Computerized appointment scheduling can dramatically boost your practice's productivity and profitability.

Kathleen Larson Reamer and Kathleen Scott, co-founders of Scott Larson LLC, an organization specializing in practice development and accounts receivable management, suggest you look for these functions in appointment scheduling software:

• The ability to generate appointment related reports.
They should include the number of new patients, number of canceled patients, number of no-shows, etc. Your system will also need to generate multiple views of schedules and chart pull lists as well.
• Many search levels for finding appointments.
This function will locate the desired appointment, based on criterion given by the patient, such as "next available," or "on Wednesday with Dr. A, only after 3:30 p.m."
• A master view of all appointments scheduled at all sites by all providers.
This overall practice view helps you zero in on unproductive times, sites and providers.
• Ability to archive appointment schedules.
This will help you meet record retention regulations and save paper schedule storage space.
• Extra features.
Look for medical alerts, recall links, patient notes links, waiting lists and appointment confirmation tags. Additionally, the system should warn users if they’re appointing providers who don’t offer a scheduled service or who don’t participate with the scheduled patient’s insurance plan.