3 Urgent Care EMR Tools to Improve Clinic Workflow

The pandemic has changed clinic and patient habits, expectations, and workflow in the urgent care industry. With changing standards and expectations, the urgent care EMR technology we offer to patients can significantly improve their satisfaction and benefit the clinic and supporting staff. Streamline your clinic workflow using technology that supports virtual scheduling, waiting, and patient intake tools.

Online Patient Scheduling

According to the 2021 UCA Benchmarking report, three out of four urgent care visits were scheduled online. While the pandemic forced online scheduling, many patients prefer to secure an appointment in advance. Implementing self-scheduling capabilities in your urgent care can:

Attract New Patients: 36% of patients say online check-in options influence their chosen location.
Shorten Wait Time: Patients can wait at home until the scheduled visit and spend less time in your lobby.
Staggered Arrival Times: Ability to restrict appointment and check-in hours during busier times to reduce surges and shift volume to slower hours.

Online scheduling and check-in improve patient and staff satisfaction and clinic workflow. Patients benefit from ease of use and being seen at a time convenient to them, while staff benefit from low wait times and fewer unhappy patients. The clinic will benefit from streamlined volume, improved patient satisfaction, and reduced staff burnout.

Digital Patient Registration

After patients have checked in or scheduled an appointment online, allow patients to fill out registration and consent forms to help streamline the clinic workflow. Digital intake forms can reduce staff workload and improve the patient experience. With digital intake, your staff will no longer have to spend time deciphering bad handwriting and scanning paperwork, IDs, and insurance while improving patient throughput times.

Patients can finish registration and other necessary forms before ever stepping foot in the clinic, reducing the amount of time spent in urgent care. Because let’s be honest, no one likes sitting around in a waiting room. Patient intake solutions remedy inefficient historical processes by increasing efficiency, improving captured data, and boosting patient and staff satisfaction. There has been successful research showing one Florida-based urgent care used digital intake solutions to increase throughput times by 30% and increase patient satisfaction by 11%.

Patient Queuing System

A patient queuing system provides waiting room transparency. Patient queuing helps keep staff and patients safe, streamline office workflow, maintain patient volumes, and set expectations. A queuing solution will enable your practice to adhere to the constant regulation changes of COVID-19. Eliminate crowded waiting rooms by allowing patients to wait from home or in their car until their expected visit time; this will help minimize contact between patients and staff members.

Queuing helps your team easily keep track of which patients have checked in, who is waiting, where they are in the process of being seen. With an automated queue, it’s easier for your staff to multi-task and complete more in their day while keeping patients informed along the way. Queuing informs your patient of their estimated wait time, where they are in line, and when they are ready to be seen. When patients are happy after a visit, they are more inclined to leave positive reviews; the better reviews you have, the more likely new patients are to visit your clinic. While queuing may improve patient experience and expectations, it can also benefit your clinics’ reputation and staff satisfaction.

Solutions

Implementing an urgent care EMR software encompassing the above tools can increase patient satisfaction and volumes, decrease staff burnout, and improve clinic workflow. By combining online scheduling, mobile patient queuing, and digital patient intake services into one cohesive experience, urgent care can create a more efficient, low-contact experience for both patients and staff.

Contact us today to learn more about our virtual tools that can help make access to care more convenient and efficient for your patients while saving time and reducing unnecessary contact for both staff and patients.