Is online appointment allocation worthwhile for doctors?

Online appointments are now almost a standard feature when we organise new appointments for our customers. Create practice homepage. However, the Handelsblatt reported on 11 June 2021 on a recent survey by Medscape (see: Online appointments are not profitable), which allegedly questions the benefits and profitability of online appointments.

First of all: we have a slightly different opinion 🙂

Our assessment: Medscape's survey says nothing about the profitability of online appointments

In our opinion, the survey is not very meaningful. For one thing, the published data does not indicate which specialities the doctors surveyed belong to. The age distribution of the doctors surveyed is also not known. However, this information would have been very important in order to be able to really assess whether online appointments are worthwhile or not.

Here are two examples:

1. A GP in the countryside, whose practice is already overcrowded and can hardly accept any new patients, will certainly benefit less financially from online appointments than a specialist in aesthetic and plastic surgery in a large city, who primarily offers self-pay services and is in competition with many other practices.
2. An established and well-known doctor aged 60 whose staff have been working in the practice for decades will no longer have much motivation to establish completely new processes. In contrast, practice founders and young doctors are in a completely different position and can integrate innovative tools into their practice processes right from the start. It should be clear which of these two groups expects greater profitability from online appointment allocation.

In addition, in our experience, many doctors use or at least offer online appointments, but only half-heartedly and unfavourably in terms of implementation. See also our article: How more patients use your online appointment system

In this respect, every doctor should simply ask themselves whether, as a patient, they would see an advantage in being able to book a doctor's appointment around the clock, seven days a week. We think: yes. And if this is also professionally integrated into the Practice marketing and practice processes, there should be no doubt that this will also bring financial benefits, at least in the long term. Be it through simplified patient acquisition or improved patient loyalty.

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