His practice, Murray Hill Medical Group, developed its own software so that patients could sign in online, make their own appointments, refills, or referrals, or pick a physician or location. Dr. Friedman is now marketing the software for use by physicians who use compatible electronic medical record systems.
Patients get a tracking number plus three e-mail reminders about their visits. For annual exams, the e-mail will remind them not to eat or drink for 8 hours prior to the visit.
If it's a Sunday night, a patient who has forgotten the time of a Monday appointment can look up the visit online instead of becoming a “no show,” he said. The practice estimates that 35%–45% of all of its appointments are made online, and the no-show rate with Internet appointments is less than 1%.
Murray Hill Medical Group has open-access scheduling, so most appointments are scheduled within 24 hours. “We always add on more hours. Patients can always get in because that's how we make a living. We're not going to make them wait 3 weeks.” The electronic system makes it easy to fill up slots when patients drop out of appointments.
Physicians have long struggled with patients having online access to their practice, Dr. Friedman said. “They have a problem with letting patients see their open schedule slots.” In addition, “they think patients are too dumb, they'll abuse the system, [or] they don't know what they're doing.”
But patients are smarter than you think, he said. Of Murray Hill's patients, 95% have Internet access, and other data point to widespread access to online services. A 2003 Harris Interactive poll found that 80% of all patients use the Internet to search for information.