15 Patient Scheduling Best Practices for Medspa Efficiency

Gaining more clients is about more than just having great services. You also have to ensure you have excellent scheduling practices in place to get patients scheduled and make your business more effective.

Importance of effective patient scheduling

Effective patient scheduling helps your medical facility in several ways, from improving patient retention to ensuring patients get the help they need when they need it.

Overview of common challenges in patient scheduling

Improving patient scheduling is challenging. Balancing providers’ schedules while serving patients and avoiding gaps from cancellations and no-shows can get complicated. However, effective patient scheduling is a must to streamline operations and boost revenue.

5 Benefits of Effective Patient Scheduling

Effective patient scheduling helps with more than just getting more patients in to see your healthcare team. It can also lead to:

Improved Patient Experience

An improved patient experience encourages patients to keep coming back to your medical facility. Patients like to have several options to schedule—in person, through an online scheduler, or even through a reminder link. With more options and tools, such as appointment reminders, patients will have a better experience with your business.

Minimized Patient Wait Times

Automated gap-filling helps significantly reduce patient wait times. A physician can see that they have a gap in their schedule and search for patients who need appointments within the practice’s database. Then, they can send them an invitation to schedule during the gap, reducing wasted time on the job for the physician and improving overall patient satisfaction.

Prioritized Care for Urgent Needs

When patients need help, they need help now. Providing prioritized care for urgent needs, such as dermatological conditions like sudden rashes or neurological concerns like severe headaches, is necessary.

Reduced Cancellations & No Shows

With automatic patient reminders, patients see when they have upcoming appointments with enough time to cancel or reschedule when needed. Some patients book many months in advance, so having that reminder a week or a few days beforehand can ensure they have the time to come in and haven’t forgotten about the visit.

More Efficient Resource Management

Online patient scheduling helps improve physicians’ workflows, so they can get more done. Efficiently scheduling patient appointments helps leave time for important training and meetings when all physicians have time to be present.

15 Best Practices When It Comes Patient Scheduling

Expert healthcare providers use these best practices to help with day-to-day scheduling, whether you offer radiology, gastroenterology, or dermatology services. With the right approach, it’s easy to streamline your operations and keep your businesses working effectively.

Implement Patient Self-Scheduling

The first thing you can do is to set up patient self-scheduling. With self-scheduling, patients can schedule on their computers or mobile devices, eliminating the need for calls into the office.

Prioritize Same-Day Access for Urgent Appointments

When someone gets sick or injured and needs to see a medical provider, they need to see them ASAP. Prioritizing same-day access lets patients see that you’re serious about their care and encourages patient retention over time.

Use an Electronic Health Record (EHR) System

For better patient engagement, invest in a good Electronic Health Record (EHR) system that will give you access to your patients’ information at any time. You will also like an EHR because it makes patient scheduling easier by showing the real-time availability of your office’s providers.

Schedule From Midday

When scheduling, start from noon and work backward, then work forward. Why? You’ll keep the morning schedule tight, so you have the flexibility to deal with appointments that run longer. And, if there’s extra time without patients at the end of the day, you can have a staff meeting or use those time slots in other ways.

Prioritize Appointments

When scheduling patients, think about what the patients need. Some may need only a short phone call, but others might need a half-hour appointment for more detailed discussions with their providers. Schedule accordingly to ensure patients have the time they need, and they will receive better care as a result.

Create an Automated Patient Waitlist

When patients are waiting to get into your busy office, having an automated waitlist is helpful. When a new appointment opens up, that slot can be sent out via text message or other means, helping it get filled.

Set Up Follow-Up Appointments

Keep patients coming back by setting follow-up appointments right away. Scheduling them right away reduces the chances of patients forgetting about rescheduling and improves the chances of them getting into your office on time.

Allow Real-Time In-Person Scheduling

Some people prefer to schedule follow-ups while they’re at the office. Allow patients to schedule their next appointment before they leave the office to continue supporting your patients’ health.

Have a Process to Replace Cancellations and Fill Gaps

When there are cancellations or gaps in the day, fill them with a waitlist or other scheduling option. You can automatically send out a text to patients waiting to get in, or you can call those on a waiting list and fill the gap.

Confirm Appointments By Text or Via Email

Sometimes, people forget about their appointments. By texting or emailing patients with a reminder a few days before their appointment, they’ll be more likely to show up (or cancel, if they need to).

Set Up Automated Patient Recall Features

Automated patient recall features keep patients on schedule by asking them to schedule their follow-ups and regular appointments. Having this system in place can also bring back patients from the past who have not been at the office recently.

Automate Responses to Routine Questions

When patients have questions, they need answers. Through your website or your phone system, it’s possible to set up automated responses to commonly asked questions. For example, Podium’s AI CSR can respond to commonly asked questions with answers patients need within minutes.

Podium’s AI CSR is the solution to help you do all these things and more. From automating your front desk to scheduling appointments day or night, it’s a best-in-class AI Employee designed with the healthcare industry in mind.

9 Patient Scheduling Software Tools

Patient scheduling software tools can help you make the most of your services and keep your hospital, emergency room, or office efficient. Here are several tools you may want to consider.

Podium

Podium’s AI CSR is designed to help you get 30% more sales. The AI Employee drives lead conversations toward scheduling. Then, she routes patients to your scheduling office to handle scheduling requests efficiently. The AI Employee also answers complex questions about your services, automating your front desk to get more patients in the door. With Podium’s AI Employee, you have an around-the-clock service that fills next-day appointments and answers any questions your patients have, all while sounding like a human.

Sling

Sling is shift-scheduling software that helps keep your medical providers’ schedules organized. It has shift-swapping capabilities, allows the creation of employee schedule templates, and can be accessed, managed, and updated from any mobile device, which is perfect for emergency rooms and fast-paced environments.

Connecteam

Connecteam is a mobile employee application that connects your team and handles tasks such as automated scheduling, billing and invoicing, and appointment management.

Sign In Scheduling

Sign In Scheduling, formerly 10to8, is appointment scheduling software that integrates with Google Calendar, WordPress, PayPal, and other services. It allows for booking, signing in on arrival, and flexible rescheduling, among other features. The standard plan starts at $460 annually.

HotSchedules by Fourth

HotSchedules states it can cut down on administrative work by up to 75% with its automated scheduling and forecasting tools. The software works as a scheduling platform as well as a communication channel that lets you predict future scheduling needs, get real-time alerts, maintain overtime compliance, and more. HotSchedules has a custom pricing process.

SimplePractice

SimplePractice is EHR software that works as an all-in-one solution. It handles multiple parts of running a private practice, from filing insurance claims to scheduling patients. Pricing starts at $29 per month.

Solutionreach

Solutionreach calls itself a Revenue Cycle Messaging™ solution. As a patient communication and retention platform, it has features including text appointment reminders, post-appointment education, online scheduling, and HIPAA-compliant communication. Solutionreach has three plans but no online pricing—you have to call for more details.

Schedule.cc

Schedule.cc is appointment scheduling software that answers customer questions with artificial intelligence, syncs with Google Calendar, and assists with scheduling appointments and other needs. It has a 14-day free trial and starts at $14.99 a month.

Appointy

Appointy is an all-in-one option for appointment scheduling. It allows patients to schedule online on their own, and open appointments can be promoted via social media integrations. Appointy has a free plan, or you can upgrade for as low as $19.99 a month.

Improve Patient Scheduling With Podium AI CSR

With Podium’s AI CSR, you can automate your front desk and schedule appointments 24/7. Answer patients’ questions, convert leads to patients, and get more done with our best-in-class AI Employee. Watch a demo.