Appointments Around the Clock

Case Study booking4med, Radiology Oberland, Hausham, Germany

More Efficiency in Scheduling

Radiology Oberland Improves Processes with booking4med by medavis

Nowadays, patients expect short waiting times and high-quality treatment from a visit to the doctor. Both increase satisfaction and patient loyalty. In this context, appointment scheduling is an important component, which is still done by phone in most facilities. In mid-2020, the German imaging center Radiology Oberland has implemented a smarter and simpler solution: online appointment scheduling with booking4med.

“We have been working with the medavis radiology information system since 1998 and have completely digitized our internal processes from orders to billing and reminders“, Dr. Roland Scheck, one of four owners and IT responsible, looks back. From there, it was only a logical step to online appointment scheduling.

“We are very satisfied with our online booking system that we have been using for six months now. We were able to significantly reduce the heavy workload of our telephone operators at the reception desk. Although only two out of ten appointments booked by phone are now booked online, I am sure that this will shift very quickly in favor of online appointments,” says Dr. Scheck.

Easy, Safe, Fast

With booking4med, patients and referring physicians can book appointments online around the clock. Referrers simply log into their user account, patients confirm their appointment with a TAN, which is automatically sent to their mobile phone after their booking request. This allows appointments to be arranged quickly and easily.

It was easy to integrate booking4med into the existing medavis RIS, “within one working day including staff training and without much IT support,” as Dr. Scheck explains. Only the examination names had to be adapted. There is no need for separate hardware procurement or further IT changes, for example for the firewall, because medavis provides the hosting of booking4med.

Once integrated and set up on the website, the solution works autonomously. The online appointment process runs parallel to and ideally complements the telephone appointment process.

The users in the imaging center had the following requirements: Online booking must be easy to use for patients and referrers and must work safely and smoothly. Both are given. “booking4med is very simple to use. Compared to phone appointments, patients now have the advantage of being able to book appointments with us seven days a week at any time, which has a positive effect on patient satisfaction,” says Dr. Scheck.

With the online appointment booking, medavis has also thought specifically of functions for referrers. For this, Dr. Scheck and his colleagues can set and block fixed time slots. This makes it easy for referrers to reserve appointments for their patients without any hurdles linke having to enter a TAN for each booking.

High Level of Satisfaction

From the very beginning, booking4med has fulfilled the expectations of Radiology Oberland. In the meantime, medavis has further developed the solution and implemented many new features. “When the referrer data in booking4med will soon be available to us, the system will develop its true strength and bring even greater benefits to our practice than it already does”, says Dr. Scheck. “I can only warmly recommend the use of booking4med to all medavis users and look forward to further innovations and additions.”

The radiologist’s satisfaction is also due to the seamless workflow. Patients or referrers open the website and select the examination needed. Then they choose an available appointment, which is automatically reserved in the medavis RIS scheduler. Next, the system asks for specific patient information and provides information about the facility and the booked examination. Finally, contact details must be entered and verified. This is followed by an automatic appointment confirmation and the appointment is permanently entered in the RIS scheduler.

RIS Integration Ensures Seamless Workflow

This only works because booking4med is integrated into medavis RIS. Functions and master data can be automatically transferred and synchronized with each other at any time. Dr. Scheck considers this to be an indispensable requirement to ensure a consistent digital workflow. “Just think about all the new referrers we have to enter and change every day or the new patients that are added every day,” says the radiologist.

Another great advantage is that with booking4med no patient data is stored on the internet, in contrast to third-party providers. In addition, all communication is encrypted via TLS.

In general, security and data protection are paramount. This is ensured because all servers are located in Germany and are therefore subject to German data protection regulations. The safety is proven by extensive penetration tests and certification accordingly. All patient data exists in booking4med only during the booking process. As soon as an appointment is confirmed or the booking is cancelled, the data will be deleted. All requests and transactions are retrieved by medavis RIS. From the radiology‘s point of view, incoming connections from outside the practice are not necessary.