Intelligent Scheduling White Paper

Give your staff the scheduling support they deserve. Doing so improves revenue, removes scheduling errors, and makes patients happy. Scheduling is the lifeblood of healthcare organizations – the crucial link that is unfortunately also very complicated.

Due to the Law of Scheduling every organization with complex scheduling is torn between standardizing by enforcing a one-size-fits-all approach or dealing with inefficiency, errors, and expense. With Intelligent Scheduling, you can achieve flexible standardization! Meet your efficiency goals while allowing for variation between providers and patients.

Problems 

How to Schedule more Effectively

The logic undergirding the intelligent scheduling/referral system is incredibly robust. It follows the following logic sequence:

 

  It starts with a patient’s reason for visit

 

  On one side, the patient context is evaluated: 

     


             a. If a disposition is available, that is considered as well
             b. Patient demographics
             c. Patient Insurance
             d. Prior visits may be used to calculate appropriate timeframes

      These are matched against a database of Resources with a rules engine

     Resource logic takes into account
             a. Services the resource offers / is required for
             b. Multiple Resources needed for a schedule are automatically included
             c. Service provider schedule
             d. Service provider preferences
             e. Provider relationships for availability and backup options

Sequential Scheduling – define appointments to be scheduled in sequences

a. Sequences can be defined (e.g. pre-op, op, and post-op)
b. Each appointment in the sequence can involve multiple resources, each with its own requirements
c. Buffer between visits and/or buffer ranges between visits in a sequence can be specified

The results are filtered through geo-location proximity with the patient

These are matched against the appropriate visit types in the integrated scheduling system

Finally, Round Robin calculation prioritizes the results for equitable distribution among service providers

Only appointments that match the criteria are shown, saving tremendous time and effort

The Results

Schedule recommendations that fit the issue and symptoms, prioritize close proximity, is optimized for provider preferences, is equally distributed by Round Robin, and still gives patients a choice for what best fits their needs and schedule. Talk about removing the scheduling pains from your staff!

Simple Interface

The enormous complexity is hidden behind a deceptively simple user interface for agent or nurse workspaces.

Sequential Appointment Scheduling

Scheduling sequential visits that follows all your requirements is incredibly simple.

Scheduling new appointments

Cancel existing appointments

Schedule multi-resource appointments, where multiple resources are needed in the same appointment

Schedule sequential appointments, where a series of appointments are needed in order (e.g. pre-op, op, and post-op)

Overbooking existing appointments to squeeze in urgent cases

Reschedule appointments

a. Taking into account the full logic and context when the appointment was first scheduled.

          b. e.g. rescheduling a post-op that is part of a sequence takes into account the date/time of the operation,
          its location, the resources involved, and the buffer needed between appointments

Benefits

Schedule incredibly complex appointments with ease

Rescheduling the most complicated schedule in just a few clicks

Standardize only those scheduling elements that make sense

So easy, nurses can schedule complex appointments without transferring callers

Ditch the scheduling knowledge base for faster, yet more accurate, scheduling

Reduce training time by 50-70%


Nearly eliminate scheduling errors


Self-administer schedules in real-time

 

No Scheduling Requirements are Too Complex!

So how complex can these rules handle?
Those who don’t schedule appointments regularly don’t appreciate how quickly scheduling complexity grows.

Take one mental health practice as an example. They have 72 primary diagnosis and 73 secondary diagnosis possibilities that combined determined the visit type. In addition, they have 4 service types, different rules for established vs new patients, and 160 provider preferences to account for. The total individual combinations is nearly 7 million!

Self-Administer

The parameters for all of the above are available for you to setup and administer yourself – in real time. Once a change is made in the admin, it immediately changes all schedules in the contact center and patient self-scheduling on the web.