Summary
This article contains our recommendations of how to get the most out of ER Express' patient expectation management features, curated for each customer segment.
Table of Contents:
- Recommended Configurations
- Example Implementation: Hospital website
- Example Implementation: Patient-facing text messages
Recommended Configurations
To get started thinking about what tools you would like to implement for your facility, choose your corresponding facility type from the links below to see our list of recommendations. Please consider these recommendations a starting point - you can modify them to best suit your needs.
Urgent Cares:
- Using both online reservation booking (aka "save my spot") and walk-in queueing
- Using only walk-in queueing
- Using only online reservation booking (aka "save my spot")
Emergency Departments:
Veterinarian Hospitals
Urgent Cares
Using both online reservation booking (aka "save my spot") and walk-in queueing
| Feature | Setting | Where Patients See it |
|
Show patients the # of patients currently in line before they book / sign-in ("# of patients in line: 12") |
Patient in Line API | Publish the API on the Hospital/clinic website |
|
Show patients the next available treatment time before they book / sign-in ("First available time: 3:15 pm") |
First-available-time API | Publish the API on the Hospital/clinic website |
|
Temporarily pause all sign-ins when the clinic hits a maximum # of patients in line ("Based on high visit volume, we have paused sign-ins temporarily to give our staff time to catch up…") |
Maximum capacity queue setting | Set a threshold (e.g., 80 patients) |
|
Tell patients their place in line at the moment they sign-in ("There are 15 patients ahead of you…") |
Patient count tag | Insert tag in the confirmation text message |
|
Tell patients their place in line at the moment they confirm that they have arrived at the clinic after booking from home ("Thanks for letting us know you have arrived. There are 3 patients ahead of you…") |
Patient count tag | Insert tag in the confirmation text message |
|
Text patients a real-time update on their place in line ("There are now 11 patients ahead of you…") when they text "0" after signing in |
Place in line tag | Insert tag in place-in-line text message |
|
Text patients a reminder if they have been waiting longer than "x" minutes ("we have not forgotten about you!") |
Reminder alert setting | Configure threshold ("x" minutes after sign-in) and personalize the message template |
|
Text patients a reminder ("we are expecting you at 9:00 am today, please show up 15 min early…") if they book an online reservation |
Reminder alert setting | Configure threshold ("y" minutes prior to expected arrival) and personalize the message template |
Using only walk-in queueing
| Feature | Setting | Where Patients See it |
| Show patients the # of patients currently in line before they book / sign-in ("# of patients in line: 12") | Patient in Line API | Publish the API on the Hospital/clinic website |
| Show patients the next available treatment time before they book / sign-in ("First available time: 3:15 pm") | First-available-time API | Publish the API on the walk-in form + add the tag to the confirmation text message |
| Temporarily pause all sign-ins when the clinic hits a maximum # of patients in line ("Based on high visit volume, we have paused sign-ins temporarily to give our staff time to catch up…") | Maximum capacity queue setting | Set a threshold (e.g., 80 patients) |
| Tell patients their place in line at the moment they sign-in ("There are 15 patients ahead of you…") | Patient count tag | Insert tag in the confirmation text message |
| Tell patients their place in line at the moment they confirm that they have arrived at the clinic after booking from home ("Thanks for letting us know you have arrived. There are 3 patients ahead of you…") | Patient count tag | Insert tag in the confirmation text message |
| Text patients a real-time update on their place in line ("There are now 11 patients ahead of you…") when they text "0" after signing in | Place in line tag | Insert tag in place-in-line text message |
| Text patients a reminder if they have been waiting longer than "x" minutes ("we have not forgotten about you!") | Reminder alert setting | Configure threshold ("x" minutes after sign-in) and personalize the message template |
Using only online reservation booking (aka "save my spot")
| Feature | Setting | Where Patients See It |
| Show patients the next available treatment time before they book / sign-in ("First available time: 3:15 pm") | First-available-time API | Publish the API on the Hospital/clinic website |
| Show patients the next available treatment time before they book / sign-in ("First available time: 3:15 pm") | First-available-time API | Publish the API on the walk-in form + add the tag to confirmation text message |
| Tell patients their place in line at the moment they confirm that they have arrived at the clinic after booking from home ("Thanks for letting us know you have arrived. There are 3 patients ahead of you…") | Patient count tag | Insert tag in the confirmation text message |
| Text patients a reminder ("we are expecting you at 9:00 am today, please show up 15 min early…") if they book an online reservation | Reminder alert setting | Configure threshold ("y" minutes prior to expected arrival) and personalize the message template |
Emergency Departments
Using only online reservation booking (aka "save my spot")
| Feature | Setting | Where Patients See It |
| Show patients the next available treatment time before they book / sign-in ("First available time: 3:15 pm") | First-available-time API | Publish the API on the Hospital/clinic website |
| Show patients the next available treatment time before they book / sign-in ("First available time: 3:15 pm") | First-available-time API | Publish the API on the walk-in form + add the tag to the confirmation text message |
| Text patients a reminder ("we are expecting you at 9:00 am today, please show up 15 min early…") if they book an online reservation | Reminder alert setting | Configure threshold ("y" minutes prior to expected arrival) and personalize the message template |
Veterinarian Hospitals
Using only sign-in queuing/mobile check-in (Product Name: Walk-in Express)
| Feature | Setting | Where Patients See It |
| Show clients the # of clients currently in line before they book / sign-in ("# of clients in line: 12") | Patient in Line API | Publish the API on the Hospital/clinic website |
| Tell clients their place in line at the moment they sign-in ("There are 15 clients ahead of you…") | Patient count tag | Insert tag in the confirmation text message |
| Text clients a real-time update on their place in line ("There are now 11 clients ahead of you…") when they text "0" after signing in | Place in line tag | Insert tag in place-in-line text message |
| Text clients a reminder if they have been waiting longer than "x" minutes ("we have not forgotten about you!") | Reminder alert setting | Configure threshold ("x" minutes after sign-in) and personalize the message template |
Example Implementations
Hospital website
We offer two APIs that enable you to publish the first available reservation time or the patient count in real-time.
| API | What it does | Requirements to implement | Recommended for urgent care? | Recommended for ED? | Recommended for animal ER? |
| First-available-time | Shows patients the next available treatment time at the facility. | Add Javascript that calls our API and HTML that publishes it | Yes, if offering online reservations | Yes, if offering online reservations | No |
| Patient-count | Shows patients the number of patients currently in line at the facility | Add Javascript that calls our API and HTML that publishes it | Yes if offering walk-in queueing | No | Yes |
How your patients might see it:
Patient-facing text messages
Patient Count tag and Place-in-Line tag
The patient count tag is designed to be sent to a patient at the time of their reservation submission. The patient count tag tells the patient how many active patients are in line at the moment of their submission.
The place-in-line tag is a dynamic count of the number of active patients in front of a patient throughout the course of their appointment. This is sent to patient's whenever they reply "0" to 34947.
To learn more about patient count, please refer to this article: Patient Count Tags.
Example chronology:
Step 1: Patient signs in.
Step 2: The system sends the patient a confirmation text containing their (1) place in line and (2) instructions on how to get an update on their place in line.
Step 3: The patient has been waiting and wants an update, so they (1) reply "0" to the text.
Step 4: The system responds to the patient with an update on their (2) place in line, showing that there are fewer patients in front of them and explaining that they can get an update once every ten minutes.
