Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 48)

SCHEDULING THAT PERSONAL TOUCH Many practices believe that automated reminder calls are impersonal. But have you ever really listened to your staff make those calls? So not only is the technology there, it’s easily accessible in many formats. Not sure which application would best ﬁt your practice? Check out product Web sites for free trial periods and do some experimenting. SELF-SCHEDULING An automated reminder system can project a positive image of your practice by delivering a consistent, professional message to your patients. And remember, you can customize the same software that generates reminder calls to communicate with your patients in their preferred medium, such as e-mail or text messaging. Some of these tools can also recall your patients when it’s time to schedule a follow-up or an annual exam. They can alert patients to overdue balances or make them aware that their test results are in. They can even extend birthday greetings. Internet-based versions of this technology require no special software or hardware; with these products, you enter patient names, phone numbers, and appointment times, and they subsequently receive phone calls reminding them of their scheduled appointments. ® Your Scheduling Solution Simple. Brilliant. Eppointments is a premier appointment scheduling software. It is flexible, fully customizable and extremely easy to use. In-Office and Web-Based Scheduling Patient Online Features from your Web Site, including: • complete patient registration information • online appointment scheduling • automatic email reminders Visit our Web site for more details or contact us now for a product demonstration and start seeing more patients today! If you really want to go wild, allow your patients to schedule their own appointments that ﬁt into their calendars — that will eliminate no-shows. Think of all the Internet-based, self-service goods and services your patients already access each day: They select their specific airline seats via the Internet. They purchase tickets and select seats for theater and concert performances. Why not let them select their preferred appointment dates and times for physician office visits? After all, the Internet never closes. If midnight is an easier hour for them to schedule an appointment, it’s no problem. No more waiting for the office to open the next day and then sitting on hold as your staff fields a deluge of calls. With online scheduling applications, patients can enter the parameters of their appointment requests — that is, they can indicate which provider they want to see, which office location they wish to visit, and which type of appointment they require. The system then presents them with available calendar dates from which they can choose open time slots. Patients only see slots that are open and that match their criteria — just like selecting an airline seat online. Take advantage of this technology, and the word will quickly spread that yours is truly a patientcentered practice. • Rosemarie Nelson is a well-known healthcare technology guru and principal with the Medical Group Management Association’s Health Care Consulting Group. She can be reached at RosemarieNelson@alum.syracuse.edu or via editor@physicianspractice.com. 866.376.7070 48 | www.eppointments.com This article originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of Physicians Practice. WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | TECHNOLOGY GUIDE http://www.eppointments.com http://www.eppointments.com http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 TG Cover Story: Protect Your Practice and Sleep Better Operations: Paperless? Not Quite The Internet: You've Got Mail...Or Do You? Patient Relations: Attention Grabbers The Tech Doctor: All About Blogs Lessons Learned: 'My EMR Nightmare...And Why I'd Do It Again' Scheduling: No More No-Shows The Marketplace: Who's Got Your Back IT Enhancement: Time, at Last, for an Upgrade? Online: 'Yup, I'm a Junkie. And Proud of It.' In the Office: New Technologies in the Workplace: Blessing or Curse? Web Surfing: If You Build It...

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

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