In today’s healthcare environment, efficient patient communication and scheduling are of vital importance. In a nutshell, having a strategic, streamlined scheduling system in place is key to reducing no-show rates, improving patient satisfaction, and keeping providers’ schedules full.
But when uncontrollable events occur, like hurricane flooding or a flu outbreak, patient communication and scheduling tend to break down. Patients are hard to reach, and scheduling staff is overburdened with handling high volumes of both incoming and outcoming calls.
Regardless of circumstances, though, the show must go on. Patients still need to be seen, and the bottom line still has to be met. And keeping providers’ schedules as full as possible is key.
In order to prevent potential scheduling crises, medical practices should partner with a trusted software provider and implement a comprehensive scheduling system that seamlessly integrates with their practice management system.
Let’s take a look at how a solid partnership, coupled with strategic software integration, can ensure optimal scheduling outcomes for your practice.
Medical practices can prevent a #patient #scheduling crisis by implementing a comprehensive, integrated scheduling system.
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Patient Scheduling Designed With You In Mind
The Vital Interaction™ system is specially designed to link with various practice management (PM) systems. Some of the most common ones include:
- GE’s Centricity
- Greenway Intergy
- AllScripts
- CareCloud
- AdvancedMD
- e-MDs
- gMed
- iMedicWare
- NextGen
- MedEvolve
By integrating your Vital Interaction™ system with your practice management system, you can easily build custom, detailed patient reminder messages that can be delivered via email, text message, and voice calls.
This is particularly helpful for larger practices with multiple providers as well as during times when providers’ schedules need to be changed. There are a number of reasons why providers’ schedules need to be changed, including emergencies, inclement weather, conferences, vacations, and complex procedures, among others.
Natural Disasters, No-shows, & Patient Scheduling: A Success Story
When integrated with GE’s Centricity Practice Management, the Vital Interaction™ system makes for a winning scheduling combo for your practice. Take it from one of our customers, Gastroenterology Consultants, P.A., who’s benefited from this strategic combo in more ways than one.
Through a direct integration with Centricity Practice Management, Vital Interaction™ has helped Gastroenterology Consultants significantly reduce their no-show rate.
How did we achieve this?
By employing one our top no-show reduction strategies: rescheduling patients before they failed to show up for their appointments. This also enabled the group’s staff the time and capacity to fill any remaining empty slots in providers’ schedules.
The group’s success story doesn’t end there.
Gastroenterology Consultants was one of many businesses destroyed or severely damaged following Hurricane Harvey. The group’s brand-new, state-of-the-art surgical center was flooded under several feet of water, resulting in total loss.
Without their primary surgical suites, the practice faced a major logistical challenge of shifting thousands of appointments to their other facilities while they rebuilt.
However, Gastroenterology Consultants’ integrated scheduling and practice management systems made this otherwise impossible task one that could easily be accomplished.
“We were able to leverage our integrated systems to communicate with thousands of patients at five different clinic locations and two surgical centers,” said Nicole Alfaro, business manager for Gastroenterology Consultants. “Vital Interaction™’s customized Group Message tool and after-hours support helped our team successfully send out more than 7,000 patient messages, informing them of our closure and prompting them to call our office and reschedule.”
In less than a month, Gastroenterology Consultants was able to reopen its surgical center and resume scheduling operations at their flagship site.
The possibilities are incredible when you work with a team you can trust and you have the right system in place.
Life happens—and when it does, the Vital Interaction™ team is here to help you navigate any scheduling snags that arise.
Not a Vital Interaction™ customer yet? Discover what Vital Interaction™ can do for your practice by visiting www.VitalInteraction.com or calling (512) 487-7625.