Medical Practice 101

Richard Lango August 18th, 2010

When you are looking for the best  online appointment scheduling program for your medical practice, there are a number of important things you will need to consider. Your appointment scheduling software should be convenient to your patients, staff, and yourself. One of the ways through which you can achieve this is to use an online scheduler that gives you plenty of room in customizing it to suit your individual circumstances.

There are different types of customizations that you should be in a position to carry out. For instance, your medical appointment scheduling software should let you define the names, duration, time of service of your various types of appointments so that the patients will clearly know which type they need to book.

Wait, since US and Canadian doctors are using so many type of forms to collect information from their patients, what about we customize those forms and let patients fill the form BEFORE the appointment time?

GREAT! Another important feature that your self-service patient appointment scheduling program should give you is the ability to customize a form with questions that are relevant to each type of appointment you have. The patients who are booking their appointments via the service will get a form that asks them particular questions related to the appointments they are making. They will simply fill in the details that you need.

Using such a form during appointment scheduling has several benefits.

Since you will customize the questions depending on the type of appointment, you will be able to collect info on target questions. Say good bye to standard paper form. You collect your info efficiently, accurately and electronically.

When patients fill out the required form prior to appointment time,  you save time on appointment preparation and will be able to serve them better during appointment.

Looking for a online scheduler that allows you to add customized appointment forms for each type of appointment. Such a feature improves your business efficiency and patient service and will be a valuable add-on to have.

Tags: appointment scheduling, automated appointment scheduling, medical appointment scheduler, medical appointment scheduling online, Online Appointment Scheduler, online scheduler, self-service patient appointment scheduling

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Dr. Maulik July 24th, 2010

If you think that managing the health care center is quite a difficult task, you are absolutely right there! Managing the medical center requires multiple skills that include arranging the patients’ schedules without any time overlapping, calling them and informing them about their visits (also regimen, dietary suggestions etc) and top of all, answering the patients’ calls without getting frustrated.

As the luck would have it, there are many software tools that help in managing the medical center effectively. Nevertheless, choosing the best one is the key to success. Typical online patient appointment scheduling system would have several features that you require in a day-to-day health center management. The system not only helps in management and generating revenues but surprisingly some of the features save the clinic from financial loss. Let us learn how this tool is helpful in automating medical office…

Online Doctor Appointment Scheduler

ODAS works as medical virtual receptionist wherein it fixes the appointments as sought by the patients. Simply put, the patients can directly log into the system and book their appointments. A two-way Google Sync feature would directly send the data to web that is accessible using iPhone like hand-held devices. You, being the health care provider, can manage and reschedule the patients’ appointments according to you plan.

Patient Reminder

Reminding patients could be a challenging task, especially when the number of patients is significant. The human medical desk receptionist may forget to have a follow up and inform the patients about their due visits, body tests or any important information to be conveyed. ODAS can also work as patient reminder system that can do things for sure!

Medical Answering System

During some events, where great flow of patients is expected (such as free medical camp), answering the phone calls throughout the day becomes difficult task for human medical receptionist. Online patient appointment system can do this job in quite a better way. It can answer any number of calls (no matter one or more patients calling at a time) without getting tired!

You can take clinic management as duck takes to water since medical answering cum online patient appointment system comes with multiple features such as multiple languages (setting different languages to communicate foreign patients) and prepaid appointment (that saves revenue loss because of no-show cause patients) etc.

Tags: after-hours answering service, appointment scheduling software, doctor office receptionist, front desk receptionist, Medical Answering Service, medical front desk receptionist, medical office front desk receptionist, office automation, online scheduler, physician answering service, reminder program, virtual answering service, virtual receptionist

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B sadewo July 18th, 2010

As more and more medical practices turn to technology as ways to streamline their business operations, practical applications such as the online scheduler services have fast becoming a necessity to stay ahead of the competition. Online scheduler can be your trusted partner in improving the medical care you provide for your patients. However, if you choose one that does not live up to its promises, as well as your expectations, the online scheduler can become your downfall. This is especially true if you choose to take the cheap route of using free online scheduler for your medical practice.

It is in our nature to gravitate towards things that cost us nothing. Free things or services make us feel good because we are not spending anything on them. But do you really want your medical practice to rely on something that is not reliable and pose some liability risk? Think about it for a second. Why would a service provider offer their products and services for free? What’s the catch? This is something that you should definitely ask yourself when you have to make that decision between a free or regular online scheduler.

You may come across free online scheduler services on the Internet. Some may be – at a push – quite reliable and serve their purpose, but most likely they will fall short on your expectations. However, be aware that even the reliable one still poses some risk for your medical practice. As a way to generate their revenues, free service providers usually sell your data freely. We’re talking about confidential information of your patients; their names, phone numbers, addresses, email, and even medical history. This serious violation of patient privacy could land your medical practice in hot water when the case is brought to the court of law.  When the news spread out, you can just imagine the negative effect it will have on your medical practice and how your loyal patients would react to it.

Instead of looking for a free scheduler to cut business cost, why not look for something that pays itself? What about get an online scheduler that use email, telephone and mobile text message reminder to cut down your appointment no-show?

Such scheduler will pays you handsomely as its monthly fee is usually the cost of  ONE no-show; all it takes to pay itself is to cut  one missed appointment per month!

A great online scheduler service doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. However, given the many benefits that the service has – you will wonder why it doesn’t cost more. A good scheduler can provide the flexibility for your patients to make, change or cancel their appointments by themselves – at anytime of the day or night. A reliable online scheduler will have a reminder service feature that can send out reminders for your patients about their appointments through different means; from email, phone service to text messages and more. Ultimately, online scheduler can make your medical practice runs more effectively and efficiently.

Tags: answering service, automatic doctor appointment, free online scheduler, Medical Answering Service, online scheduler

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Dr. Maulik July 18th, 2010

Do you really get out of character when some patient complaints about not getting proper reply from the front office when they called to book their appointment? Do you really care patients and think that they, just beyond prescribing drugs, require personal care and attention? If your answer to all these troublesome questions is a BIG YES, I suggest you to go for Virtual Medical Receptionist that can make you, your patients and your staff happy. It will leave you  to enjoy your medical practice treating patients other than always banging your head against wall to manage the medical office with incapable human staff.

Medical Virtual Receptionist, as the name suggests, takes off all the worries you got for managing the medical office, clinic or health care center. The best part of this uniquely designed virtual medical front office tool is its capability to book patients’ appointments online! It is a web based online patient appointment system that allows patients to book their appointments online, without contacting human medical staff at front desk! Overcoming the issues of time-overlaps, patients’ appointments are scheduled perfectly. A prepaid option in same system reduces the chances of losing the revenue due to no-show cause patients as it asks for consultation fees in advance before patients see health care provider.

Online doctor appointment scheduling system can also synchronize the entire data with Google Calendar. It can then be accessed using any handheld devices such as Smartphone, iPhone and Blackberry. Simply put, no matter where you are, you can always access the data of patients’ schedules at clinic and can reschedule according to your plan for the day or week.

Other benefits that come with medical virtual receptionist is it can answer patients’ calls with sweet voice. No matter how many patients call at a time, all get lovely answers as fed by you as health care expertise. Events such as medical camp require such kind of facility where human medical staff is found incapable attending more than one call at a time, throughout the day.

Also, online doctor appointment scheduler can be used as patient reminder service wherein it can call patients automatically and remind them about their forthcoming or due visits to health care center. Furthermore, it can be used to remind patients about their body tests, dietary regimen and other important advice by concerned doctors.

All-in-all, online patient appointment scheduling system is best medical management tool that you can have to make medical office automated.

Tags: after-hours answering service, Live answering service, medical appointment scheduling, medical office assistant, medical office front desk receptionist, Medical Receptionist, online scheduler, receptionist dental receptionist, telephone reminder, Virtual Medical Office Receptionist, virtual receptionist

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Dr. Maulik July 8th, 2010

When your health care center is as busy as GrandStation, there are a few, if not many, chances that the medical front office executive staff fails in managing the patients’ flow. Simplest example for this mismanagement is time overlapping when the appointments are allotted to the patients. Also, the patients may complain about getting busy telephonic tone for quite a long duration. On the other hand, the staff is incapable handling many calls at a time and hence, cannot satisfy all customers calling at health care center.

The solution for these hurries and worries is Automated Medical Management System which is popular as Online Patient Appointment Scheduler. Using Online Patient Appointment Scheduling system, you can not only manage the appointments as asked by patients but can also use the system in many ways.

Let us learn how Online Patient Appointment Scheduling System helps in overall medical office management…

Online Doctor (Patient) Appointment Scheduling System allows the patients to directly log on to the system and book their appointments without calling the human medical front desk executive. Advanced feature called Google Sync transfers the entire data (schedules) to the Google Calendar, which is accessible using hand-held devices such as Blackberry, HTC phone, Smartphone and iPhone. Furthermore, a 2-way sync allows the user to manipulate (reschedule or cancel) the appointment without contacting health care center. This is a kind of having clinic management in hand wherever you go!!!

Specially designed appointment system can also work as medical answering system. It can answer patients’ calls the way doctor wants. Also, the doctor can feed the answers according to her/his expertise. No matter many patients calling at same time, no one of them would get busy tone!

Medical answering system can also work as patient reminder wherein the system automatically calls the patients and notify them about their due visits. The doctor can build a rapport as patient would feel being personally cared. They can be informed about their dietary chart and any regimen too.

A prepaid option in appointment schedule can reduce the chances of losing the money in case of no-show patients as it asks for the consultation fees before patient arrive to the center to see doctor.

All-in-all, a web-based appointment scheduling system is worth to turn medical office automated for taking it to a skyrocketing growth.

Tags: 24/7 medical answering service, Appointment Reminder, appointment scheduling software, automated appointment reminder, health care receptionist, medical front desk receptionist, office automation, online scheduler, patient appointment reminder, receptionist dental receptionist, virtual receptionist

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Richard Lango June 8th, 2010

If you have a clinic and are looking for a suitable online scheduler, one thing is certain: you will get numerous options. This, however, does not necessarily mean that you will have an easy time in making the right choice. You will find both free and paid online appointment schedulers. As attractive as the offer may appear, you should avoid the free schedulers.

There are many important factors why you need to keep away from the free schedulers. Let us take a look at just two reasons that will show you the free offers are not the best option.

They are not really free

When you sign up for a free scheduler, you will believe that it is really free in the beginning simply because you will not fork out anything from your pocket. However, this is misleading. Have you ever asked yourself how the owners maintain the services?

Perhaps you have read – or you will read – that they have other means of generating money, so they are simply being generous. This is a lot of hot air. First of all, advertising the free online schedulers takes time and money. Why would they do this?

The real reason is that it is from these apparently free web-based doctor appointment services that they generate their revenue. They will simply sell your data. This is a serious violation of patient privacy that you will need to answer for in a court of law. It will also be a violation of the HIPAA. Even if your run a small business where privacy is not as sensitive as for medical practice,  using a “free” scheduler will eventually cost your business relationship with the customers; they are likely to be scared away as soon as they realized that their phone, address, and email are being used without their consent.

Lack of suitable features

The free online appointment schedulers will also cost your business in other ways. You will get very limited features that do not leave you with many options. For example, a good self-service patient appointment scheduling program will give your patients the flexibility to make their appointments independently while you still have control over what goes on. The patients will do this in a variety of ways depending on their personal tastes.

Telephone service will be of help to many people, particularly the elderly. The online option will be a good option for the tech savvy individuals. SMS service gives you the opportunity to reach people wherever they may be, which is a good option for busy people who move frequently.

Another important factor is that a suitable online scheduler will include a reminder service. This alone is enough to pay for your subscription. Avoiding just one patient no-show per month suffices to cater for your subscription.

Tags: free scheduler, office automation, online scheduler, self-service patient appointment scheduling, web-based doctor appointment

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Dr. Maulik June 6th, 2010

Today one can see that all sectors are highly influenced by technology and this time it is the health care sector. Most of these centers are making use of advanced tools and technologies to make their services better and better. One of the most popular tools being used by health care sector is online appointment scheduler. Once you buy it you can easily realize how efficient it is and how it can improve the overall condition of your clinic. This scheduler automates almost all processes in your clinic and offers manifold benefits that one cannot just resist.

Firstly, the scheduler can answer to the calls from patients when your clinic is closed or when everyone is busy with something else. The scheduler has been designed in a smart way so that it can answer to the queries of patients in a very natural tone without making them feel that they are talking to some computerized program. It takes care of your appointments and if any patient makes changes to its appointment then the doctor can directly get the notifications on his blackberry or any other smart phone. The scheduler plans appointments very efficiently and this will help your clinic in earning more revenues.

Secondly, it makes reminder calls to patients reminding of their appointments and this result in decreased or in fact negligible no show-up rate. This will again prevent loss or revenue and you can enjoy with the fact that your clinic is not losing any money because of others. In addition to all this when you start using it your customers will also be happy with it. They can easily fix up their appointments without waiting for long. They do not need to leave messages on voice calls and can quickly fix the appointments. Some online schedulers have the facility of prepaid appointments where patients need to pay some money in advance to fix their appointment. It can be your choice to ask the entire amount or some partial amount of fees when giving them appointment.

In all we can say that an online appointment scheduler can efficiently take over the work of all your staff when they are not around or your clinic is off. By using it, your clinic works 24 x 7 and both you and your clients will be happy. To buy the scheduler you can again take help from internet and can check out different schedulers. The companies offer trial versions and after getting satisfied with the services you can actually buy it.

Tags: appointment scheduling software, backup receptionist, doctor answering service, medical clinic receptionist, medical front desk, medical front desk receptionist, medical office assistant, medical office assistant online, online scheduler, part time receptionist*, reminder program, telephone reminder, virtual receptionist

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Richard Lango May 30th, 2010

There is hardly anyone who would not like to get something for free. However, have you ever heard of the saying that ‘free is expensive’? Well, this is not just a cliché. If you are looking for a scheduler for your medical practice, you should resist the temptation to sign up for a free scheduler. You may discover that it not actually free when it is too late.

If you are searching for an online scheduler, you are likely to find many offers of free schedulers. If you can get such an important utility for free, why should you consider the paid ones?

The fact is that there is really nothing for free, which is not to say that you must pay for everything. However, even if you receive something for free, it means that someone somewhere has paid the cost. When it comes to the apparently free schedulers, who really pays the cost?

The people offering the free schedulers will tell you that they have other sources of generating revenue. What they do not tell you, however, is that the revenue actually comes from the so-called free scheduler.

Online schedulers contain a vast amount of data. Your scheduler will not just contain your personal information but also your patients’ data. The owners of the ‘free’ schedulers sell this data to make a lot of money. Unfortunately, this is a violation of privacy that will cost you dearly in the long run.

Instead of looking for a free scheduler, choose an online scheduler that will simply pay for itself. A good online scheduler will help you to recover your costs even before the end of your initial subscription. Such a medical appointment scheduler has several features that make it quite valuable. For example, it will include an automated reminder that will get in touch with your patients.

One of the major sources of revenue loss in medical practice is patient no-shows. An online scheduler that incorporates reminder software will help you to cut no-shows. When you consider the fact that the cost of such a medical appointment scheduler equals just one no-show, you will see how much you stand to gain. Cut just one no-show in a month and you have effectively paid for the service. Yet you know that you will cut more than one no-show.

Do not sacrifice your reputation by using a free scheduler. Get a scheduler that pays!

Tags: Appointment Reminder, appointment scheduling software, automated reminder, free scheduler, medical appointment scheduling, online scheduler, REMINDER SOFTWARE

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