Patients report that waiting in a lobby or patient waiting room is the worst part of their experience when they have an appointment. Fortunately, there are ways around that for chiropractic offices!
Minimizing wait time gives patients more than just their time back. It also relieves anxiety, and prevents it from building up in the first place. While a chiropractic visit may not be as intimidating as other types of medical appointments, patients still experience “white coat syndrome,” which is when a patient’s blood pressure is higher in a doctor’s office than it normally is.
In other words: they’re stressed. And a stressed patient is not a happy patient!
There are plenty of small things that add up to create a short wait at the chiropractor’s office. Consider the following solutions:
Collect as much of your patient’s information as you can when they first make their appointment. This can be as simple as asking for your patient's insurance and personal information. Once they arrive, make sure all of their forms and records are readily available. The more information your office staff can collect in advance, the better. Platinum offers practices the opportunity to proactively send patients an email requesting their information. That information is then auto-populated into the Platinum system, eliminating the need to email forms back or bring physical copies with them.
Platinum’s EHR software ensures that patient information is up-to-date and easily accessible. A patient’s visit history, SOAP notes, and even X-rays are available for review immediately. Keeping all this information organized and easily accessible — all on one screen — reduces stress on both your staff and your patients.
Most offices these days don’t deal with physical paper anymore. Still, not all electronic health records are created equal. Make sure your office has a system in place that is accurate, compliant and comprehensive.
In pre-pandemic times, the fastest way for patients to sign-in once they arrived was electronically at the front desk. That involved a screen with a pen that allowed you to digitally sign your name. With concerns about contagion, however, sharing a screen and pen with dozens of other people isn’t the most sanitary choice.
Because of that, most practices are doing away with the screen and pen. Platinum offers a Chiropractic Health Card that patients can use for identification, making the check-in process streamlined and sanitary. These cards can be scanned with a 2D scanner, eliminating the need for contact. It’s quick and easy. It also keeps the front desk staff from having to search through a database.
Let patients know exactly what to expect. Platinum offers a patient routing system, which calls the patient to the exam room without staff intervention. This saves time for the patient and your staff!
The best way to reduce wait time at the chiropractic office is to find out how long each doctor takes per visit. Platinum makes this easy through its reporting feature. These reports can include not only how long the visit with the doctor takes, but the entire time the patient is at the practice.
Tracking time spent at each phase of the patient experience is the perfect way to discover where time can be saved, and where systems can be improved. Consider running reports weekly and gather the information at the end of a month to see trends and averages.
Seconds add up. If a doctor sees 70 patients per day and can save just one minute per patient, that’s more than an hour at the end of the day! That time can be spent seeing additional patients, or coming home a little earlier to your family.
For your patient, every second counts, and a shorter wait time results in return visitors. Platinum’s software allows chiropractors to enter SOAP notes in 30 seconds or less. When it comes to subjective questions, Platinum’s software provides a portion of those questions for the doctor automatically. All this allows the doctor to give his undivided attention to the patient and less time to the paperwork.
There will always be somewhat of a wait before a patient’s appointment, even if everything flows flawlessly. With that in mind, make sure to create a welcoming waiting area that helps your patients relax and enter a calm state of mind. Create an environment that your patients don’t mind waiting in. Consider offering free WiFi, a charging area for phones and tablets, and even light snacks and drinks.
Are you concerned about the wait time at your practice? Are you looking for a way to streamline your administrative tasks so that you can better serve your patients? Platinum was designed by chiropractors, so we understand the struggles you face. If you want to learn more, schedule a demo to find out how we can improve your practice! To learn more, read about our features.