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medically and
technologically. The implementation of a web portal allowed us to
provide patients with the convenience that they would experience in a
lot of other aspects of their lives but has been lacking in the medical
field for years. While advances in medicine tend to come at a very quick
rate, advances in the way medical practices interact and deal with
people has, in many ways, progressed a lot slower than many other
industries.
We launched our patient portal nearly a year ago and have watched it
flourish since. From its early stages it has proven to be a great tool
for both patients and staff by means of appointment setting or for
communication between patients and office staff. Over the year we have
added more services as we continue to see benefits.
Online scheduling has allowed a lot of convenience for our patients who
are responding well to the service and giving positive feedback. They
can book and cancel appointments at any time they can access a computer
and have a few minutes. It also allows many of our younger patients who
are used to living in an on-demand Internet based world to communicate
in a medium that they are more comfortable with. There are many people
who enjoy the ease and comfort of communicating with a keyboard and
mouse rather than a phone. It’s hard to quantify but we can assume that
there are people who book with us simply because of the convenience of
booking through this medium.
The benefits of online scheduling to the practice are subtler but have
had a major impact. Our practice has invested a lot of time and energy
into designing scheduling templates that work to maximize flow and
efficiency. When scheduling staff is trying to maximize patient
convenience they tend to override each or over book patients so these
templates fail to work. Removing this “human factor” and allowing
booking to only occur how it was designed significantly improves the
flow of a day for both the physicians and patients. While there was some
trepidation at first that patients would simply call the office when
they did not see an available time they wanted, we have not seen this
occur at all. It seems that when only set times are provided on a
screen, the mental approach the patient takes is different than when
they are on the phone. They see the availability and find a time that
works for them. It is cleaner, quicker and both parties are more
satisfied in the end.
At Boston Eye Group we enjoy being a leader and an innovator within the
industry, and we see online scheduling, registration, and other patient
portal functions as a trend we are eager to set. We know patient
satisfaction is vital in our industry, and believe it won’t be long
before a functioning patient portal is not a novel and futuristic idea,
but a “must have” in practice functionality.
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