Your next trip to the ER may not have to involve a phone call; a text is all you may need. Many hospitals are now integrating text-based reservations for doctor's appointments, insurance claims, and even ER visits now.
This new trend in tech-savvy appointment sign-ups and check-ins will ultimately ease the process of scheduling appointments in the near-future, and may aid in wait times as well. On the care provider's side of things, this will allow doctors to better schedule around appointment times, having a clearer day-to-day schedule of incoming patients.
"I truly believe talking to people on the phone to schedule doctors' appointments will be something of the past very soon," said New York resident Natan Edelsburgt, who has already made 10 doctor appointments through a large online serivice provider, ZocDoc.
ZocDoc is an online-based medical scheduling service that allows its member to not only search for near-by, case-related facilities, but also allows its members to schedule appointments and consultations via text. And ZocDoc isn't only for hospitals, but also like-minded facilities such as dental practices, chiropractic offices, and so on.
"I don't think you can compete in our medical practice marketplace without being a ZocDoc participant," says New York physician Dr. Bobby Buka, who gets around 15 patients a week from the online service provider.
The scheduling and searching services are free for all members, but may cost as much as $300 for accounts subscribed to by doctors and other healthcare providers. That being said, many healthcare providers are opting to pay the steep fee because of the benefits it provides to both current and soon-to-be patients.
But the online service benefits go beyond just scheduling. Booking can be done 24-hours a day, seven-day a week, and ZocDoc will also notify its members reserving ER appointments if the booked clinic is experiencing delays and long waits.
"I was able to find a dentist, doctor, and eye doctor in minutes," writes Rachel L. on the ZocDoc's homepage.
And this is just a novel site, researchers are saying. Services like these are expected to spike in popularity as the Affordable Healthcare Act becomes more assimilated in 2015.
