What is a Virtual Waiting Room and Why Do You Need it?

Virtual waiting rooms, also known as queue management software, is now essential to your healthcare technology toolbelt. The Coronavirus pandemic shifted the waiting room needs of providers across the globe. Providers now needed to find quick solutions for creating a safe public environment as their patient volumes started to suffer due to the pandemic. What providers are finding now that they have started utilizing virtual waiting rooms is that they are extremely beneficial to the overall functionality of your practice as well as to the patient experience. This tool is helping to improve patient satisfaction, reduce patient wait times, rebuild patient volumes, and streamline the check-in process for providers everywhere. Below are 4 benefits of the virtual waiting room and why your practice needs to implement a quality queue management solution.

Benefits of the Virtual Waiting Room:

Rebuild Patient Volumes

Patient volumes took a hit at many practices at the start of the pandemic. Patients were scared of medical facilities as they scrambled to find ways to avoid the coronavirus. Much of this fear has now settled as we learn more about the coronavirus every day. Providers have also found ways to keep patients safe while still coming in for their appointments. Implementing a virtual waiting room is a huge part of creating a safe public environment for patients, ensuring your practice never goes overcapacity.

Improve the Patient Experience

The waiting room has had a historic impact on the patient experience. Often stuffy, quiet, and full of people who need to see their doctor, patients are left there to wait for an unknown about of time. A virtual waiting provides patients with a much more pleasant experience. They can wait in their car. Here, they can listen to music, make phone calls, and wait in comfort until it is time for their visit. While the waiting room experience does not affect the quality of care a patient receives, it does impact how individuals perceive their providers. A virtual waiting room changes the whole experience patients have with their doctors, preventing unnecessary frustration and discomfort.

Reduce Patient Wait times

Virtual waiting rooms are also having a positive impact on patient wait times. With mobile check-in partnered with automated communication technology, patients can move through the waiting queue at a faster pace. Here, they can visually track themselves in line and so can your team. The virtual waiting room providers much-needed organization to the check-in process that reduces patient wait times.

Streamline the Check-in Process

A virtual waiting room can help your practice streamline the check-in process and optimize efficiency. It integrates with your Electronic Health Record to receive information regarding upcoming appointments so that your team is always prepared before they enter the building. This tool automatically notifies the patient multiple times using practice branded emails, texts, or phone calls to remind them of their upcoming appointment so that your team does not have to. Once a patient arrives for their appointment, the virtual waiting room provides a method for the patient to wait in their car and bring them in when your practice is ready.

To learn more about a virtual waiting room solution for your practice, click here.