Numbers Don’t Lie: Making the Case for Digital Self-Scheduling

For growing healthcare practices, the decision to embark on any level of digital transformation is complicated. The promise is compelling, with greater efficiency across the practice, less administrative burden on office staff and a streamlined patient experience among the arguments in favor.

At the same time, there is the expense and learning curve that comes with new technology and new processes to consider. Will expectations be realized – will practices see the return on investment they hoped for? And will staff members and patients embrace a more automated experience post-deployment? These are valid questions practices should consider before implementing any technology – more importantly, they’re questions that a potential technology partner should easily be able to answer, backed by proof points of their solution’s tangible impact on similar practices.

The proof is in the numbers. A Clearwave Scheduling customer recently reported that after just one month of using the solution, the practice was already seeing the following:

• 32% of patients scheduled themselves on-demand, on the same day as their appointment. These are slots that would have likely gone unfilled, leaving missed opportunities for revenue and, more importantly, patients unable to get the more immediate attention they might need.
• 47% of appointments were scheduled outside of normal office hours. Between work and family obligations, patients are busy. By letting them access the practice and book their own appointments outside of normal business hours, practices are creating a much more convenient patient experience and maximizing every possible revenue opportunity in the process.
• 74% of existing patients and 26% of net-new patients booked their own appointments online. Almost three-fourths of established patients welcomed the new self-scheduling capability immediately, while more than a quarter of new patients went straight to online scheduling upon introduction. This means less administrative burden on front-desk staff, so practices can redirect their teams to higher value patient engagement activities without having to hire additional personnel.

These were just a few of the early metrics reported. Clearwave customers also rave about the solution’s eligibility verification capabilities. When a patient schedules their appointment online, the system automatically checks and verifies their insurance status so that both the patient and the practice are prepared to take the appropriate steps in advance of the visit to ensure a clean and simple reimbursement process.

Digital patient scheduling software is essential for practices with an eye toward growth. For more information on the impact a solution like Clearwave is having on other practices, download the data sheet here.