Healthcare Technology Featured Article

May 15, 2013

Urology Team Saves Time When Teaming with Vital Interaction


You made a doctor's appointment for a checkup a year ago. Suddenly, you receive a phone call to confirm the appointment, which you've completely forgotten that you made. Alternatively, your doctor may have to cancel or reschedule an appointment at the last minute because of a conflict.

Imagine the time burden placed on the medical office staff members who make all of these calls. If a doctor calls out sick or has to be elsewhere because of an emergency, then an entire day's worth of appointments have to be rescheduled. When those appointments are starting in an hour, getting in touch with the early patients by phone can be impossible.

Urology Team has created a solution for medical offices that enables them to send out appointment confirmations, cancellations and requests for rescheduling via voice, text message or e-mail. According to a company statement, three urology clinics in Texas have already implemented the solution.

Instead of calling every patient who has to reschedule an appointment, for example, the office can simply send out an automated blanket text message to each patient simultaneously. They can also send out bulk e-mails or automated, simultaneous recorded voice messages.

At their convenience, patients can then call to reschedule. Office staff members save time and, more importantly, they can juggle these emergencies with minimal disruption to their daily schedules.

In most cases, patients prefer to receive a text message regarding their appointment, and clinics can expect that most patients will get the message. Juniper has found that 97 percent of all sent text messages are read, while 90 percent are read within four to six minutes.

"Because many of our regular patient check-ups are scheduled up to a year in advance, it is not uncommon that a doctor has a conflict and must reschedule," explained Ada Jacobs, who is a practice manager for the Texas urology clinics.

Jacobs added, "The system has been very effective tool in handling these types of situations in addition to handling our everyday appointment confirmations."




Edited by Jamie Epstein
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