7 Best Online Appointment Scheduling Softwares

Introduction 

Have you been struggling with scheduling appointments for your patients at your healthcare practice? Appointment scheduling can be an overwhelming process when you have a lot of patients to deal with. If not done efficiently, it can lead to increased wait times, can put a lot of pressure on your staff, and also negatively affect patient experience. If you have been facing such problems at your practice, you need to optimize the process of appointment scheduling, and for the same, you need an appointment scheduling software.  

What is appointment scheduling?

Appointment scheduling is the process wherein patients schedule appointments with their providers. While there are multiple methods to schedule appointments such as calling, using an app, or through a physical visit; the process of booking such appointments can be cumbersome. That’s when a healthcare scheduling software comes in handy. 

What is appointment scheduling software?

An appointment scheduling software is a tool used by businesses to allow customers to schedule their own appointments. If you’re a healthcare practice and are desperate to reduce wait times and relieve the burden of scheduling appointments off your staff, then you need a patient scheduling software. 

Fun fact: The global market size of appointment scheduling software is projected to grow from $470 million to $1550 million by the year 2032. 

This clearly shows that businesses are increasingly adopting patient scheduling software as a means to increase conversions, save hours spent on phone calls, and improve overall patient experience. 

To help you pick the doctor appointment scheduling software that best fits your needs, we have come up with a list of the top 7 best medical software for scheduling. So sit tight and get ready to take notes! 

7 Best Patient Appointment Scheduling Software

1. Emitrr 
2. Nexhealth 
3. Doctible 
4. Acuity:Scheduling
5. Luma Health 
6. Tebra 
7. Mend 

Emitrr  

Emitrr is a popular patient scheduling software that is used by medical businesses to ease the process of scheduling appointments. It allows patients to self-book appointments in real-time. With this software, you can direct the focus of your front desk towards managing more important tasks at hand, while keeping appointment scheduling on auto-pilot mode. 

Features of Emitrr 

• User-friendly interface to book appointments
• Ability to customize appointments based on various parameters (visit type, location, provider)
• Send automated appointment confirmations as soon as the patient books an appointment
• Integrate the healthcare scheduling software with your EHR  
• Send automated appointment reminders and set the frequency of the reminders 
• Send autoresponders to answer general questions 
• Track metrics such as appointments booked, conversion rates, etc 
• Personalize each reminder by adding various properties 

Emitrr pricing 

Starts at $59 per month (You pay for what you use)

Emitrr support 

• Phone Support
• Email/Help Desk
• 24/7 (Live rep)
• Chat
• FAQs/Forum
• Knowledge Base

Pros of Emitrr 

• Excellent customer service
• Easy-to-use patient appointment software 

Cons of Emitrr 

• More scheduling features are yet to be launched 

Emitrr Reviews 

Nexhealth 

Nexhealth is a popular healthcare scheduling software designed for doctors and dentists. This online appointment scheduling software allows patients to easily book appointments in one click, thereby digitizing the entire patient journey. 

Features of Nexhealth 

• Auto-sync the patient appointment scheduling software with your EHR 
• Allow patients to book appointments through various channels
• Offer real-time appointment scheduling and cancellation 
• Customize appointment scheduling with the appointment types, schedule, operating hours, etc  

Nexhealth pricing 

Contact support to fetch pricing details 

Nexhealth support 

• Email 
• Phone   
• Chat 

Pros of Nexhealth 

• Easy automation of patient engagement workflows 
• Easy integration with PMS 

Cons of Nexhealth 

• Gaps with patient scheduling 
• Limited support channels 

Nexhealth Reviews

Doctible 

Doctible is an online patient scheduling software that strives to simplify the process of booking appointments for patients. Its easily accessible software helps practices attract new patients, reduces wait times, and also considerably reduces the burden on the front desk. 

Features of Doctible 

• Book appointments anytime, anywhere with round-the-clock access to the calendar 
• Send appointment confirmations as soon as the patient books an appointment 
• Send appointment reminders to patients 
• Integrate the software with your PMS to streamline workflows 

Doctible pricing 

• Annual agreement starts at $199 per month  
• Monthly agreement starts at $249 per month 

Doctible support 

• Email/Help Desk
• Phone Support
• Knowledge Base
• Chat
• FAQs/Forum

Pros of Doctible 

• User-friendly interface 
• Good for review management 

Cons of Doctible 

• No real-time technical support
• Limited integration options 
• Relatively expensive 

Doctible Reviews

Acuity:Scheduling 

Acuity:Scheduling is online booking system for small business that not only caters to healthcare practices but also serves other service-based businesses.  

Features of Acuity: Scheduling 

• Let patients easily book, reschedule, or cancel appointments
• Customized forms to personalize patient experience 
• Send automated appointment reminders and notifications 
• Send automated follow-ups over email or text 
• Seamless multi-location management 
• Integrate with your EHR/PMS 

Acuity: Scheduling pricing 

Starts at $15 per month (only calendar) and goes up to $50 per month (36 calendars)

Acuity: Scheduling support 

• FAQs/Forum
• Email/Help Desk
• Knowledge Base
• Chat

Pros of Acuity: Scheduling 

• User-friendly platform 
• Good customization options 

Cons of Acuity: Scheduling 

• Average customer support 
• Limited features and integrations available 

Acuity: Scheduling Reviews

Luma Health

Luma Health has a patient success platform through which it empowers patients to self-schedule their appointments and helps healthcare practices seamlessly manage their schedules. This patient appointment software helps reduce phone calls and keeps schedules full. 

Features of Luma Health 

• Self-schedule appointments in real-time 
• Integrate the online appointment scheduling software with your EHR 
• Share appointment scheduling links to patients via text
• Collect essential patient data by setting fields 
• Capture e-signatures of patients 

Luma Health pricing 

Contact support to access pricing plans 

Luma Health support

• Knowledge Base
• Chat
• Email/Help Desk
• Phone Support
• FAQs/Forum

Pros of Luma Health 

• User-friendly interface 
• Easy integration 

Cons of Luma Health 

• Limited support 
• Glitchy software 

Luma Health Reviews

Tebra 

Tebra is a medical software for scheduling that caters to medical practices, billing companies, and patients. This patient scheduling software is called the patient success platform, which empowers providers to streamline appointment scheduling, documentation, and routine tasks with utter ease. 

Features of Tebra 

• Allow patients to self-book appointments 
• Send automated appointment confirmations and reminders 
• Share booking URL via text 
• Integrate with EHR/EMR 

Tebra pricing 

Contact support to access pricing information 

Tebra support 

• Email 
• Phone 
• Knowledge base 

Pros of Tebra 

• Intuitive software, easy to navigate 
• Easy chart building 

Cons of Tebra 

• Below average support 
• Issues with billing 

Tebra Reviews

Mend  

Mend is a patient scheduling system that helps healthcare practices make the process of scheduling appointments easier and more efficient. This appointment scheduling software typically caters to mid to large healthcare organizations. 

Features of Mend 

• Let patients self-schedule appointments 
• Send appointment notifications and reminders 
• Integrate the hospital scheduling software with your EHR 
• Customize appointment types as per requirements 
• Send post-visit surveys and bulk notifications

Mend pricing 

Starts at $49 per month, but need to upgrade plan for advanced features such as EHR integrations, patient scheduling, workflows, and more. (contact support)

Mend support 

• FAQs/Forum
• Email/Help Desk
• Phone Support
• 24/7 (Live rep)
• Knowledge Base
• Chat

Pros of Mend 

• Intuitive, easy to use software

Cons of Mend 

• Frequent glitches 

Mend Reviews

Why Should You Use A Patient Appointment Scheduling Software?

A patient appointment scheduling software is exactly the breakthrough you need if you want to elevate patient experience and satisfaction, while also empowering your employees. Here are some key benefits of using an online appointment scheduling software: 

Improve patient experience 

When you let your patient self-schedule, reschedule, and cancel their appointments at their own convenience, you give them full control over the appointment booking process. This degree of flexibility improves patient experience and boosts satisfaction, thereby improving retention rates. Moreover, if your healthcare scheduling software system is intuitive and easy to use, you will see a spike in your patient acquisition rates as well.  

Boost employee productivity 

When you give patients the freedom to schedule their own appointments, you relieve the burden off your front desk, who is otherwise spending their day frantically managing calls. Using an online appointment scheduling software will save 2-3 hours of your employees’ daily time as they don’t need to attend calls booking appointments. With the appointment scheduling process put on auto-pilot mode, your employees can direct their focus towards improving patient care, and be more productive.  

Reduce no-shows 

Since patients can manage their schedules seamlessly through the patient appointment software, they can reschedule appointments just in case they are not available for the booked slot. Moreover, the chances of no-shows are further reduced when you send appointment reminders to your patients. This will ensure that the patients don’t miss their appointment, and can reschedule if needed. 

Digitize patient journey 

Digitizing the patient journey at various touchpoints is necessary to boost patient engagement and satisfaction. What’s better than streamlining the very first step of patient engagement and communication? When patients have access to an appointment scheduling software, they can self-schedule appointments, and be in constant touch with the clinic through notifications and reminders. They don’t need to call the clinic or visit it in person to book an appointment, as the initial process itself is smooth and tailored to their needs. 

Increase revenue and conversions 

With an online appointment scheduling software, you get to streamline processes, which in turn leaves your employees with the time to build meaningful relationships with the patients and provide personalized care. When patients get the responsiveness they need from the practice, they will automatically convert and always reach out to you. This in turn will increase your revenue and will contribute to the overall growth of your practice. 

Features To Look For In An Appointment Scheduling Software

Calendar integration 

If you want to minimize human error, and also keep your patients informed about their upcoming appointments; then your ideal patient scheduling software must have the feature of integrating your business calendar with it. Not only will you be able to see all appointments in one place but will also focus on other tasks while you watch your calendar get filled with appointments.  

Appointment reminders 

We bet that a no-show would be the last thing you want to experience as a practice because it’s not only a missed opportunity but also a loss of revenue. To reduce your no-shows by 90%, you need to invest in a medical scheduling software that allows you to send automated appointment reminders to your patients. With automated reminders, you can ensure that your patients are well aware of their appointments. 

SMS alerts 

Your appointment scheduling software must also have a texting functionality that allows you to interact with patients whenever they book appointments. Right from sending text message alerts to sending text blasts to patients regarding changes in schedules; you will be able to communicate information in a much quicker manner. 

Easy scheduling and cancellation 

Ease of use is something that you can never ignore whenever picking the right online appointment scheduling software. If there are too many steps involved in booking appointments, then the patient will get frustrated and leave your site. If you don’t want to come across such a scenario, then make sure that the appointment scheduling software offers appointment scheduling and cancellation in just a few clicks. 

EMR integration 

Your patient scheduling software must integrate with your EMR, to ensure smooth and secure transition of data. Not only will such an integration give you easy access to critical patient information but will also help streamline workflows. This level of interoprability of software is necessary for you to keep all information in one centralized database without having to compromise on security. 

Omnichannel communication 

Integrating communication channels to your healthcare scheduling app will help you access all conversations on one centralized dashboard, thus making sure that you don’t miss out on any messages from your leads, existing patients, or staff. Omnichannel communication is a must-have feature for your healthcare practice.  

End-to-end support 

While choosing your ideal online appointment scheduling software, make sure to assess all the support channels available. One of the most important channels of support is live chat, because that’s where you get instant help. What if you wanted to send automated reminders to your patients but that feature is not working properly? Would you drop an email to the support team and wait for their response or rather have them address your problem right away? The latter, right? Live support is ideal when you have time sensitive issues to resolve. Make sure that your chosen software offers live or 24/7 support. 

Autoresponders 

Being able to communicate with your patients instantly is something that you need to master, because instant communication further boosts patient engagement and satisfaction. Your chosen patient appointment software should offer autoresponders as a capability to handle general queries about appointment booking, rescheduling, and cancellation. This will ensure timely communication and improve patient experience. 

SMS templates 

Having to write every message from scratch can be overwhelming when you have a practice to run and not a lot of time to spare. SMS templates are a great way to deal with such a problem. All you need to do is choose a template based on the kind of message you need to communicate, tweak the details as per your preference and hit send! Make sure that the medical scheduling software that you choose offers a variety of SMS templates for you to work with.

Why Is Emitrr The Best Appointment Scheduling Software?

Emitrr is the best appointment scheduling software for your practice because of the following reasons: 

1. Emitrr encompasses all the aforementioned capabilities you need to simplify appointment scheduling and streamline your workflows. 
2. Emitrr also offers a variety of other features such as secure texting, missed calls to text, webchat to text, group texting, bulk text messaging, SMS marketing, and team collaboration to help you save time and run operations smoothly. 
3. Emitrr integrates with 500+ medical softwares and also offers complete support to set up the integrations, whether it’s your EMR or your calendar. 
4. Emitrr’s pricing is pretty straightforward, you pay for what you use. There are no hidden charges, binding contracts or setup fees involved. 
5. A lot of healthcare practices have lauded Emitrr because of its ease of use. The online scheduling platform is quite intuitive and patients can book appointments in just a few clicks; there is no learning curve involved. 
6. The support team of Emitrr is the most talked about element in the reviews left by customers on Capterra. The support team is quite responsive and always available to help. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion 

After exploring the top 7 appointment scheduling softwares in great depth, we bet you would have finalized the one that best suits your needs. Did Emitrr’s offerings catch your attention? If you are eager to explore how you’d benefit from Emitrr’s appointment scheduling capabilities, then book a demo!