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The rising popularity of virtual care seems to be extending itself into other areas of patient experience, including a re-energized consumer preference for digital self-scheduling. In fact, McKinsey & Company reports that telehealth visits and utilization are 38x higher than pre-COVID-19 levels (July 2021). Meanwhile, Experian Health’s State of Patient Access 2.0 survey, released in June 2021, found that 73% of consumers now want to schedule their own doctor appointments online. Interest in self-scheduling is more than a lingering side effect of the pandemic. For providers, it’s a great way to build digital engagement with current and prospective patients – while accelerating internal efficiencies as patient volume increases. A clear preference for patient self-scheduling emerges “The preference for self-scheduling is not surprising when you look at the data,” says Sanju Pratap, Experian Health’s Vice President of Consumer Products, who sat down to talk about leveraging patient scheduling solutions to enhance digital engagement. “Patients are scheduling appointments online at all times of day – right before dinner, early in the morning or at lunchtime. During these uncertain times, self-scheduling is so much easier and safer." Expectations also changed when COVID-19 introduced consumers to self-scheduling for vaccine appointments. “At the same time, providers are cognizant of wanting to reduce patient waiting time when trying to schedule appointments or follow-ups – especially in care settings where they’re trying to minimize the time patients are in the office,” says Pratap. “Their resources are pretty slim these days. Any move toward efficiency is appreciated.” Self-scheduling creates a better digital patient experience—and a competitive advantage Now, providers are contending with a large number of consumers who moved during and after the pandemic and increased patient volume following a year or more of deferred care. Self-scheduling is often the first point of interaction. “I may Google a new provider to learn more about their practice,” says Pratap. “If I’m on their website and I see a “schedule now” button, I’m likely to try it, rather than waiting weeks or months to call the office to see whether they take my insurance or have an appointment for me.” That first point of contact can turn into a competitive advantage: “Does the orthopedic practice down the street offer online scheduling that makes it easy for other providers to refer to them—and easy for patients to schedule their own appointments? Providers that do are going to get new patient revenue and increase patient loyalty. They’re going to keep more of their existing patients if they meet consumers where they want to be.” Providers can create processes that exceed their own expectations Many providers still have their doubts about self-scheduling. “We often hear, ‘No system is going to understand the nuances of my scheduling template,’” says Pratap. These doubts aren’t totally unfounded. “Accurate appointments require a deep understanding of scheduling protocols. In the past, individually scripted schedulers had binders of questionnaires that they made notes on, relied on Post-It notes, and/or institutional knowledge. As you can imagine, this can be very inefficient, error-prone, and not the best experience for patients, providers or staff.” If humans have a hard time managing online healthcare appointment scheduling, what hope is there for automated systems? In fact, digital questionnaires and electronic medical records (EMRs) can streamline scheduling and provide a clean, seamless experience for all parties involved. The key: building a patient self-scheduling system without blind spots To make scheduling more efficient, questionnaires must be consistent, but also flexible enough to accommodate a variety of providers, locations and specialties. Patients and access coordinators should be able to look for appointments across providers within a single view. If one provider is not available within a patient’s requested timeframe, a system could suggest another qualified provider. In doing so, systems can avoid scheduling imbalances that overload some providers, while under-scheduling others. Pratap shared additional ideas for avoiding blind spots: Remove friction from the patient journey end to end. For example, if you require a sign-in to your patient portal to view appointments, you may discourage consumers who don’t want to create new sign-ins just to view availability. Create a system that works for many users. “It’s not just patient self-scheduling you have to consider, but also the call center, the patient portal and anyone that’s leveraging an API to book into a provider’s schedule,” says Pratap. “Scheduling tools should make it easy to see availability across multiple providers and locations, and allow patients to see accurate availability and easily book, no matter who you are or how you accessed the system.” Revaluate pre-visit messages sent after appointments are made. Capture all the information you need to ensure the patient’s registration process and visit goes smoothly. Build in accommodations for unique needs. While automation can help streamline scheduling, it’s important to understand every patient’s individual needs. If necessary, staff can step in and take the reins on scheduling. For example, staff can manually accommodate appointments for an older patient who suffers from chronic issues and needs more time with their doctor. Don’t rely solely on out-of-the-box solutions. Using the scheduling functions that come with different types of EMRs may be tempting. However, making the additional effort to create a process that is accurate, efficient and flexible—and encourages digital patient engagement—increases the value of a patient scheduling solution exponentially. Measure progress and mine data to continue optimizing Scheduling isn’t just your digital front door. It also has the potential to make—or lose—revenue. “Some providers worry about patients booking the wrong appointments and taking time away from other patients,” says Pratap. “Their concerns are valid; these time slots are valuable.” “One of the metrics we use to gauge how successful our scheduling systems are is by looking at the rescheduling rate,” Pratap explains. “We look at how many appointments need to be re-booked because the wrong provider or appointment type was chosen and filter out appointments that were re-booked for other reasons. By using this information, we can create systems where re-booking is rare.” Monitoring data also helps providers stay ahead of fluctuating needs and preferences.  “When you’re choosing a scheduling solution, ask what reporting and analytics are built-in,” says Pratap. “You want to be able to find out, for instance, what availability looks like across your practice—and whether it’s the reason patients aren’t scheduling with you. Analytics and insights can be layered on top of data to help you optimize the patient experience and keep your practice running efficiently.” Watch Greg Young, Senior Director Marketing, and Sanju Pratap, VP of Product Management for Consumer Products, discuss how you can enhance digital patient engagement and accelerate call center operations with patient scheduling solutions in the latest Interview with the Expert.   Contact us to see how Experian Health can help streamline patient scheduling for your organization.

This is the second in a series of blog posts that will highlight how the patient journey has evolved since the onset of COVID-19. This series will take you through the changes that impacted every step of the patient journey and provide strategic recommendations to move forward. In this post, we explore how 24/7 self-scheduling can help healthcare providers adapt to the post-pandemic digital landscape.  To read the full white paper, download it here. If there’s one digital tool that punches above its weight in the healthcare industry, it’s online self-scheduling. This simple concept – allowing patients to book their own appointments online – resolves many sticky issues throughout the entire patient journey. It drives patient satisfaction, acquisition, and retention. It boosts staff efficiency and smooths out bumps in the revenue cycle. No-shows and delayed care can be minimized, leading to reduced costs and far better health outcomes. All of that was true before the pandemic. However, when COVID-19 hit, self-scheduling was a gamechanger. When more patients wanted to manage their healthcare online, and staff were forced to work remotely, online medical scheduling was convenient and safe. Now, the return on investment is even higher. As patients struggle to overcome growing barriers to care, and providers wrangle with soaring volumes of returning patients, the digital front door must remain open. How can providers leverage the benefits of 24/7 digital self-scheduling seen over the last year or so, and create a digital patient experience that’s fit for the future? Consumers schedule appointments differently now – and they don’t want to go back Healthcare has been playing digital catch-up to other industries for much of the last decade. Consumers have long grumbled about archaic registration processes and the absence of digital tools seen frequently in other sectors. The urgent reconfiguration of the healthcare consumer experience over the last year means many of those missing digital options are now available. Instead of calling to make an appointment during office hours, patients can use 24/7 online scheduling platforms – accessible any time, from any device. Having had a taste of convenience and control, consumers expect online scheduling to continue beyond the pandemic. According to a new Experian Health study, nearly three-quarters of consumers want to continue to schedule their own appointments online. More than eight in 10 prefer an online or mobile-related registration experience. Rather than wait in a long customer service queue, patients can make, cancel, or reschedule appointments with the push of a button. Patients of all ages like having a flexible and frictionless way to manage their care, so why would they choose a provider that doesn’t offer online self-scheduling as part of the mix? 24/7 self-scheduling reduces barriers to care In addition to meeting consumer expectations, 24/7 self-scheduling also helps providers overcome many new and existing consumer challenges in the wake of the pandemic. Patients can be blocked from accessing the care they need for all sorts of reasons – financial worries, lack of transportation, lack of time to phone and book appointments, and/or cultural barriers to seeking support. As with many public health challenges, those who experience the greatest social and economic challenges have also been hardest hit by the pandemic. While many of these issues aren’t easily resolved by any one organization, self-scheduling does offer a route around several barriers to care. By simply offering a more flexible way to book and cancel appointments and interact with their provider, self-scheduling platforms allow patients to make plans in a way that fits their circumstances. Inconvenient business hours and long waits for available appointments become less of a concern. And with automated patient outreach, providers can make the process even easier, by sending text or email reminders to specific groups of patients to make sure they get the care they need. Digital self-scheduling eases call center bottlenecks Giving patients the ability to book their own appointments online also eases the burden on call center staff. Setting up staff to work remotely, while managing an influx of patients scrambling to book COVID-19 tests and vaccinations, created many pain points throughout the pandemic. First come, first serve scheduling options create bottlenecks in call volume, and when patients can’t get through to cancel appointments they can no longer attend, those slots sit unused – wasting physician time. As patients look to reschedule deferred care, 24/7 self-scheduling can minimize these bottlenecks by relieving pressure on call center staff and spread the load across multiple channels. Call center agents can reallocate their time to higher-priority inquiries. Call times can be cut because agents will have integrated access to disparate electronic health records and project management systems. Training time can also be reduced through simplified online systems. It’s no wonder that 71% of providers offer (or plan to offer) online self-scheduling options. Building a self-scheduling ecosystem that’s fit for the future Digital self-scheduling systems implemented during the pandemic should become a permanent feature in patient access. Providers that want to create an attractive patient experience should expand their digital self-scheduling offering beyond simply booking appointments. Multiple specialty services can be integrated into the scheduling system to streamline referrals. Telehealth services that gained so much ground over the last 18 months can be connected to online scheduling tools so they’re fully embedded going forward. Digital payment options and coverage functions can also be linked to scheduling platforms, for a seamless end-to-end digital patient experience. Find out how Experian Health’s 24/7 online patient scheduling software can help your organization deliver an optimal patient experience, improve call center productivity, and reduce revenue loss as the healthcare industry adapts to the new digital landscape. Download our white paper to get patient-provider perspectives on self-scheduling and other digital trends.

In November 2020, Experian Health conducted a survey to capture consumer and provider attitudes regarding patient access. At the height of the pandemic, patients welcomed telehealth services and maintained their distance from hospital waiting rooms. Providers scrambled to implement and provide digital services that would help them maintain quality care for their patients. In June 2021, we revisited these questions to see if healthcare providers and patients changed their views on the state of patient access: The pandemic has forced rethinking how to “do” healthcare in the digital age. Patients want flexible, convenient, and contactless care; providers need to continue providing these services. Download the white paper for the full survey results and get strategies to plan for the future of healthcare.