What We’re Doing to Help Clinics With COVID-19

Medical centres are our most important frontline defence against COVID-19. They are charged with serving the health needs of their local communities, while protecting staff and visiting patients from unnecessary exposure. This public health challenge is further compounded by the new information about COVID-19 that continues to surface almost every day.

Hopefully, it brings some relief that HotDoc is here to help. With over 16,000 GPs on our platform processing more than 1.3 million bookings per month, HotDoc is well positioned to help clinics respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, while continuing to deliver the best possible patient experience.

We have already taken a number of early steps to help practices successfully educate their patient base, screen at-risk patients, and accept teleconsults. Below are some valuable tools clinics using HotDoc can now access:

Clinic Education 

Our Clinical Director Magali De Castro and the customer-facing team recently put together the following resources:

• COVID-19-ready kit for users of HotDoc, found here
• Webinar with a COVID-19 Update for General Practice, found here 

Patient Education

Each month, HotDoc facilitates more than 4.7 million patient interactions across our Bookings, Reminders, Recalls and Waiting Room solutions. Each of these digital touchpoints is an opportunity to educate patients on the most up-to-date information related to COVID-19. 

We have now added a new Inform feature:

• An awareness campaign that educates patients about COVID-19 at the time they make a booking, confirm a reminder, or check-in to the waiting room. As of yesterday, this message had been seen by over 130,000 patients.

We’ve also gone to significant lengths to build a new workflow that ensures all HotDoc patients are appropriately screened before they confirm their booking, or take a seat in the waiting room. Already more than 1,000 clinics have turned this feature on.

By simply clicking a check-box in the HotDoc dashboard, a clinic can activate:

• Messages and screening questions in the online booking flow, and in confirmation emails, which advise all at-risk patients to call the clinic prior to arrival
• A screening questionnaire at the start of HotDoc’s check-in workflow, which directs at-risk patients to the front desk

Click here for help with setting this screening mode up

Telehealth

Following the federal government’s announcement to introduce telehealth Medicare rebate items for quarantined or at-risk patients, HotDoc has also developed a way for clinics to accept teleconsult appointments online. 

Our initial solution—available now—consists of:

• A screening questionnaire for patients to self-identify their eligibility and confirm a telehealth appointment online
• A way—during the booking—to confirm which phone number is most appropriate for the doctor to contact the patient on 
• The ability to write-back into the practice appointment diary so that the booking is automatically added to a doctor’s calendar

As the COVID-19 situation evolves, HotDoc will work closely with medical centres and industry bodies, so that we can continue to support the needs of health professionals, practice staff and patients. 

In the meantime, we welcome any feedback on the measures we are taking. You can reach us at [email protected].

Regards,

Dr. Ben Hurst

CEO and Founder, HotDoc