The key to improved patient care quality and better service for patients is to have effective and efficient patient scheduling. It also plays an integral part in the success of your hospital or medical practice. The following simple tips would help you in improving patient scheduling.
1. Online Scheduling
You could use technology to improve patient scheduling by offering an online platform to the patients. Make a website or a mobile application for your clinic through which patients can book their appointments whenever they are free just by signing into it for free. Check the availability of the general physicians and diagnostic medical imaging radiologists and mention the free time online so that the patients can view it. All you have to do is gather a team who can keep the website or application updated about the free slots so that the patients can choose a time for them.
This will along with saving lots of your time will also satisfy patients more, however, there should be a system of confirmation about the booked appointment from the patient by hospital’s staff.
2. An Automated Reminder System
A pretty effective way to improve patient scheduling is to automate a reminder system that sends a text message or a call to the patients prior to their scheduled appointment.
Why this could be an effective way?
Because the common reason for patients not showing up is that they simply forgot their appointment. So, an automated text or call reminder at a set time would prevent patients from missing their appointment and if they won’t be able to make it then they will easily cancel after the reminder so that another appointment can be rescheduled at that time.
3. Make a List of Waiting Patients
There would be several patients who won’t be able to make it to the appointment and would cancel it at the 11th hour that can frustrate the management team because this would leave a slot empty. So, in order to stay away from such exasperation, make a list of patients waiting in the queue so that as soon as you get reported about the cancellation of an appointment by a patient, you can schedule it for the first one in the waiting list and give them a call about it. A waiting list of patients makes it easier to schedule new patients without wasting time searching for waiting patients.
4. Be Responsive At the Medical Call Center
Although automated call is pretty time saving but there could be some patients who would want to talk to a staff member about something which cannot be answered through an automated text/call or maybe they just want to book or cancel and appointment through a call. So, make sure that there is an active and responsive team at the medical call center to clear patients’ queries. An active medical call center is highly effective in improving patient scheduling.
Conclusion
As a medical professional, your main focus would be improved medical service and diagnostic medical imagingfor your patients and a better reputation of your clinic/hospital and to achieve that, aforementioned tips would be pretty helpful. All these can be possible only you have enough knowledge about what is medical imaging and how it works.
