Success at a glance: call center scheduling

You may also like: Supercharge your COVID-19 vaccine management plan with digital solutions “Experian Health’s ability to move quickly and adapt their self-service platform to schedule vaccines for patients has been an invaluable improvement not only for our operations, but to the patient experience. The power to schedule the vaccine’s second dose after the first is administered helps us deliver on our commitment to providing reliable, quality care.” - Julie Frahm, director of consumer digital products at Sharp HealthCare The unpredictable nature of patient volume is a large part of what makes scheduling for the COVID-19 vaccine so difficult. Before now, providers haven’t had to manage mass appointment slots and registrations tied specifically to vaccinations. And even with those features streamlined, providers are still unsure of the best way to reach out to patients who are eligible for the vaccine to prompt them to schedule their appointment. Already a user of Experian Health’s Patient Schedule solution, Sharp HealthCare turned to online self-scheduling to improve patient access to the COVID-19 vaccine. With the solution in place, patients of Sharp HealthCare who are eligible for the vaccine can schedule their first dose online via computer or mobile phone. After answering a short set of questions, the scheduling solution will guide patients to a calendar of available day and time slots for receiving the first vaccination. After the first shot is administered, Sharp HealthCare staff can schedule patients for their second dose onsite, prior to leaving the office. Patients of Sharp HealthCare are consistently utilizing online self-scheduling to book appointments for their vaccinations. More than 1,000 vaccinations were scheduled in the first three weeks of online self-scheduling being available to patients. The ability for provider staff to help book the second dose of the vaccine for patients has also helped Sharp HealthCare deliver on their commitment to quality care, further ensuring the efficacy of the vaccine for each and every patient. Patients are also enjoying the expanded use of a self-service digital service, especially for a process that has been widely known to, at least thus far, be a detriment to the patient experience. Discover how Patient Schedule can improve vaccine management.

Published: March 26, 2021 by Experian Health

Take a poll of any healthcare facility’s visitors, and the majority will tell you they’d like to book appointments online. When Experian Health surveyed more than 860 consumers in late 2020 for its patient access trends survey, 78% of those surveyed said they wanted to schedule their own appointments, at any time of day or night, from their home or mobile device. But with only four in ten providers offering self-scheduling as a service, there’s a big opportunity for providers who offer digital patient access to attract and retain more patients by giving them what they want. Online self-scheduling allows patients to choose when and where they make their appointment. It is easier for patients, reduces no-shows, improves health outcomes and minimizes the risk of errors that can result in denied claims. But while online self-scheduling is meant to foster a better patient experience, not every solution is up to scratch. Providers need to offer an online scheduling experience that is user-friendly, reliable and accessible in order to create the best possible digital experience for both new and existing consumers. Patient portals can be a great location for existing patients to schedule appointments online, but what about new patients? Without an existing relationship or log in, new patients will likely click away from online scheduling services that require them to set up a new account or request a call. Unnecessary friction makes it harder to attract new patients. Given that 80% of patients would switch providers for convenience factors alone, offering online scheduling to brand new patients without requiring the additional step of creating an account could be a powerful attraction strategy. With manual scheduling, call center agents have to sift through multiple spreadsheets and binders to check calendars and scheduling rules in order to match patients with the right provider and appointment type. With a system like that in place it can be impossible to place more than a few patients each day. Patients that don’t want to wait or participate in lengthy calls often end up looking for care elsewhere. But if the right questions are guiding the online scheduling process, patients can be matched quickly to the right provider and book an appointment that fits with the provider’s calendar and scheduling rules. Adding a web-based scheduling service with guided search allowed Heritage Medical Associates to increase the number of patients placed from as few as three per day to as many as fifty per day, creating a better experience for patients, call center staff and physicians. Consumers want to schedule medical appointments the way they might book dinner reservation or a grocery delivery slot: they want to see all the available options for their preferred day, book on the spot and receive confirmation right there and then. They want to complete the scheduling process in real time – not waiting for a call back to confirm. CareMount Medical implemented an online scheduling platform to give patients real-time access to book appointments across all of their providers, which has appealed to both new and existing patients. Chief Information Officer, Nicholas Korchinski, says: “Yes, we have been able to acquire new patients, but our strategy was really about retention… Month over month we see double digit growth in use of the application, so our patients are benefiting more and more.” The ideal online scheduling platform will be flexible, accessible, and easy to use for both patients and staff. With Patient Schedule, providers can improve the patient experience, attract new patients and guide patients to the right provider without delay

Published: March 17, 2021 by Experian Health

The number of urgent care facilities in the United States has topped 9,000 as of November 2019. The popularity of both urgent care centers and retail clinics is driven mainly by patients’ desires for more convenient, flexible and affordable access to care. Frustrated with long waits and inconvenient appointment times, more patients forego or completely abandon their primary care physician and flock to urgent care centers for care. A report from the Urgent Care Association found that one-quarter of patients seeking care at urgent care centers are unaffiliated with a primary care provider or medical home. This can put provider organizations in a tough spot financially as it forces them into a tight competition for business, both for new and returning patients – something many providers can’t afford to lose as they fight for revenue during COVID-19. Some organizations may think the only way to combat this trend, or at least stay ahead of it, is to create their own affiliated urgent care facility. While this does prevent lost business and revenue from patients leaving the organization, it is also a massive undertaking for any organization and an initial drain on resources, time and money. Providers can compete with this rise of urgent care facilities in more ways than simply building their own urgent care facilities. They can compete by offering same and next day appointments through online self-scheduling for patients into their already existing locations. By making same and next-day appointments available to patients through online self-scheduling, provider organizations can offer patients urgent care-like services for time-sensitive needs without having to invest or divert funds to build out their own urgent care centers. The availability to connect patients with quick, convenient care supports higher patient retention, making it possible for provider organizations to compete with others who have created urgent care centers. The lure of urgent care is its perceived convenience – walk-ins, same-day appointments, more flexible hours – but provider organizations can easily offer the same level of convenience to their patients with online self-scheduling. There is much less of a need to seek out other options for care when the provider you are most familiar with can also see you that same day. This is even more true during today, when patient volume is already scarce and the competition for business is at an all-time high. And with the vaccine roll-out underway, especially with retail clinics opening their doors for vaccine administration, the competition for business will be even stronger. In addition to building a better patient-provider relationship, keeping patients in-house for urgent care needs also fosters better care coordination. With medical history readily available, providers can more quickly and accurately treat an individual. Offering same and next-day appointments also helps to fully utilize physician capacity, which is often riddled with holes due to patient no-shows. Those open slots can be readily filled by patients seeking urgent care or those with timelier health needs. While millennials’ have largely been credited for the growing demand of urgent care centers, they’re not the only group looking for convenient access to care. The ability to schedule and access care in a timely and convenient manner is something everyone wants today – older adults, parents of younger children, and more. A failure to meet these individuals with the digital conveniences they’ve become accustomed to in so many other parts of their lives will only push them to new competitors that are in fact providing this experience. With the right technology, timely care is one of the simplest, yet most sought-after conveniences that healthcare groups can provide. Interested in learning more about how Experian Health can help your organization compete with urgent care and boost loyalty among existing patients? Contact us.

Published: February 17, 2021 by Experian Health