6 best medical appointment scheduling software solutions

Medical offices often have operational inefficiencies, but few have as big an impact as poor scheduling practices and patients who fail to show up for their appointments. These types of inefficiencies add up to a staggering $150 billion a year in the U.S.

To cut down on patient no-shows and run an efficient medical practice, hospitals and healthcare centers need comprehensive medical appointment scheduling software. This software manages patient appointments, automates administrative workflows, and allocates medical staff accordingly.

The best software includes scheduling algorithms that reduce patient wait times and facilitate communication with patients to confirm scheduled appointments. Some solutions integrate with electronic health record systems to access and update patient information, while others provide self-service portals for patients to book and manage appointments.

Below are six medical appointment scheduling software options to consider.

1. Jotform

Though not limited to healthcare providers, Jotform offers HIPAA-friendly forms for appointment scheduling, collecting payment, gathering patient medical histories, and more. The new appointment field makes it easier than ever for patients to schedule appointments and for providers to manage appointments.

Features that enable HIPAA compliance are available with the Gold plan. If you’re looking for enterprise features, Jotform can provide those as well.

2. Luma Health

More than 100,000 healthcare providers use Luma Health as their patient scheduling solution. The platform automatically sends patients whose appointments have been canceled a text with a link to reschedule their appointment. They can reschedule from their phone through Luma Health’s Web Scheduler, which providers can embed on their website. With the Web Scheduler, both new and existing patients can easily make, confirm, or reschedule appointments, or join a waitlist if necessary, all through a simple text message.

Luma Health has more than 70 electronic health record (EHR) integrations. The platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to send reminders that are automatically processed. The two-way integration means confirmations write back to your EHR in real time, so appointment inventory is always accurate and up to date.

Pricing depends on the needs of the provider. Contact Luma Health to schedule a demonstration and request a quote.

3. NextGen Healthcare

With 45 years of experience, NextGen Healthcare has a growing network of 155,000 ambulatory care providers. Its platform allows medical practices to send personalized messages for patient outreach, automate registration, schedule and confirm appointments, and streamline the flow of patient communications on a variety of devices.

NextGen can also assist with medical billing and claims processing, offering services that provide status verification for insurance claims, claim scrubbing — which helps minimize errors in medical billing codes — and denial management functionality to help practices avoid denied claims and get paid on time for their healthcare services.

NextGen’s platform can work for both small, individual practices and larger healthcare chains, and the company will tailor a pricing quote based on the needs of your organization.

4. Skedulo

Skedulo, built for the modern workforce, matches available and qualified employees (whether onsite or mobile) to patient requirements and expectations. It offers drag-and-drop scheduling with clean visuals like maps, calendars, swim lanes, and Gantt charts, all of which help avoid errors and increase efficiency.

Skedulo manages patient and provider schedules and locations in one system, delivering appointment details and updates directly to both provider and patient phones. The HIPAA-friendly platform includes intelligent appointment scheduling, a mobile app with support for charting/notes, and API integration to other systems.

You must contact the company for pricing information.

5. Practice Suite

This cloud-based practice management and telemedicine platform includes

• Patient reminders
• Color-coded time slots
• First-available scheduling
• Custom templates
• Multilocation scheduling
• Multispecialty, multi-provider scheduling
• A comprehensive patient ledger
• Tracking of changes/cancellations

You can drag and drop appointments so your staff will spend less time typing data into the program, which reduces the risk of errors.

Practice Suite is completely customizable. You can set up the system to warn you about future conflicts, customize letters and labels, print patient demographics, view patient balance and copays, and access an audit history. Users can also create scheduling reports that allow for easy maneuvering between providers and locations, display billing and clinical alerts, and see missed copay and superbills.

Prospective users can sign up for a free trial. Pricing for comprehensive plans is based on the needs of the organization.

6. AdvancedMD

AdvancedMD is designed for private practices to move “your practice forward with scheduling software that streamlines your day from start to finish.”

The platform allows medical offices to set a series of recurring appointments and adjust the appointments in the series as needed. Patients can be added to a waitlist with a trigger to automatically enter them into an available time slot, along with auto-reminders that alert patients before their appointment.

AdvancedMD gives providers a snapshot of daily appointment counts for each provider, resource, or practice location. In addition, you can track patient office visits and use key metrics to shorten wait time to increase both staff and facility utilization. Other features include insurance verification on the spot prior to the appointment or for the entire day’s schedule.

Customers can build their own product bundle or choose from one of the preconfigured bundles. For pricing information, contact AdvancedMD.

Choosing the best medical appointment scheduling software

Scheduling a medical appointment can be frustrating for patients, office staff, and providers, but it doesn’t have to be. Medical appointment scheduling software can streamline your scheduling process, reduce costly (and frustrating) no-shows, and make it easier to analyze and collect patient data.

What you choose will depend on the size of your practice and the needs of your organization. But regardless of the platform you implement, medical appointment scheduling software will improve communication in your office and with your patients, reduce inefficiencies, and improve your bottom line.