Are you a medical practice struggling to keep up with patient needs in an increasingly digital environment? Are you seeking an easier, more efficient way to get more patients through your doors?

The good news is that finding success in the current healthcare landscape doesn’t have to be difficult – technology has made tremendous advances and opportunities available for organizations who are willing to take advantage.

Leveraging a stronger digital infrastructure can provide a number of benefits for your practice, from enhancing patient experience and engagement, to increasing provider visibility and attracting new patients.

Let’s examine some specific ways that digital technology can help you generate more visits from patients and increase the overall efficiency of your practice:

Allow Patients to Schedule Online

Many software solutions will allow your patients to schedule their appointments online via your website. Instead of having to wait on hold and speak to your staff on the phone, patients can instead select a time that works best for them and fill out all of the necessary information online.

This is not only convenient for patients, but also frees up your staff to focus on other tasks instead of having to manually create appointments over the phone.

Receive Online Referrals

If not managed properly, the referral process can become quite messy and lead to confusion and frustration for patients, staff and outside providers. Digital software that includes a feature for online referrals makes it easy for outside doctors to refer their patients to your practice.

Online referrals are great time-savers as opposed to the traditional system of exchanging phone calls between practices. Through the use of a secure online portal, referring doctors can easily refer their patients and provide the necessary data to your practice while staying in the loop throughout the whole process.

Spend More Time on Patient Care

Regardless of what kind of medical practice you are operating, the ultimate goal is always to create the best possible outcomes for your patients. In order to achieve this, staff need to be able to spend the appropriate amount of time with patients, making sure that they are doing everything they can to care for them and their needs.

Digital solutions in your practice take away the need for your staff to spend unnecessary hours on paperwork, phone calls and other laborious administrative tasks. This way, they can spend time on what matters the most.

Collect Feedback from Patients Quickly

The best way to continually improve your practice is to receive and implement solutions based on patient feedback. While online reviews are certainly helpful, many patients won’t leave a review unless directly prompted. Luckily, a digital solution exists that will text patients after their visit asking them to provide feedback. This helps you understand what your practice is doing well and what can be improved upon.

Meet Patients Where They Are (Mobile Devices)

Digital solutions allow you to connect with patients from anywhere via their mobile device. This way, you can meet with a patient virtually and even prescribe them medications without them having to leave their house. Patients can also stay connected to your practice via SMS text reminders about appointments, medications and any important announcements related to your practice.

Cut Down Time in the Waiting Room

Now more than ever, germs are on the forefront of many patient’s minds when they are sitting in a crowded waiting room. To help cut down on the time spent in a waiting room, patients can wait in their car or any other comfortable location before they are seen. On top of that, patients can fill out intake forms in advance, reducing the need to enter your building until the doctor is ready for them.

Share Patient Charts Digitally in a Secure Environment

The best way to securely pass along patient information within your practice is not physically handing off charts, but rather sharing them digitally. Software solutions exist to store important records such as patient charts in one secure, digitized location. This makes it easier for staff to access records and ensures that they are kept in a safe and clutter-free space.

Get a Stronger Digital Infrastructure for Your Practice Today

From emergency departments to veterinary clinics, ER Express offers digital solutions designed to benefit the modern medical practice. With the right tools, your practice can improve efficiency and patient care while staying competitive in the modern healthcare landscape.

To learn more about our digital solutions, schedule a demo today:

Are you looking to revitalize your veterinary practice through efficient record-keeping, streamlined workflows and higher-performing staff? The cloud is rapidly becoming the preferred choice for many veterinarians due to its ability to streamline operational tasks, improve workflow management and integrate seamlessly with other digital applications, making it an ideal tool for any veterinarian’s office.

With this technology at your fingertips, you’ll have everything that you and your staff need centralized in one convenient location delivered directly from the web – from medical records access and patient histories tracking to appointment scheduling and billing capabilities.

Take a look below at how cloud-based veterinary software can improve your practice.

Convenience Benefits

Access All Necessary Systems and Documents Across Devices

Using a cloud-based software allows your staff to access any systems or documents they need from any connected device. This can include patient records, intake forms and a number of other records that need to be shared on a day-to-day basis. Having quick and easy access to whatever they need from any device grants your staff more time to care for patients.

Erase Paper Records from Your Operations

In the digital age, more and more businesses and medical practices are opting to move away from keeping paper records. Not only is this more friendly for the environment, but reducing paper records makes it easier for staff to safely and efficiently organize important documents.

Cloud-based veterinary software is able to completely digitize your practice’s records, reducing the need to keep any paper records around. This way, staff can easily find and store any necessary documents without having to sift through piles of physical paper.

Performance Benefits

Let Clients Get in Line Remotely

Since the pandemic, people have become more wary of the germs that can spread from sitting in a packed waiting room. Even in a veterinary practice, crowded waiting rooms can quickly become hotspots for germs and diseases to spread. Not to mention that sitting in a waiting room for a prolonged period of time with a restless pet is anything but pleasant.

Cloud-based software allows for clients to check-in and get in line remotely using their mobile device. Creating a contactless experience for your clients means less time spent in waiting rooms and ultimately, a more comfortable experience for everyone involved.

Digitally Collect Intake Forms

Instead of having clients sit in the waiting room and fill out intake forms upon arrival, cloud-based software lets pet owners complete these forms ahead of time from their mobile device or computer. This way, your staff can save time on having to manually enter the info from these forms and can instead have access to the necessary information in one digitized source.

These forms can also be customized to suit your practice’s needs and can include pet identification photos and electronic consent signatures.

Offer a Contactless Experience

As we mentioned above, people are more conscious than ever of the potential for diseases to be spread in crowded areas such as waiting rooms. Cloud-based software gives your practice the freedom to create an entirely contactless experience for your clients.

From checking-in to filling out forms to waiting from their desired location, nearly every step of the patient experience can be done safely and remotely. This in turn makes pet owners at your office feel more comfortable and more likely to return to your practice.

Automate Communication

Staying in touch with pet owners is one of the most important ways to keep them loyal to your practice. With cloud-based software, doing this is easier than ever.

Your staff can use the software to automate text messages to patients about important announcements surrounding your practice, appointment reminders or any other information to keep them in the loop. On top of that, the software’s built-in two-way texting allows clients to communicate via SMS as well. This way, your staff can save time on manually sending out text reminders and communication with patients is as seamless as it can be.

Get Cloud-Based Veterinary Software for Your Practice Today

ER Express offers the highest-performing, most complete cloud-based solution for veterinary clinics and is trusted by countless veterinarians to better manage their practices.

To learn more, schedule a 15-minute call today.

 

 

Does your position require you to manage an emergency department (ED)? This can include being the one responsible for supervising staff, tracking protocols and organizing patient care. If so, you know how chaotic the ED can become at times. You also know that the top priority in the ED and healthcare in general is prioritizing the patient’s care.

Finding ways to prioritize patients can be a major challenge in any healthcare setting, but especially so in an emergency department where resources are limited, waiting rooms are full and time is of the essence. By offloading many of the recurring, redundant administrative tasks, your team can spend more time with patients when they need it most in an emergency situation.

In this article, we’ll be discussing some ways that you can streamline many of the recurring auxiliary tasks at your ED and maximize your department’s efficiency so that you can spend more time with the patients.

1: Block Out Peak Hours

While there may be occasional lulls in the emergency department, you and your staff can very quickly become inundated by a sudden rush of patients seeking immediate treatment.

During your emergency department’s usual peak hours where an influx of patients are arriving, you can use a digital solution to block out these hours so that your staff is not overwhelmed with high volumes of patients that are seeking treatment for low-acuity concerns.

This also allows you to more easily expedite care for high-acuity referrals that need attention immediately and keep the flow of patients steadier throughout the day.

2: Collect Patient Feedback Automatically

One of the best ways to improve patient outcomes in your emergency department is to get feedback directly from the patients. With the right software solution, patients can be kept in the loop via automated texts during each step of their stay in your ED. Afterwards, you can grab their feedback with a quick automated follow-up text survey and encourage them to write your ED an online review.

Referring providers can also be kept in the loop with certain softwares by receiving an email with their patient’s disposition status as soon as they are checked out. This helps to remove communication barriers and make sure that everyone, internally and externally, is on the same page.

3: Use a Mobile-Friendly Software

With so much being done from mobile phones nowadays, the software used in your emergency department should be responsive to changing screen dimensions and provide a consistent experience for users across devices.

This would ideally also allow providers to access medical documents and other software systems from a tablet or smartphone device to save on trips to a desktop computer. Being able to carry a tablet from room to room in the ED is a huge time-saver for your staff and allows them to spend more time caring for patients.

4: Reduce Phone Calls

If your emergency department utilizes a mobile check-in software solution, this would allow patients to schedule, reschedule, and cancel from their mobile devices. By giving patients to communicate and manage their appointments from their phones, your staff would spend less time manually answering calls.

Using check-in software would also provide advance notice of patient arrivals and set up a queue for your staff, helping to organize your waiting room and prioritize patient care.

5: Review Department Analytics on a Regular Basis

In the age of data, there are a number of ways to attain useful metrics and use them to enact beneficial changes in your emergency department. The management staff in your ED should review data collected by your ED’s software on a consistent basis to identify and analyze trends in your workflow.

When are patients starting to increase or decrease in volume? Where are your staff spending the majority of their time? How quickly are patients being seen?

Knowing this information helps you make more informed staffing decisions at times that are emerging as new peak hours, leading to more available staff assisting patients when the department gets busy.

Get a Complete Solution for Spending More Time with Your Patients

ER Express’ software solutions are optimized for emergency departments to increase efficiency, manage patient flow, and most importantly, improve the overall patient experience. Our solutions provide complete departmental workflow optimization software for emergency departments, including all of the features above plus more.

To learn more about how our solutions can help your emergency department, schedule a 15-minute call with us today.

 

As anyone who works in the healthcare industry can tell you, emergency departments (EDs) are known for often being crowded and stressful environments. Patients coming in at all hours of the day and night seeking immediate treatment can easily cause significant backups and waiting times, causing frustration for both staff and patients.

These issues make managing emergency departments quite a difficult task. Luckily, there are a number of digital solutions such as online check-in tools that can make the management of EDs much easier.

To ease the strain put on emergency departments during peak hours, EDs are using online check-in tools to help manage their operations more effectively. Here are four ways that these tools can help in the management of your emergency department:

• Online check-in tools can help reduce waiting times.
• They can help ED staff manage patient flow more efficiently.
• They can provide valuable data that can be used to improve ED operations.
• They can improve the overall patient experience.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these benefits in turn.

Reduce Waiting Times

Because of how busy and chaotic emergency departments can easily become, reducing waiting times is one of the most important goals for any ED. Online check-in tools can help to reduce waiting times by allowing patients to reserve their spot in line before they even arrive at the ED. This way, ED staff can better predict how many patients they will need to accommodate and plan accordingly.

Manage Patient Flow Efficiently

Similarly, online check-in tools can help emergency department staff manage their patient flow more efficiently. An extremely useful feature of many online check-in tools is the ability to track the amount of time spent in the ED by each patient. By tracking how long each patient spends in the ED, staff can better identify bottlenecks and make changes to the flow of traffic accordingly.

This information collected by online check-in tools can also be used to improve the triage process so that patients with more urgent needs are seen first. This will not only make your ED more efficient but also ensure that those in immediate need of treatment receive the care they need as quickly as possible.

Provide Valuable Data

In the current healthcare landscape, the more data that can be collected, the more efficiently any medical practice will be able to run. In addition to reducing waiting times and improving patient flow, the data collected by online check-in solutions can also be used to improve emergency department operations in a number of other ways.

For example, analysts inside the ED can use the data collected to identify trends in patient visits and make accurate predictions about future demand. This information can then be used to determine staffing levels, stock supplies, and plan for future capacity needs that will help them prepare for the future. The more data that an ED’s online check-in tool is able to collect, the more equipped the staff in the ED will be to handle any number of obstacles that come their way.

Improve Patient Experience

Finally, online check-in tools can also improve the overall patient experience. When it comes down to it, providing a positive patient experience is a top priority for any ED or medical practice in general. Online check-in tools are a great way to make your patient’s experience in the ED as positive as possible.

These tools are useful because patients who are able to reserve their place in line electronically often report feeling less anxious and more in control of their situation. In addition, having accurate information about expected wait times can help patients make better decisions about when to seek care. Both of these factors can make patients feel more at ease during an oftentimes stressful situation.

Overall, emergency departments that implement an online check-in system often see significant improvements in their operations. By reducing wait times, improving patient flow, and providing valuable data, online check-in tools can help EDs be managed as smoothly as possible while providing a better experience for staff and patients alike.

Boost Your Emergency Department Management Today

ER Express offers intuitive solutions that are suited to benefit the modern emergency department. ER Express’ online check-in tool provides valuable efficiency-increasing features and insightful data that can be used to continuously improve operations in any emergency department.

To learn more about how ER Express can improve your practice or ED, schedule a demo today.

 

We’re long past the days where the only way for consumers to share their experiences with businesses (or medical practices) was through word of mouth.

In the current age of digital media, where nearly everyone has immediate internet access – as well as the ability to register their pleasure or displeasure with their experience – patients have the ability to boost or diminish an urgent care or emergency department’s reputation with just a few clicks.

Online reviews and social media testimonies have a huge impact on whether potential patients consider booking an appointment at a certain practice. That is just one of the many reasons why patient experience is more important than ever in today’s healthcare landscape.

Having a reputation for a great patient experience in your practice can both satisfy your current patients and inspire confidence in prospective ones, ultimately generating more revenue for your organization.

From the moment a patient walks through your doors till they leave with a diagnosis, prescription, and/or treatment plan, there is no shortage of touch points. Each one presents an opportunity to make their experience a positive one. Or conversely, leave them questioning whether they should look elsewhere for care.

Were they greeted in a friendly, respectful manner? Did the information they provided (either as a new or repeat patient) follow them to their current visit? Was there continuity even if they were seen by a different healthcare provider than last time? Were they seen within a reasonable amount of time? And if they had to see more than one provider in the practice, was the “handoff” performed seamlessly?

Here are just a few of the specific reasons why patient experience is so important in today’s healthcare industry:

Attract and Retain Patients

Creating a positive patient experience in your medical practice is essential for attracting and retaining patients. In order to grow and thrive, healthcare organizations need to be able to attract new patients while simultaneously retaining the ones they already have.

Having long wait times, unattentive staff and creating a generally bad experience is the easiest way to lose existing patients and scare away any potential new patients. That is why fostering a positive patient experience is essential for your practice to accomplish both of these goals.

Reduce Costs

When it comes down to it, the ability to reduce costs and maintain a profit is what keeps medical practices afloat. Part of creating a positive patient experience is having a well-run and efficient office and staff. Being able to run your practice efficiently not only creates a positive experience for patients but also reduces costs for your organization.

On a similar note, the more patients that walk through your door, the more revenue your practice can generate. Creating a positive patient experience will help to retain existing patients and attract new patients, resulting in greater revenue and stronger financial health for your practice.

Better Health Outcomes

At the end of the day, the ultimate goal of any healthcare organization is to provide the best possible medical outcomes for their patients. When patients have a positive experience with your practice, they are more likely to follow through with their care plan and take their medications as prescribed. This can lead to better health outcomes and lower costs for both your practice and patients down the line.

Boost Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction

Happy employees lead to happy patients! When staff members enjoy coming into work each day, it is reflected in the quality of care that they provide. This, in turn, leads to improved patient satisfaction scores and increased employee retention rates. In essence, a positive patient experience is a win-win for both your staff and patients.

Provide a Better Patient Experience with ER Express

From providing better health outcomes to reducing costs for your practice, there are countless reasons why providing a positive patient experience is important for healthcare organizations. These are just a few of the most important ones. By focusing on providing a great experience for patients, healthcare organizations can improve their bottom line while also improving the quality of care that they provide.

ER Express’s multiple software solutions help urgent care facilities and emergency departments engage with patients and provide them with a better, modernized experience that will encourage them to revisit your organization and recommend it to others.

To learn more about how ER Express’s solutions can help improve your practice’s patient experience, schedule a demo with us today.

In the past few years, healthcare has undergone rapid transformations in all facets of the industry. Social distancing has changed how people think about shared spaces and how offices have adapted to address these concerns.

The patient experience specifically has drastically changed, with a large amount of the appointment process taking place virtually. Modern healthcare expectations for a great patient experience now involve a substantial amount of pre and post-appointment engagement online from a patient’s mobile device.

One of the most convenient modern features you can provide to patients at your urgent care is an online check-in process. This gives your patients the ability to notify your staff when they are ready for their appointment without having to spend time in the waiting room. Online check-ins are a great way to practice social distancing and keep up with the expectations of today’s healthcare industry.

In this article, we’ll be covering some of the features that make for a great online check-in system so you know how to choose the best one for your practice.

Great Online Check-in Features for Patients:

Reserve their Place in Line

An online check-in system should allow your patients to reserve their place in line from a remote location. This is a great way to keep your waiting room organized and ensure that no one has to wait for too long before seeing a physician.

Less Time Spent in the Waiting Room

When it comes down to it, the purpose of an online check-in system is so that your patients are able to spend less time in the waiting room. Being able to check-in and reserve their place in line remotely is one of the best solutions to minimize time spent in the waiting room.

Features that Aid Providers:

First-Available Times to Encourage Off-Peak Scheduling

Some online check-in systems are able to display to patients when the next available time for an appointment is. This is an incredibly useful feature in helping to avoid crowded waiting rooms and backups at peak times throughout the day.

User-Friendly Mobile Interface for Patients and Form Completions

Not all patients are going to be computer whizzes and able to easily check in and fill out forms from their phones. By choosing a check-in system with a user-friendly mobile interface, your patients will be able to check in and complete their forms with minimal issues.

SMS Messaging to Maintain Patient Engagement

Keeping your patients engaged with your office in between appointments is a great marketing strategy to keep your practice top of mind. Check-in systems that allow SMS messages to be sent to your patients are effective in patient retention and satisfaction. These messages can be updates from your office, the latest news in your practice or just check-ins to let your patients know that you’re thinking of them.

Send Automated Alerts to Patients

When emergencies happen in your practice, you want your patients to be kept in the loop. Check-in systems that send automated alerts to patients can be useful when there’s a last-minute office closure or any other emergency that you need to communicate to patients as quickly and easily as possible.

Patient Survey and Feedback Forms to Improve Performance

As a medical practice, you’re always looking for new ways to improve your patient’s experience. Using a check-in system that sends out surveys and feedback forms to patients after their appointment can help you collect the necessary data to make important changes in your practice.

Control Time Slot Availability

If there are certain times of the day that work best for your practice, you can control the availability of these time slots with certain check-in systems. This is another feature that helps reduce waiting room congestion and improve the general patient experience.

Analyze and Export Patient Data

For efficiency within your practice, it can be useful to have a system that lets your staff export and analyze patient data all in one place. Using a check-in system with this feature can help improve the organization of documents and data in your practice.

Get Better Online Check-In for Your Urgent Care

ER Express are the developers of Check-In Express – the most complete, innovative, and engaging online check-in tool for urgent cares looking to improve their patient experience and practice operations. If you’re looking for a check-in system with the best features to improve your practice, Check-In Express is the right one for you.

To learn more, request a demo today.

Periodic technology upgrades are a fact of life in modern workplaces. Effective tech systems improve speed and efficiency while reducing the ever-looming potential for human error.

Unfortunately, it’s much easier to see the value of a new system after it’s already been implemented. Getting there requires a bit of courage from an organization’s leaders.

If you’ve done your research, then you know that incorporating waitlist software at your veterinary practice is the right decision. However, it’s normal to feel nervous about learning a new tech system and asking your staff to adapt to a new set of procedures.

If you’re ready to roll out new waitlist software at your vet practice, but you’re not sure where to start, then this guide is for you. We’ll cover the simple steps that help you and your team transition smoothly through your upgrade process.

How To Roll Out Waitlist Software at Your Veterinary Practice

Introducing your team to a new technology requires confidence and effective communication. Follow these guidelines for a painless upgrade to your new waitlist software system.

Search for the Right Waitlist Software

Waitlist software is a major purchase. Your new system will become an integral part of your daily operations, so it’s worth taking the time to make an informed decision.

Choose a software system that:

• Streamlines your intake procedures
• Helps you communicate clearly with clients during the check-in process
• Fits your budget
• Is well-reviewed
• Offers helpful product demonstrations before you commit to a purchase

Look for a virtual waiting room that provides all of the easy-to-use features that modernize your intake process, including digital intake, digital patient queuing, and mobile notifications.
Schedule demos with as many providers as possible to gain a full understanding of their products’ capabilities and pricing.

Notify Your Team that a New Software System Is On the Way

As you plan your purchase and implementation of a new waitlist software system, keep your staff informed. To the best of your ability, provide these helpful details:

• Basic facts about the system that you plan to use
• How your new waitlist procedure will differ from current operations
• A timeline for rolling out your new system and completing the transition

Keep in mind that it’s natural for employees to feel some resistance to operational changes, especially regarding new tech. To relieve concerns, assure your team that there will be plenty of time for everyone to learn the system in a low-pressure training setting.

You may also find it productive to allow some staff to participate in the purchase decision and sit in on product demo sessions.

Notify Your Clients of Your Clinic’s New Waitlist Features

Along with keeping your staff informed, you should also notify your clients.

Use your website, email list, and signage to communicate the changes that are occurring in your waiting room procedure. Use the event as a marketing opportunity, since adopting a virtual waitlist system will improve the appointment experience for your clients and patients.

Train Yourself, Then Train Your Team

Even if you don’t consider yourself tech-savvy, as the leader of your practice you should be the first one to learn the ins and outs of your new waitlist software. Fortunately, the best programs are easy to use and can be learned quickly.

Once you’ve mastered the program, train your team. Allow plenty of time for everyone to get acclimated. Remember that even the most user-friendly technologies can be intimidating at first.
For the best training experience, use the training materials and recommendations offered by the software developer.

Use the Software Yourself

As your software implementation transitions from the training period to full adoption, continue to lead by example. The tools and systems used at your clinic are part of your company culture, and culture is developed through leadership.

Even if patient intake tasks aren’t part of your normal routine, become an expert at using your new software. Participate in its daily use for as long as it takes to complete a team-wide adoption. As your staff sees the clinic’s leaders using the system, they’ll gain confidence in using it themselves.

Innovative Waitlist Software From ER Express for Your Veterinary Practice

ER Express is an industry leader in veterinary practice waitlist software. Our innovative digital intake tools enhance the client experience, provide better engagement, and establish an easy, contactless check-in process.

To learn more, schedule a product demonstration today.

Urgent care centers play an essential role in the American health care system. They offer fast-paced, affordable care, filling a critical niche between hospitals and primary care centers.

Wait times are typically much shorter at urgent care centers than in ER departments. However, like any medical establishment, they can quickly fill up with patients which can place extra strain on capacity and resources.

Nevertheless, wait time reduction is an important goal for urgent care teams that want to treat higher patient volumes and improve the patient experience.

Thanks to today’s diverse care options, patients are increasingly empowered to choose where they receive medical care. Maintaining short average wait times is one of the best ways to foster patient loyalty. Wait times are also influential in shaping online ratings and reviews.

If your staff already works hard to get patients seen by care providers as quickly as possible, how can wait times be reduced?

The solution involves easy-to-use tech that modernizes every aspect of your waiting room system—implementing virtual, digital, and automated elements that squeeze every last bit of inefficiency out of your clinical workflow.

Strategies for Reducing Wait Times at Your Urgent Care Facility

The most impactful methods for reducing urgent care wait times involve the adoption of new tools and software that optimize clinical workflow.

Here are a few ways that you can work toward reducing average wait times at your urgent care facility.

Understand the Current Average Wait Time

Before you can work on wait time improvements, you need to establish a benchmark by determining your center’s current average wait time.

If you aren’t yet using any tools that automatically track patient wait time, you can spend some time manually recording wait time data until you’ve reached a sufficient sample size. You can then use your practice’s current average wait time to determine a new average wait time goal.

Provide Digital Patient Check-In and Onboarding Forms

Digital patient check-in and onboarding forms allow new patients to provide their basic information electronically.

Compared to pen and paper, electronic forms are simpler and faster for patients to complete.

Digital intake forms also save time for your staff while reducing the chance of human error. After a form is submitted, the information automatically updates the patient’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) without the need for urgent care staff to perform tedious manual data entry.

Offer Online Check-In and a Virtual Waiting Room

Virtual waiting rooms are essential for telehealth, but they’re also incredibly helpful for in-person appointments. Along with digital intake tools, virtual waiting rooms improve the waiting room experience for urgent care patients and staff.

The virtual waiting room process begins with a mobile online check-in procedure. Before physically entering an urgent care facility, patients can:

• View their current wait time
• Update their contact information
• Receive automated alerts
• Communicate with the reception desk via two-way texting

Waiting can take place from the comfort of a patient’s car, or even from their home or workplace. This frees up space in the physical waiting room, making it easier for staff and patients to maintain hygienic social distancing.

Urgent cares that implement online check-ins enjoy faster throughput times and higher patient satisfaction scores.

Online check-ins also provide urgent care staff with valuable real-time data about patient demand. In the short term, this helps teams manage their daily workflow. In the long term, staff planning and scheduling can be adjusted using a data-based approach.

Implement Digital Patient Queuing

Digital patient queueing allows patients to “get in line” by texting a code that enables access to a mobile-friendly sign-in form. After signing in, patients automatically receive a projected treatment time.

While improving the patient experience, digital queuing simultaneously streamlines waitlist management for urgent care staff.

Thanks to automated text alerts and two-way texting, intake staff can spend less time on the phone, shouting names out loud through the waiting room, or walking to the parking lot to find patients in their cars.

Meanwhile, providers can see how many patients are currently being seen and how many are still waiting. This improves time management by helping providers to prioritize caseloads more flexibly.

Start Reducing Patient Wait Times Today

Do you need to improve the average urgent care wait times at your facility? ER Express can help.

We provide healthcare software solutions for emergency departments, urgent care centers, and veterinary practices. Our innovative urgent care management software enables a better waiting room experience for patients and staff.

To learn more, schedule a demo with ER Express today.

 

Veterinary practices are tasked with managing a large influx of patients on a daily basis. As pets and their owners are cycling in and out of the office, it can be easy to stick to current operational practices because they are known quantities. As the timeless adage states, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”

Today, we are not going to outline ways that you could be mismanaging your practice. Instead, with modern digital tools, there are many opportunities to continue enhancing, innovating, and improving upon the processes you currently have in place to further streamline your clinical workflow.

Veterinary practices and urgent cares serving human patients share similar management best practices for optimal operational efficiency. While you are providing care for pets, you are also serving the people who brought them to your office.

Keeping this in mind, there are some ways that you can integrate modern software solutions into how your veterinary practice is managed. This will enable you to provide a more complete experience to patients in new, engaging, and convenient ways that they expect from other organizations in the broader medical field.

Four Key Pillars of a Great Patient Experience for Veterinary Practices

1: Contactless Experience

Modern medical trends have created new patient preferences for contactless experiences. By spending less time in an enclosed space, you can limit your exposure to potential infections. It also allows patients to wait conveniently from their cars, which can prove especially relieving for owners of fussy pets that do not like to be around unfamiliar people or other animals.

2: Maximum Time with Patients

Rather than spending a significant percentage of business hours on administrative tasks, your staff can benefit more from spending time with your patients. This helps provide a more calming atmosphere and a more pleasant experience for everyone involved. Instead of filing paperwork and spending long periods of time on the phone, you can give each pet and their owner more individualized attention during their visit.

3: Engaging Communication

With nearly everyone now conducting most of their daily communications with others through digital devices, many medical organizations are seeking new ways to engage with their patients through these channels. Using a practice management software solution, you can automate many of these communications to continue engaging with patients as well as provide two-way points of interaction.

4: Continuous Improvement

A fantastic patient experience is not built on a checklist. Once you have accomplished goals X, Y, and Z, that is just the foundation. Instead, an excellent patient experience is created by a daily commitment throughout your organization to continuously improve the in-office environment for pet owners.

With tools like virtual waiting, you can shorten wait times and save time spent in the waiting room, which are major starting points for creating a better visit at your practice. In turn, this can increase your reputation and help boost positive reviews online.

How to Integrate These Pillars Into Veterinary Practice Management

By incorporating modern practice management tools into your veterinary workflow, you can not only enhance the patient experience, but you can also offload many tedious administrative tasks from your staff. This also generates more value from their hours spent at your veterinary clinic, which can generate a better return on labor investments.

As a leader of a veterinary practice, ask one simple question: Am I getting more out of my payroll budget by having my staff spend more time with patients or by managing administrative tasks?

Thankfully, many basic and advanced administrative operations required to operate a veterinary practice can now be either completely or partially fulfilled with modern software tools. This creates a more seamless, objective workflow that can be more effectively managed.

In regards to the four pillars listed above, here are some ways that you can leverage modern veterinary practice management software to ensure that you are incorporating them into your organization’s operations.

First, look for a solution that allows your clients to complete the initial parts of their visit remotely. This can include virtual check-in, digitized intake paperwork, and online payment options. Your patients can now wait where their pets are most comfortable which can create a less stressful situation for everyone.

Second and third, look for a software system that allows your staff to automate many of the common administrative tasks that are part of their daily workflows. From digitizing appointment confirmations and scheduling to customer feedback surveys, and automated messaging, this can quickly convert hours once spent on these tasks into time that can be spent with more patients on a daily basis.

Lastly, a digital tool that provides real-time reports and analytics allows you to identify key performance metrics within your practice that can be used for more informed decision-making to continuously improve your patient experience. You can review metrics generated by both patients and staff activity to isolate opportunities to better serve your clients and develop a strategy to put them into practice.

Streamline Your Clinic Workflow with ER Express

As the leading innovator of veterinary practice management software solutions, our team at ER Express remains committed to helping veterinarians streamline their operations to improve workflows and patient experiences. To see our software in action, contact us today to request a demo.