A 2017 study found that approximately 80% of patients prefer primary healthcare providers that offer online scheduling options over those that do not. Additionally, a study found that 60% of millennials generally prefer to book appointments online, including but not limited to healthcare appointments. Another statistic points out that 40% of millennials specifically look for the ability to schedule, cancel, and alter appointments online when choosing service and healthcare providers, indicating that this is a growing trend among younger generations. Gen Z youth (individuals born between the late 1990s and 2012) are increasingly incorporating digital elements into their healthcare and are more inclined to go to offices that make scheduling appointments online easy. Offering online booking is a simple way to increase patient retention in younger patient demographics and encourages new patients from that age range to come to your office.
While online booking is a big draw for the new generation of dental patients, the time-saving benefits are appreciated by all ages and demographics. From its accessibility to its ease of use, nearly everyone can benefit from utilizing online scheduling.
In addition to the time-saving appeal for the majority of patients, online scheduling allows your administrative team to spend more time focusing on other tasks, such as following up with patients who prefer personalized contact, collecting accounts receivable, and other important activities. Using ABELDent, your practice can help patients book appointments faster and easier than ever before. ABELDent’s New Patient Self Booking feature allows new patients to schedule appointments with your office entirely online, catering to a growing majority of patients who prefer minimal contact when scheduling appointments and want to quickly schedule their appointments rather than spending time speaking on the phone.
How ABELDent’s New Patient Self Booking Works
Working with your website designer/creator, you can add a self-booking button to your practice website that you can choose the attributes for, including where on your website you want the button located, the text of the button, and the visual attributes of the button such as colour and shape. The self-booking button links to an appointment request form that screens patients with security verification via their phone number (similar to a two-factor authentication.) After this, the form will prompt patients to enter some basic demographic information so the ABELDent software can check whether or not the patient already has a patient record set up with your practice.
If the patient does not have a patient record with your practice, the appointment request form will prompt the patient to select their appointment type (e.g. New Patient Consultation, etc.) The patient can also select the provider and provide additional details if they want to. After selecting their appointment type and provider, a list of openings appears for the patient to select from. Your office can pre-select the times available to new patients, which are displayed for new patients’ appointment requests. This prevents new patients from selecting times outside of working hours or that are otherwise unavailable.
Once the patient submits their selection, ABELDent reserves the requested time and creates a notification for your practice to either accept or reject the appointment request. If your office accepts the appointment, the reserved timeslot becomes an appointment, and the patient receives an email confirming that their appointment has been booked with your office. If your office rejects the appointment request for any reason, the reserved timeslot is removed from your schedule, and the patient will receive an email indicating that their appointment cannot be confirmed, prompting them to try again.
ABELDent’s New Patient Self Booking simplifies the booking process for patients who value quick and easy access to appointments and additionally serves as an accessible option for patients to take the first step in the appointment booking process. In today’s fast-paced world where convenience and efficiency are the norm, ABELDent’s New Patient Self-Booking feature is a must-have for your forward-thinking dental practice. If you are interested in trying out ABELDent’s New Patient Self Booking feature, contact our team at your convenience. We are happy to help you get the most out of your practice management software to boost your practice’s productivity.
Resources:
Bremer M, Kadish B. Assessing online scheduling as an emerging trend in scheduling physician appointments. Healthgrades. March 2017. https://d26ua9paks4zq.cloudfront.net/99/b1/6bb2799446d3992a966d07122b64/hospitals-pdf-assessing-online-scheduling-as-an-emerging-trend-in-scheduling-physician-appointments.PDF
