Client Q&A: How CareCloud + ZocDoc Can Mean More Patients, Fewer Hassles

It’s about time-saving convenience.

Many patients like the ease and simplicity of booking physician appointments online using ZocDoc. And for medical practices, ZocDoc offers more than the potential for increased business and awareness. When ZocDoc fully integrates with practice management software, a medical group can save substantial time and effort.

Time formerly spent on the telephone booking appointments — including all the messages and calls back and forth — can be focused on other essential practice tasks.

We recently spoke with CareCloud customers who ‘test drove’ the integration between ZocDoc and CareCloud. One of those clients is Matt Nachreiner of Sanova Dermatology in Austin, Texas. As Practice Administrator, Matt oversees all operations, including human resources, marketing, revenue cycle management, and IT.

Q: What is your experience like so far with the integration between ZocDoc and CareCloud?

A: It’s easier to book [appointments] this way for the patients, but also my staff. Many people surf the web at night or on weekends during non-office hours and this allows for them to have more control. Every morning when I come in and throughout the day, we have new appointments from ZocDoc. For new patients, they fill out all of their demographic information, including insurance, through ZocDoc, and the data is fully integrated into our schedule. The integration cuts out manual steps and saves me a lot of time.

Here at Sanova Dermatology, we do surgery at certain times on certain days. We don’t want the patient appointment scheduler to sync at those times. In other words, we don’t want patients to schedule their own appointments at times when we’re doing more complex, time-consuming procedures. ZocDoc blocks off these times on our schedule so they are not available. In other words, we use templates that allow for certain types of appointments only at certain times.

Q: What kind of feedback do you hear from staff?

A: It works well for new patients. They’re the ones on the website, doing the research, who typically take the longest to book via phone. We want to spend more time face to face with the patients in our office and eliminating these phone calls makes this possible.

Q: What is the benefit for your patients?

A: It can be tough to get a quick appointment in dermatology, and the ZocDoc-CareCloud integration shows them immediately when they can get in to see us. It’s very possible and common for a new patient to get into see us within the next day or two if we had a cancellation. This shows what’s available immediately.

We’re located in Austin. Our patient population includes a lot of tech-savvy employees at Dell, Intel, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and others. They like making their appointments online. I can’t tell you how many times I hear patients at checkout say “Wow! This was simple.” I think many are a little skeptical during the registration and online booking process and expect glitches, but the process has proven to be seamless.

Q: What are the benefits of the ZocDoc and CareCloud combination for your practice?

A: ZocDoc did not sync with our previous [practice management] system. They had some default appointment times and we ended up with patient appointments that were double- and triple-booked. It’s working well the way it is now. If someone goes on ZocDoc, they can see our availability, and now ZocDoc only shows the open slots. You have to look at the big picture. Giving the patients that ease of booking is just the first step. I’ve configured the technology with ZocDoc-CareCloud to also promote short in-office wait times. Without the sync between the two, this was near impossible.

Q: What would you tell another practice that’s considering adopting both ZocDoc and CareCloud?

A: The system is fully integrated and it’s better than using ZocDoc alone. It’s still a lot quicker than patients calling on the phone to make an appointment. It’s also more accurate – patient names don’t get misspelled, which means fewer claim errors and less admin time fixing these mistakes.

I implemented the integrated systems [about 3 months ago], and over 250 patients have already booked online with the majority of these being new patients. I joke with my staff that we won’t need them pretty soon. Seriously though, think about the time this saves us and allows us to focus more in other areas such as patient care.

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