Walk-in clinics are an important resource for many people who are feeling under the weather and either do not have a family doctor, or who simply want to be seen by a physician sooner rather than later. These clinics run on a first come, first serve basis for the most part, which means you may find yourself waiting in the waiting room (should COVID-19 restrictions allow) or in your vehicle, with potentially a 20-30 minute expected wait time before being seen.
What do you do? Do you hang around the walk-in clinic the entire time? Do you leave the clinic after putting your name down on the waitlist, risking the possibility that you will lose out on your spot if you’re called to go in sooner than expected?
As a walk-in clinic, how can you keep your waiting room running smoothly and efficiently, while limiting the number of patients waiting around in order to comply with COVID-19 restrictions?
It’s time to implement an automated walk-in clinic waitlist management system!
Check out this blog where we outline the four steps involved in the implementation of an automated walk-in clinic waitlist management system.
You may be asking why your clinic needs an automated system to manage your walk-in clinic wait times. Lucky for you, we have compiled a list of benefits that we hope will persuade you that adopting an automated system is not only helpful, but necessary!
Let’s check them out.
1. Save Time and Boost Efficiency
An automated clinic waitlist management system will allow your walk-in clinic to save the time it takes to collect patients’ names and phone numbers and write them down manually in a list by simply having them add themselves to a digital waitlist. Patients can add themselves to the waitlist by scanning a QR code with their mobile phone and filling out a short form with their information, the reason for their visit, etc. Submitting the form will automatically add the patient to the waitlist that your clinic staff can look at, boosting efficiency in that they won’t have to look at a handwritten list to determine who needs to see the physician next.
2. Reduce Human Errors
In the same vein as the previous point about the handwritten lists, when you are writing down patient information onto a clinic waitlist quickly, it is easy to accidentally collect incorrect information. Perhaps you misheard the patient’s name or wrote down an incorrect phone number. Perhaps you forgot to include the right information about why they are visiting the clinic.
An automated and digital waitlist management system helps to prevent these potential human errors and allows you to make sure all required information is captured the first time and stored in a centralized location, leading to an all around more pleasant experience for all parties involved.
3. One-Click Notifications
Once the clinic physician is able to accept additional patients, having an automated waitlist management system on hand means that there is no need to go flipping through the pages of a manual waitlist to search for the next patient. This information is all contained in a digital, easy-to-read format that is accessible from a phone or computer! All a clinic receptionist needs to do to notify the next patient on the list is click a button to send an automated, pre-templated notification to them. The patient can then respond to the notification with a simple “Yes” or “No” to indicate whether they would like to accept the appointment.
4. Safe Data Storage
Data security is important. Your patients want to be sure that any information they provide your clinic will be secure, especially medical information. There can be security concerns with manual waitlists, where the physical waitlist can either be stolen or misplaced. In the case of a digital waitlist management system, all patient data is kept in a centralized and secure online database and notification transmission is encrypted, meaning you can be sure that all patient information will be stored safely.
Do you need an automated walk-in clinic waitlist management system?
Hopefully these benefits have done enough to convince you of the merits of managing your clinic waitlists digitally with an automated solution. Here at SimplyCast, we have developed a fully automated waitlist management system that can be customized to your walk-in clinic’s specific requirements. From the creation of your automated waitlist form to building out the notification templates, we can help you do all this and more to get your automated waitlist management system up and running s quickly as possible!
Want to see more? Click the button below to request a one-on-one demo of our walk-in clinic waitlist management system from one of our helpful team members!
