Think about your experience in going to a standard doctor’s appointment. You fight traffic or parking hassles to get to the doctor’s office. You often wait past your appointment time in the lobby, and once you actually get into the exam room, you wait again for the doctor to actually arrive. While it may be a few minutes, it can sometimes feel excruciatingly long. The doctor arrives, and despite all the paperwork and information you shared with the receptionist or the nurse, you repeat much of this information. Once you finish your exam and discussion with the doctor – during which you sometimes take notes, sometimes not – you walk out and have that awkward moment at the front desk, wondering if you can leave freely or if you owe large sums of cash.
Sound familiar? Perhaps. Sound like many other consumer experiences these days? Not really. The simple truth is that tech-enabled consumer experiences – from booking restaurants and flights to ride requests and mobile commerce – have changed our expectations as a society. We expect to have more control over when and where we have these experiences. We don’t wait, or if we do, we know exactly how long we will have to wait. In comparison to other consumer experiences, the doctor appointment experience — from self-diagnosis to follow-up — fails to meet today’s new standards for convenience, information and speed.
Think about the typical journey. 70 percent of people are researching symptoms and ailments online before going to the doctor, but more than half (54%) don’t write down or capture this information and other medical information before going to the doctor. We live in a world of online reservations and booking, but 88% of doctor’s appointments are still scheduled by phone, subject to wait times and potential back-and-forth. Another potential breakdown in the patient journey is communicating the purpose for the doctor visit and checking in to the appointment. Because so many are booking appointments via phone, 70 percent of people explain the purpose of their visit to the receptionist over the phone, hoping that the information is accurately captured and communicated to the doctor.
And when you arrive, the litany of forms begins.Continue reading…
