How Online Booking Is Helping a Cardiology Practice

How great healthcare can begin with great customer service

You don’t have to be a cardiology practice to understand that the heart of great healthcare isn’t keeping your patients waiting on the phone or in your office. It’s about providing the convenience of letting them book appointments at the times that work for them — and then following up to make sure they keep those appointments.

But if you are a cardiology practice — or any other kind of medical specialist — making sure you remain focused on prompt and professional care of your patients can go a long way toward providing them with the peace of mind that leads to greater satisfaction and promotes overall wellness.

A trio of solutions to strengthen engagement

For Brookhaven Heart PLLC, a cardiology practice on New York’s Long Island, implementation of healow Open Access® means their patients can now request appointments at times that work best for them. The practice has streamlined workflows, reduced administrative burdens on front-office staff, and reduced no-shows.

“I think healow is a great product, and for our practice, there have been a lot of benefits,” said Dr. Satheesh Joseph. “Waiting times are reduced. Many of these appointments are made online now. Volume varies between the two practice locations, but the call waiting times have been significantly reduced, and we have seen improvement in the patients’ experience.”

Dr. Joseph said his practice chose to use healow Open Access in the request mode. While practices can open providers’ schedules such that patients can simply claim any open slot, Brookhaven preferred to review requests and then confirm the appointments. That process takes only a few seconds.

Brookhaven also offers patients the use of Kiosk for quick and efficient in-office check-in. The practice also uses Messenger campaigns for appointment reminders and other outreach efforts. While patients who request or book their own appointments are already more likely to keep those appointments, Messenger adds yet another layer of assurance.

Sharpening the competitive edge

Patient Engagement tools such as Open Access, Kiosk, and Messenger are first and foremost about delivering a better overall experience for patients. But practices that use these tools know there’s another reason they make sense — the bottom line.

Perhaps the most obvious dollars-and-sense result is that Brookhaven can now manage its call center with less staff.

“The feedback we have heard is around the convenience of making appointments online at any time of the day and being able to pick a slot. Patients don’t have the stress of waiting on hold and so forth,” Dr. Joseph said. “But there are a lot of advantages in terms of staying competitive against other practices as well as growing patient throughput and efficiencies.”

A bit of training goes a long way

Dr. Joseph also offers some simple advice for other practices — whether in primary or specialty medicine — that may be thinking of implementing these tools. In short, don’t wait.

“There’s a lot of customization with healow, so you have to spend a little bit of time to understand what is best for your practice,” he said. “Then it’s a matter of implementing and training your staff. My advice to the practices looking into it is that there is no need to be afraid about it, because there’s a lot of support.”

Hear more from Dr. Joseph by watching the video below: