healthcare industry and the practices operating within the same. This process starts right from the patient appointment bookings where the appointment software should be secure enough for the patients to use. An overwhelming majority (81%) of the patients want to book their own appointments via secure software.
The patient appointment scheduling software should be fast and easy to use
The patient appointment scheduling software that the practices use needs to be fast and easy for the practice staff to use. An efficient patent appointment scheduler is bound to drag down the patient wait time effortlessly. Also, such software must be built to be easy to use, thereby making them easy for the healthcare workers to use at any given interval without any external aids. GrowPractice is one of the rare medical office software providers that bring medical office, patient, and practice management software, which are easy to use and are efficient too.
Scalability of the appointment scheduling app
Whether it is for a hospital or a practice, the appointment scheduling apps/software need to be scalable. A healthcare practice or any other medical unit that sees patients regularly can witness an expansion or contraction in size or demand. Such instances would require the patient appointment software to deal with more or less work. However, it is important here to note that the patient appointment software would only be able to do so if they are scalable, which GrowPractice cares for.
Affordability of the appointment scheduling software
Appointment scheduling of the patients should definitely be easy and efficient, but from the practiceâs point of view, they also need to be affordable as well. The healthcare industry is known for the competition it is seeing. Just like any other industry, the healthcare sector is also witnessing a sharp increase in the competitors, where startups and others are emerging stronger each day, and putting up a tough show even for well-established players. Here, budgeting the costs is essential for the practices even when it comes to patient appointment software and systems, to save money for wiser investments. However, with GrowPractice at their reach, the practices need not worry about running from pillar to post for affordable appointment scheduling software for the patients.
They should enable practices to book patient appointments 24x7
According to the latest surveys, we now discover that over 34% of the patient appointments are booked outside of the working hours. This means that the practices of today need to prepared to book their patient appointments around the clock.
They should improve patient experience
Patient experience is molded by everything that is part of the patient's journey, starting from the patient appointment procedure. Patient appointment scheduling is certainly one of the most crucial points that heavily influences the patient experience of a practice. A fast and easy patient appointment would prove to be extremely beneficial for the patients and would lead to less time wasted both for them and the practices as well, thereby rendering the process useful in every sense.
GrowPractice offers the best appointment scheduling app to revolutionize the patient experience!
GrowPractice is a trusted provider of medical office software that includes efficient patient appointment scheduling apps and software for the private medical/dental offices of practices and urgent care units. Along with a whole range of private healthcare providers, GrowPractice is also hailed as credible by many US Federal Government Agencies for the promising software solutions it brings to the healthcare practices. GrowPractice extends future-proof software that pledges to improve the practices in each of the steps of the patient's journey, which includes patient appointments, check-ins, patient intakes, treatment, collections, followups, and patient reviews. The advanced patient scheduling apps provided by GrowPractice help the practices of today to book their patient appointments promptly and easily without any hassles. Some other benefits of the GrowPractice patient appointment scheduling software and systems are:
• They are secure
• They help book patient appointments 24x7
• They can easily be integrated with any other software solutions
• GrowPractice patient appointment scheduling software keeps schedule full
• They help manage online appointment scheduling effectively
• They help book, manage and cancel patient appointments
