CLIENT PROFILEDr. Monique Cohn, a board certified dermatologist with Advanced Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery Center in Twinsburg, Ohio, provides medical services for the treatment of skin, hair and nails and the improvement of aging or sun damaged skin for men, women and children. The busy practice - which treats an average of 100 patients each day - offers both general dermatology and cosmetic procedures.THE PROBLEMUp until January 2008, Advanced Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery Center did not utilize Appointment-Plus. Rather, they scheduled sessions using a traditional paper appointment book. This required staff to manually look through the appointment book, determine by month which days were available and then manually book the appointment. This process required excessive amounts of staff time, prevented them from scheduling several appointments simultaneously, and required them to put patients on hold while appointments were booked. Additionally, it also required staff to manually contact patients to remind them of upcoming appointments.
ANALYSISDr. Cohn and her practice assessed their specific needs before deciding on their online appointment scheduling provider. The practice determined four required functions the software must provide: scheduling, confirming, reminding and analysis. In addition to the scheduler and confirmation functionality, a reliable e-mail reminder system and the ability to pull patient reports and information were also important, as well as a secure data backup system to protect their patients' details. The Center conducted Internet searches to identify companies that specialized in this service.SOLUTIONAlthough other online scheduling software companies offered some of the needed services, only Appointment-Plus provided all of them. A free Appointment-Plus setup coach worked with Advanced Dermatology to quickly set up the perfect solution to its scheduling needs. For a fast-paced office that books an average of four patients every 15 minutes during the workday, a seamless transition to an automated online scheduling system that met certain requirements was a must. As Dr. Cohn states, "Appointment-Plus was able to tailor it to our needs."RESULTDr. Cohn estimates that Appointment-Plus frees up at least 10 hours per week of staff time that previously would have been devoted to manually scheduling and confirming appointments and making reminder phone calls to patients. Two system features that Advanced Dermatology & Cosmetic Surgery Center staff utilizes regularly are the e-mail reminder and report-generating functions. The Center uses the e-mail reminder function to inform its patients of upcoming appointments; the response from the patients has been extremely positive. Additionally, Dr. Cohn and the Center use the e-mail functionality to distribute marketing pieces to their patients.Click here to download PDF of this Medical Scheduling Software Case Study Click Here to Read Another Case Study for Medical Offices |
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