Patient Opportunities to Self-Schedule in a Large Multisite, Multispecialty Medical Practice: Program Description and Uptake of 7 Unique Processes for Patients to Successfully Self-Schedule (and Reschedule) Their Medical Appointments

Abstract

Introduction Patient self-scheduling of medical appointments is becoming more common in many medical institutions. However, the complexity of scheduling multiple specialties, following scheduling guidelines, and managing appointment access requires a variety of processes for a diverse inventory of self-schedulable appointment types. Methods From 7 unique patient self-scheduling methods, we captured counts of successfully self-scheduled and completed appointments. A process map was created to show the paths of 5 different primary self-scheduling processes (new appointment self-scheduling) and 2 secondary self-scheduling processes (existing appointment self-rescheduling). Results There were 7 unique processes that led to 733,651 successfully self-scheduled completed visits from January 1 to December 31, 2023 at a multisite, multispecialty clinic. The self-scheduling processes consisted of the following: (1) Ticket offer (appointment “ticket” offers for specific visits generated by a provider order or system rules), the software “ticket” sent to the patient permits “admission” to self-schedule calendar templates (341,591 uses, 46.6%); (2) direct self-scheduled visit for prequalified visit types (203,593 uses, 27.6%); (3) self-reschedule option (patient option to reschedule existing appointment, 79,706 uses, 10.9%); (4) new patient self-scheduled visit via clinic website (does not require portal access, 54,367 uses, 7.4%). (5) automated waitlist self-rescheduled visit (38,649 uses, 5.3%); (6) automated waitlist self-scheduled visit of previously unscheduled visit (10,939 uses, 1.5%); and (7) self-triage self-scheduled visit (4806 uses, 0.7%). Conclusion The processes for self-scheduling are expanding. Our multispecialty clinic has implemented 7 different processes to help patients successfully self-schedule medical appointments. Some of the processes occur before initial scheduling (such as self-triage), and some are implemented after successful scheduling has already occurred (self-rescheduling option and self-rescheduling aided by an automated waitlist). Continued research is needed to look for measures of success beyond the ability to complete a self-scheduled visit, including the accuracy of the booking (right provider, location, and length of visit).