We all know that the world of patient engagement and business growth has become an increasingly online place over the last two years, but a well designed Appointment portal will also make your day to day patient management easier and streamline business functions across your team.
An Online Appointment Portal is no longer just a nice extra for a practice to offer, but is a core tool for any modern practice. If you are not meeting your patients and potential patients online, where they expect to be able to access key services and products, then you are missing out on significant opportunities for your business.
Online appointment bookings have become essential for several key reasons and here are the top five that we encounter here at Aerona.
- Patient Engagement. The ability to develop a presence right in your patient’s pocket, through their mobile phone, gives you a huge advantage in engaging them with clinical information, sales & marketing and essential business communications. An online Portal is a dedicated linkage between you and your patients that you can use to really develop a trusted relationship and become a positive influencer for your target markets.
- Easy to use for Clinic & Patient. Accessed via an app or web app, an Appointment Portal puts your patient in contact with you with one click of an icon. No more waiting for the phone to be answered or having to call in office hours. A well set up Portal will allow patients to perform a range of tasks with their Clinic anytime and anywhere they want to - not just making appointments. Just the sort of convenience that attracts them to join your Clinic and then encourages them to stay with you!
- Saves Time & Money. Online appointment bookings can lead to significant cost savings across your business. Busier practices that have marketed their online offer effectively regularly see a reduction in receptionist hours, and some of the more aggressively modern clinics have removed receptionist-led bookings entirely. For those left on reception, significant time savings are clear through the removed requirement to physically schedule appointments for patients.
- One Stop Shop. A good Appointment Portal provides a one-stop-shop for all of the everyday patient functions. Online appointment booking, confirmations, payments, consent forms and treatment plans can all be completed via the Portal and this can be supplemented with Patient Education and video consultation tools also bundled in.
- Ahead of the Pack. Using a Portal is a powerful demonstration to your patients that you are modern, up to date and comfortable using technology to improve the patient experience and outcomes. This messaging is critical to engage and retain the technically literate modern patient. If you are up to date with your practice management tools then it creates a powerful sense that you are also likely to be up to date with clinical tools & techniques right across your practice.
These key advantages are all on top of the general time and money savings that an Online Appointment Portal brings to your Clinic. Time saved on the phone & processing payments, as well as the resources saved in printing, posting and filing documents all add up to a genuine impact on your bottom line.
It is clear to see why so many Clinics have already adopted online Portals at the heart of their patient management strategies. There are really no downsides to adoption, if you have the right tool at your disposal. For more information on the AeronaClinic Patient Portal, please contact our expert team.