Data shows patients overwhelmingly want self-scheduling options when booking healthcare appointments. It’s convenient and is more in line with today’s consumer experience expectations. Self-scheduling is not only about improving patient satisfaction, however, practices also benefit. Staff turnover, staff and provider burnout, and obstacles to timely care delivery plague practices today, and advanced, automated self-scheduling tools can alleviate many of the operational pain points contributing to these challenges.
Despite these benefits, many physicians are hesitant to relinquish control and fully embrace this new era of online scheduling. They recognize the scheduling system's critical impact on the quality of care, patient experience, and reimbursement. The ability to closely manage the calendar is key to successful care delivery, and changes to the scheduling process should not be taken lightly.
That’s why intelligence and flexibility in a self-scheduling solution are foundational to building trust and gaining physician buy-in. The right technology must be nimble enough to accommodate nuances across specialties and individual physician preferences, while also aligning with broader patient access goals and organizational priorities.
Fortunately, physicians do not have to rely on rigid, one-size-fits-all scheduling solutions that only offer one path forward. Intelligent self-scheduling systems provide a flexible, centralized approach to managing individual provider preferences with key benefits such as:
- Enhanced flexibility and adaptability. Unlike traditional methods, which rely on inconsistent and often outdated manual records, these systems provide real-time visibility and automated adjustments based on pre-set criteria. This flexibility allows for swift modifications to scheduling preferences, accommodating both routine changes and unexpected needs.
- Data-driven process optimization. Advanced scheduling tools provide valuable insights into appointment patterns and rule effectiveness. By analyzing scheduling data, these systems can identify inefficiencies, such as underutilized slots or restrictive rules that impact availability. Administrators can use these insights to refine scheduling practices, optimize capacity, and ensure that appointment slots are used most effectively.
- Automated updates. Self-scheduling technology excels in automating routine scheduling tasks and dynamic adjustments. Neil Tarabadkar, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon with Peachtree Orthopedics in Atlanta, offers a great example of how this works: He uses a rule to hold a certain number of slots for trauma patients on his calendar. If these slots remain open 48 hours before his clinic, the rule automatically turns off, opening spaces for other patients to schedule last-minute appointments.
In closing, Dr. Tarabadkar reflects on how online self-scheduling has played a positive role in patient satisfaction. Tarabadkar says, “If we had to rely solely on the phone system, I can't even imagine how many patients would end up going somewhere else. They would be on hold forever. We track our patient satisfaction in all the different categories of our practice, including patient scheduling, and there's a noticeable improvement in our patient satisfaction since we implemented a self-scheduling option.”