Think big and improve appointment management

Photo by: Steve Johnson

Managing appointments is one of the most crucial aspects in the world of healthcare. Health clicnics around the world are always looking for ways to improve their appointment management and increase the number of patients. However, in order to achieve this, health clinics have to start thinking outside the box. In this article, we are going to take a look at the importance of keeping constant track of your patients after they have scheduled an appointment and how new, innovative digital tools can help your clinic improve appointment management.

Why it is essential to manage appointments more efficiently

Each health clinic wants to expand, improve their service, and have more patients. Managing appointments is a crucial factor in the process of evolving and improving your health clinic. With better appointment management, clinics can gain more patients, use their resources in a more efficient and effective manner, and significantly lower waiting times. In addition to this, health clinics can also lower the number of no-shows by better managing their appointments. How to achieve this? Let's take a closer look.

Improving appointment management - Where to start?

Keeping track of your clinic's appointments is essential but it is easier said then done. If we keep to the standard, usual ways of observing appointments, schedulling process and so on, we would not really get far. There are better ways of managing appointments but they require clinics to think outside the box and think big. The most important factor, and the very first place clinics should start when managing appointments is communication with patients. Patients themselves are the key to understanding how to better manage appointments.

So, the process starts when a patient makes their very first appointment. However, it does not end here. After each patient makes their appointment, a health clinic should maintain communication in order to keep track of the patient, and react on time if there are any indications of reschedulling or cancellation of appointments.

Focusing on the patient after the first appointment has been made

Communication is crucial in the world of healthcare. However, it is also crucial when managing appointments. If a health clinic and a patient communicate efficiently and in a timely manner, appointments can be made much easier. Eniax has worked hard to achieve instant and accurate flow of information between health clinics and patients using new, digital tools as well as AI powered by a natural processing engine. Eniax team has managed to find innovative ways of keeping track of your patients and by doing so, improve your appointment management as well.

One effective way of making sure your patients are going to show for the appointment is to use confirmation service. A confirmation service designed to allow patient to confirm their appointments right before they take place, can greatly increase appointment management.

This confirmation service can help clinics with reschudulling. If a patient does not confirm appointment, a prompt message can offer alternative appointments and different dates. This way, health clinics can quickly react, change schedule and the patients can do the same as well. The most important aspect of this process is the fact that patients can do this from the comfort of their own homes, at any time, and without having to go through the tiring and often annoying process of communicating through call centers.

Think big and lower your waiting list

A big factor that impacts appointment management is the waiting list. The larger it is, the harder it is going to be for your clinic to effectively manage appointments. The problem that started during the global pandemic was a large influx of patients. Health clincs around the world have struggled to maintain and keep track of all of their appointments and patients.

This has resulted in the need for new, innovative solutions. By using new, digital tools and services, health clinics, around the globe, can effectively manage their appointments in a more organized way. Tools and services such as AI, confirmation of appointments, reschedulling options, preventive campaigns, and so on, can increase the conversion of medical appointments, exams, and so on, significantly lower no-shows and improve appointment management.

Effective communication with patients is crucial

As we have mentioned several times already, the best way to achieve better appointment management is to use innovative digital tools and services but also communicate with your patients effectively. If a patient recieves the information he or she needs in a quick and timely manner, the whole process of their healthcare journey, including appointment scheduling is going to be faster and much easier. Furthermore, clinics benefit from a reliable and constant communication with patients by having a better overview of the patient's needs, their healthcare journey as well as an easier time managing every appointment.

Patients can now efficiently communicate with their healthcare service providers using new tools, mainly a conversational AI powered by a natural processing engine that is fully built to focus on healthcare interactions with patients and can constantly learn and improve.

In summary

Appointment management for health clinics works best if they are willing to adopt new ways of keeping track of the appointments and patients. Right from the very first appointment scheduled by a patient, a health clinic should focus on timely and effective communication with that patient by utilizing powerful new tools and services such as AI for communication with patients and confirmation of appointments for example. Overall, achieving better appointment management is possible and useful, and each health clinic should try to think big, keep in mind the patient's needs and will be able to increase their patient number by having an organized schedule that is flexible and can be maintained efficiently.