If you are a healthcare provider, long waiting times are one thing that none of your patients would prefer. But how can you decrease patient waiting times? Well, you can keep consulting into a standard time frame, but then it would compromise the care quality! Can virtual doctor software help? 

The American Institute of Medicine suggests seeing patients within 30 minutes at hospitals. Waiting too long can make patients frustrated, and less satisfied, and might even lead to missed follow-ups or changing providers.

Irrespective of the healthcare services you offer, if you want to improve the overall patient experience, you need to decrease patient waiting time. The longer the waiting time will be, the more it will negatively impact patient satisfaction. There are several ways to reduce queue waiting times.

Gather Patient Information in Advance to Patients Waiting:

Collecting patient info during their visit to the hospitals or clinics may seem convenient. However, it’s time-consuming and can delay allied services since some patients telehealth software takes more time to fill out forms than others. Therefore, it is best to collect all the necessary information like patient history, insurance information, etc. And prep paperwork the day before the patient visits the place. It saves office staff time and reduces patients waiting times at the office for their appointment. 

Integrate a Patient Portal for Faster Services Delivery

Patient portals are one of the best mediums to reduce queue waiting times for patients at any healthcare facility. Portals allow patients to complete their own paperwork, access updates, and provide important information—likewise insurance, past medical history, etc., from the comfort of their homes. The only thing needed is good internet connectivity so that patients can access these online portals anytime, anywhere. And get ready to meet the doctors without wasting their and office staff’s time at the healthcare facility. 

Use a mobile queue solution

With an aim to keep your patients happy and cut down on wait times, you can use mobile queue tools. There are various queuing apps available in the market. You can choose the best-suited one and leverage your patients with the ease of checking their position in the queue. And their estimated wait time. Patients can use this waiting time to perform other important tasks prone to be completed in this time duration. This empties the waiting room and creates an amazing concept of a virtual waiting room. Wherein patients leverage the liberty of using their time more effectively. 

Streamline Clinical Workflow to Reduce Patients Waiting

You can streamline your clinical workflow using high and low-tech solutions. It will reduce patients waiting time and leverage several other benefits to your healthcare business. To streamline your clinical workflow, you can start with improving your medical team’s communication and step ahead with integrating third-party EHR apps and simply delegating your documentation work to other trained staff. 

Slash Phone Time with Secure Messaging

Making a phone call is considered a great appointment reminder, but many patients prefer texts. Phone calls are highly prone to get ignored at a busy moment. At the same time, texts remain in the inbox to be accessed anytime further. Also, text reminders are less time-consuming than the time spent talking over the phone. Ultimately, text reminders cut down on patients’ wait times and allow doctors to answer the patient questions outside of clinical visits, which reduces exam room chatter to a great extent. 

Communicate with Patients About Delays

One of the best approaches to reducing waiting room times is letting your patients know if you are significantly late. It will refrain them from reaching your office early and wasting time waiting there for needed consultation. Also, this simple step of yours will increase your respect among them as you care about others’ time. Therefore, always try to inform your patients about your delays if possible since It results in reducing patients waiting time in hospitals or clinics. 

Enforce a Policy for Late Arrivals

Several times it has been observed that patients don’t show up or arrive late for their appointment. This not only hampers the practice’s workflow but also damages its finances. Even other patients get angry owing to an increase in their waiting time. Therefore, it is vital to set up and enforce a policy for patients that no-show up or arrive late to the hospitals or clinics. Also, there should be a provision of late fees for repetitive cancellations or no-shows so that such patients get a clear message and bear the consequences of wasting other patients’ time. 

Using a Survey to Find Slow Spots will help to reduce Patients Waiting

Sometimes it becomes hard to find out glitches on its own, which causes wait times. Therefore, it’s best to ask about them from those who experience the most while staying in the process, the patients. Facilities like hospitals or clinics can do so by conducting a short survey in order to find out the reasons behind patient wait times by evaluating the average waiting time in the reception area, exam room, or in the doctor’s cabin on different days of the week. 

Start Using Telemedicine Solutions to Manage Patient’s Waiting

Telemedicine solution is one of the most powerful tools healthcare facilities like hospitals or clinics can use to reduce or eliminate the concern of patients waiting time for their turn. Virtual treatment through telemedicine applications saves doctors time and cuts down patients’ time for the average office visit by 50%. The market is flooded with telemedicine software, but you need to choose the best telemedicine software like VCDoctor that is AI-based, HIPAA compliant, and truly customizable to your specific clinical needs.

Creating special patient protocols will Help Patients Waiting

There should be special patient protocols for major illnesses like chest pain, abdominal pain, or head injuries. These ailments demand prompt actions, from different nursing procedures to different physician’s orders, lab tests, and others. Therefore, healthcare providers need to take care of patients who fall into these certain descriptions. It results in saving lots of valuable time and decreases patient waiting. 

Provide a comfortable reception area

If any of these tricks mentioned above are not returning the expected outcomes in terms of keeping down the patients’ wait times. You can at least give it a try to turn out your waiting room into a pleasant space for your patients. You can stock it with comfy seating, magazines, free WIFI, TV, complimentary tea, and coffee for taking care of patient’s comfort and entertainment that will optimize patient satisfaction in the long run even when the wait time isn’t ideal. 

Conclusion

As a doctor, reducing patient waiting time is crucial. As we can see there are many proven ways to achieve this. However, embracing telemedicine software for doctors stands out in the digital age. 

Virtual healthcare platforms such as VCDoctor not only minimize waiting room crowds but also cut down patient wait times. If you’re not already using a telemedicine platform for clinics or doctors, consider VCDoctor. It’s a HIPAA-compliant, cost-effective, secure, and feature-rich telemedicine software for doctors, clinics, and hospitals alike. 

And, the best part- our telemedicine platform for clinics and doctors is fully white label. We will help you brand it as your own with custom logos, interface, and design. Mind seeing it in action? We have a free demo just for you.

Schedule an appointment now and our team will get in touch with you.

FAQ’s

Do I need to invest in any add-on hardware?

No, VCDoctor is completely web-based. You can use the platform across all types of mobile devices- your, phone, tablet, or laptop. 

Is VCDoctor HIPAA compliant?
Yes, VCDoctor is a fully HIPAA-compliant telemedicine platform for doctors, clinics, and hospitals. You can even manage your pharmacy or lab using the platform. 

What are the features out-of-the-box?

Video consultations, e-prescriptions, EHR, Appointment booking, messaging, and reminders are some of the many features that are available out of the box.

What are the advanced features of VCDoctor?
Advanced features include the Annual Wellness Report, Chatbot Support, and AI/ML functionalities. We can add other features too depending on your practice needs. 

Can I manage multiple clinics using the VCDoctor telemedicine software for clinics?
VCDoctor was designed with collaboration and efficiency in mind. You can easily manage multiple clinics using the platform. We suggest you book a free consultation and discuss your needs in detail.