Top-features-for-online-scheduling

Top 8 features you need in an online scheduling system

As an acupuncturist, you want to focus on what you do best: taking care of your patients. The right online scheduling system will help streamline and automate your clinic’s day-to-day operations, so you can spend less time doing administrative work, and more time helping your patients.

Here are the top 8 features every acupuncturist needs in their online scheduling system.

1. Everything you need at a glance.

An online scheduler should help make your practice more efficient, not slow you down. It should show you everything you need in one quick glance, with additional information just a click away. With Open ACU’s beautiful, easy to navigate interface, one look at the day’s schedule tells you everything you need to know.

Bonus: You can easily see more granular data in Open ACU, such as appointment and treatment histories, change logs, and detailed patient info, all within a click or two.

2. A patient portal that’s easy to navigate.

Your patients want to be able to schedule an appointment in just a few clicks. It should be easy to log in, view available appointments, and click on a time to confirm their spot.

Bonus: Open ACU’s patient portal also allows patients to view past and future appointments, easily cancel and reschedule appointments, view their payment history, print receipts, and change their personal information.

3. Features to help reduce late cancellations and no-shows.

With automated appointment reminder emails, patients are much less likely to forget and no-show for an appointment. Reminder emails should have a calendar integration option so patients can easily add their acupuncture appointments to their online calendar. Your system should also allow you to easily charge a late cancellation fee.

Bonus: Open ACU includes automated appointment confirmation and reminder emails, management of late cancellation and no-shows, and also has an option for text message reminders, for an additional $5 per month.

4. An EHR integration.

Online scheduling is great, and an integrated electronic health records (EHR) component really takes streamlining your practice to the next level. With an integrated EHR, there’s no toggling back and forth between different systems, and no paper! Everything is contained within one seamless system.

Bonus: Open ACU’s EHR includes electronic intake forms which patients can complete online, and also allows practitioners to save their favorite points and point combinations for fast, efficient charting.

5. Streamlined bookkeeping for accurate financial accounting.

A scheduler that records and tracks payments means better financial record-keeping for your clinic. This also allows patients to easily print receipts for reimbursement from their insurance or HSA company. The right system will also easily and accurately track pre-pays, credits, and money owed.

Bonus: Open ACU includes detailed payments tracking, and also has an optional credit card payment integration via Stripe. With our Stripe integration, you can securely store a patient’s credit card information, quickly take payments, and even charge automatically for late cancellations and no-shows.

6. Reports to help you better understand your practice.

Sales reports, transactions, and appointment histories help you understand how your clinic is performing and where you want to grow. Reports should be easy to access, read, and understand.

Bonus: Open ACU includes basic transaction and appointment reports that are customizable by date range, location, or practitioner. You can even track your rate of return for new patients.

7. Customizable features for your unique clinic.

Every clinic is different. At Open ACU, we strive to provide an all-inclusive system that meets the unique needs of your practice, with customizable features such as flexible appointment block and slot settings, practitioner-specific preferences, and even the ability to double-book appointments.

Bonus: Many online scheduling and EHR systems have features that most acupuncturists don’t utilize. Open ACU is unique in that it was developed with the specific needs of acupuncturists in mind. It was created for acupuncturists, by acupuncturists.

8. Simple pricing.

Many online scheduling systems have a fee structure based on the number of practitioners, locations, users, patients, appointments, or records, which means that as your clinic grows, your monthly fee grows too. At Open ACU, we like to keep things simple. Our base price is $55 per month for up to two active locations, and unlimited practitioners, users, patients, appointments, and health records. Our optional add-on features have similarly simple pricing: $5 per month for SMS appointment reminders; $5 per month for document uploads, $10 per month for additional active locations beyond two, and $10 per month for credit card integration via Stripe, plus transaction fees. As your clinic grows, the price you pay for Open ACU will stay the same.

Bottom line:

There are many options for online scheduling systems, but only Open ACU includes the most important features you need, and was developed for the unique needs of an acupuncture practice.

To learn more about Open ACU or schedule a demo, please contact us! We’d love to show you around.