5 simple tips to reduce patient waiting time in clinics.
Waiting a long time to see the doctor is a generally frustrating experience for the patient, it can reduce patient satisfaction overall no matter how good your healthcare services are.
While research has shown that 63% of physicians and doctors think patient waiting times have “no or minimal impact” on their ability to retain patients, the same research reveals that 24% of patients say they have changed doctors or clinics because of some experiences of long waiting times.
A survey of over 5,000 patients has found a staggering 97% of them were frustrated by wait times at the doctor’s office, and 80% of them would be less frustrated if they knew how long the wait would be.
Different surveys all highlight the importance of reducing patient waiting time and keeping patients updated on their appointment status - the average appointment waiting time and how well the clinic manages the appointment system has become increasingly critical determinant factors for patients in choosing a clinic in a fast-paced world today.
This article will bring you through the five simple tips to reduce patient waiting time and ramp up your clinic’s productivity:
Allow patients to book appointments remotely
Display the queue status in your clinic
Reduce no-shows, cancellations, and late patients
Keep your patients informed and updated on queue status
Get a clinic queue management system
Allow patients to book appointments remotely
A simple patient booking portal or a queue app can save much time all day long and significantly reduce your patient’s waiting time.
Collect patient information in advance by using a patient portal that incorporates a Medical EMR (Electronic Medical Records) system and allows patients to fill up their personal details, submit updates, make or change appointments easily, and automatically add themselves to the queue. Patients won’t have to manually fill-up the form at the counter and that reduces the waiting time for them to see the doctor. It will only create a virtuous cycle of minimum delays at check-in and fast services across the chain.
2. Streamline your practice by having a queue screen set up
The old days of Doctors or clinic assistants shouting the patient’s name from the consultation room should no longer be practiced. Do you know what is worse? Pronouncing the patient’s name wrong and leaving him or her in embrassment.
Display the queue numbers on a queue screen or a TV screen within your clinic. With an audio reminder set up if possible, just to make sure your patients do not miss the appointment or delay the queue when they are on their phones. Speeding up maybe a few seconds for each appointment can greatly streamline your practice and increase your clinic’s productivity.
Meanwhile, with the help of a queue screen, your patients know how many other patients are before them, so that they can maximise the productivity of their waiting times to run errands such as getting lunch or dinner instead of simply waiting in the clinic, especially in times of COVID-19.
This gives your patients greater control over their time, and of course, your clinic staff will also have peace of mind when your patients are fully aware of their positions in queues from the queue screen.
Do not forget to connect your queue screen with your queue management system for an automatic update of each appointment status.
Many patients consider long waiting time as poor patient care and experience. When they wait for a long time or experience bad communications, they will not hesitate to leave a bad review for your clinic online.
Such reviews are extremely bad for your clinic’s reputation and should be avoided at all costs.
If you wish to improve your clinic’s quality of care, check out our blog on 5 ways to improve patient care quality.
3. Reduce no-shows, cancellations, and late patients
64% of physicians say patients arriving later than their scheduled appointment time are usually the biggest reason they run behind schedule.
Create and enforce a policy for no-shows, last-minute cancellations, and late patients. For example, set a known time limit for late arrivals. If a patient is late for more than 20 minutes, give them a call for rescheduling. You may even charge repeat late comers a cancellation or late fee to motivate them to show up on time.
Do remember you need to make sure to give all patients advance notice of your policies in as many ways as possible, and emphasise that the policy is needed because you care and value their time as much as they do.
You should also upgrade your clinic management system so that it automatically sends appointment reminders to patients to reduce no-shows of some forgetful patients.
4. Keep your patients updated on their queue status
Research has shown that 83% of patients would feel less frustrated if they were told in advance how long the waiting time would be.
Implement a mobile queue solution through a queue app to let your patients know the projected waiting times and let them see their positions in line. Allow your patients to virtually join the queue to allow them to maximise the productivity of their waiting times to run errands and give them greater control over their time. This gives full transparency and eases your patients’ minds while keeping the waiting times down.
To achieve so, you need a robust queue management system that updates real-time queue status and automatically adds scheduled patients into the live queue.
5. Get a clinic queue management system
Undeniably, letting your staff tell a patient to sit in a row outside your examination room without informing the patient how long the waiting time would be is no longer acceptable today.
Get a clinic queue management system to allow your patients to join the queue from anywhere and send them status updates to make sure they arrive right in time for the appointment, which also allows for safe and contactless queueing practices.
Integrate the clinic queue management system to your clinic management system for more streamlined practices - automatically scheduling follow-up appointments and allowing for seamless registration processes.
You will not only improve your clinic staff’s well-being by reducing their stress but also improve your patients’ satisfaction and retain more patients in the long run.
Reduce your clinic’s patient waiting time with UNO QMS
Patients are nearly unanimous in their frustration of waiting at clinics, but there are effective and proven steps you can take to reduce patient waiting time.
Let UNO Clinic Queue Management System help you streamline your practices and alleviate your patients’ frustration with the automated patient registration and queue.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help to reduce patient waiting time in clinics.