Patient Scheduling Software

The patient scheduling market is surprisingly complex for such a straightforward application. Most vendors offer some degree of medical scheduling functionality, resulting in a fragmented market with hundreds of options for just about every medical specialty and size of organization. We have written this guide to help buyers understand the medical scheduling software market and know where to begin their research.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is Patient Scheduling Software?
Deployment Strategies
The Scheduling Software Vendor Landscape

What Type of Buyer Are You?
Market Trends You Should Understand
Benefits & Potential Issues

What is Patient Scheduling Software?

“If I had a nickel for every missed appointment, I’d be a millionaire,” say most doctors. Computerized patient scheduling systems are designed to help alleviate the burden of no-shows and last-minute calls to reschedule. Patient scheduling systems help practices manage the process of setting patient appointments and follow-ups. At the individual level, systems help schedulers enter patient contact information and demographics, appointment times, reasons for visits and chief complaints, and billing or insurance information. The primary goals are to help practices automate the scheduling process, maximize the number of patient visits, and minimize no-shows and cancellations. 

More advanced medical scheduling systems will integrate with electronic medical records (EMR) or billing systems, provide automated phone, email, or text message reminders to patients, and allow patients to request appointment times and enter some intake information online. 

Deployment Strategies

Medical scheduling buyers will have the option to buy a standalone system or a full suite of integrated scheduling, billing, or EMR modules. Which deployment option buyers select will depend on their requirements and budget. Standalone medical scheduling systems are typically much more affordable than complete suites. Some vendors can offer both options, but most companies who offer patient scheduling require the sale of additional modules. 

What Type of Scheduling Software Buyer Are You?

Before you can evaluate medical scheduling systems, you’ll want to know what buyer category you belong to. We believe 90%+ of buyers fall into one of these categories:

• Standalone buyers. These buyers are looking for a straightforward patient scheduling system without lots of bells and whistles, but something robust enough to support their primary needs. 
• Complete suite buyers. These buyers work for practices that are looking for scheduling functionality integrated with EMR and/or billing modules. We are hearing from lots of these buyers due to the HITECH Act requiring most physician practices to adopt EMRs. 
• Cost-conscious buyers. These buyers have the most basic needs and are typically looking for an affordable option. They may be open to a web-based system, but due to their budget they will likely implement an on-premise system. 
• Multi-location buyers. These buyers work for practices who need to access schedule data from multiple locations, including satellite offices, hospitals, or home. They often prefer web-based deployment due to ease of implementation and sharing of data.  

The Patient Scheduling Software Vendor Landscape

While the medical scheduling landscape is very saturated and may appear confusing, the available options can be segmented by their suitability to the different buyer and company types.

Market Trends You Should Understand

These market trends should be considered as you select a scheduling system. 

• Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS scheduling solutions have become very popular and comprise a large portion of scheduling system implementations. Web-based deployment makes it easy for smaller practices to implement a system without IT staff, and it also helps large practices share data across multiple locations.  
• Patient portal. More and more vendors are offering patient portals that allow patients to request appointment times online. These portals are typically integrated with systems that offer electronic medical records and/or billing. 
• Online scheduling services. Although a nascent concept and not available yet nationwide, start-up services such as ZocDoc.com could become large source of new patients for providers in the future. Buyers might want to consider ensuring that their selected vendor offers an open system that can integrate with ZocDoc.com and other similar services. 

Benefits & Potential Issues

A scheduling tool should benefit providers, front office staff, and back office staff. Buyers should expect to realize the following benefits when implementing scheduling systems:

• Organization and efficiency. With formal scheduling tools, office staff should be able to see quickly when providers are available. They should be able to gather patient information and finish the call quickly, allowing them to focus on other tasks or receive more calls. 
• Reduced no-shows. By receiving automated appointment reminders via phone, text message, and email, patients are much more likely to show for scheduled appointments and less likely to change the appointment time.  
• Improved patient experience. By streamlining the patient scheduling process, patients face fewer of the annoyances they can face when calling to schedule appointments - long hold times, back-and-forth determination of suitable appointments, and lengthy explanations of chief complaints and contact information.

The primary concern we hear from most scheduling buyers is data security. Buyers will want to ensure that the selected system is HIPAA compliant, and should be aware the most formal medical scheduling programs will meet HIPAA requirements. Many affordable options such as Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar are not HIPAA compliant. Surprisingly, we occasionally hear from practices using these systems. 

Have an opinion on this guide? Email the authors. We appreciate the feedback.

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