When managing a chiropractic practice, you likely have many responsibilities regarding your clients, your business, and your colleagues.  It’s important that you have a solidified scheduling procedure in place so that you can streamline your workflows, organize your schedule, and make client booking easy.  Leveraging an online calendar software system will allow you to take your scheduling workflow to the next level.  

As you begin to research chiropractic scheduling software, you’ll quickly realize that most systems offer a host of features, capabilities, and cater to different specialties. First and foremost, your calendar software should be HIPAA-compliant and cloud-based, so that you and your clients can rest assured their information is secure, yet easily accessible. Healthie’s practice management software is completely HIPAA- & PCI compliant. Learn more about our free account by clicking here.

To help get you started, think of what is essential for your chiropractic practice.  What features does your team absolutely need, and which ones would be convenient add-ons?  The ideal chiropractic scheduling system for your organization will check-off all of the boxes in your “need” list, and most of the features in your “want” list.

To help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of common and necessary features to look for in the software you choose.

7 Features of Chiropractic Scheduling Systems

1. Online appointment booking

When looking for scheduling software for your practice, having the ability to allow clients to use an online appointment booking system saves both you and them time.  Booking healthcare appointments over the phone has become less and less desired by clients as advances in technology offer easier methods (our free Starter plan provides all of that and more). A recent study found that 70% of participants consider the ability to book online with their provider important.  Additionally, 40% of participants would actually switch providers to be able to book their appointments online.  

Embedding your calendar into your website or landing page creates a clear and professional portal for wellness clients to self-book an appointment. Adding the ability to have a patient scheduling system on your website will increase the likelihood that prospective chiropractic clients will schedule with you.  It eliminates the “in-between” steps of calling or emailing.

2. Appointment reminders

Sending appointment reminders allows your no-show and late cancellation rates to be easily improved; finding a scheduling software that allows you to automate this process will ensure fewer appointments are missed.  Research shows that appointment reminders reduce client no-shows by 38%, which will save your practice thousands of dollars in the long run.  

Automated appointment reminders can be sent by using an online booking system with appointment reminder capabilities. A comprehensive calendar feature allows nutrition and wellness professionals to customize appointment reminders for their practice. Look for a patient scheduling system that allows you to choose if you’d like clients to receive appointment reminders via email and/or text message, and select how frequently you’d like reminders to be sent. Clients should also have the ability to confirm their appointments, which helps chiropractors know that a new (or follow-up) client will be attending their session.

3. Shared calendar for multiple providers

Within your chiropractic practice, managing the schedule of multiple providers and supervisors can be a large undertaking.  Coordinating appointments, team meetings, and time off for each individual provider is a complicated process and requires time and a comprehensive calendar platform.  When managing a team of wellness providers, a company shared calendar is an absolute necessity to ensure maximum efficiency and organization within your wellness business. Whether you’re a solo practitioner or part of a multi-provider group or organization, our flexible membership plans adapt to meet your business needs.

A shared calendar should give you the ability to view other providers’ schedules and schedule appointments and meetings for both you and them.  As a provider, checking on your colleagues’ schedules is also an important part of working in a group practice.  Having a company shared calendar with coworkers is an important step in establishing open communication lines, while also setting boundaries for collaboration and communication.  It helps ensure that when you reach out to them with a task, check-in on project status, or just ask a question, you’re not interrupting an appointment or other meeting.  

4. Set one-time and repeating availability

Having a system  where you can mark your availability is mainly important for patient scheduling.  Setting your availability within your calendar makes scheduling appointments a seamless process; whether you schedule for clients, an administrative assistant does it, or clients schedule themselves, having your availability clearly marked eliminates the back and forth of trying to find a time, and anyone scheduling during a time you are unavailable.

Additionally, when working in a practice with other chiropractors, marking your availability on a shared calendar allows for full transparency and easy communication within your team.  Other providers can see when you’re available for team meetings or company events by taking a quick look at the shared calendar.  

Having the ability to set your availability also allows you to clearly establish work-life boundaries; set times you are actually available to work, to avoid any confusion or appointments being scheduled outside of work hours.

5. Custom appointment settings

When working in chiropractic practice, you likely have different types of appointments that you offer to clients, such as an initial consultation, follow-up sessions, telehealth appointments, and more.  Your appointment scheduling system should give you the ability to create these different appointment types to keep your schedule organized.  

Look for a chiropractic scheduling system that allows you to create appointment types with customizations such as:

• Name
• Length of time
• How the session will be conducted (in-person, telehealth, phone, etc)
• Be a group or individual session
• Manually or automatically appointments
• Appointment location

6. External Calendar Sync

For anyone, managing multiple calendars that don’t speak to each other is a quick way to cause business inefficiencies. Find a scheduling system that allows you to sync your different internal and external (ie. personal) calendars to streamline your operations, prevent appointments from being booked when you are unavailable, and make it easy to see your schedule in one place.

Depending on your preferred calendaring tools, and devices, there are different approaches you can take towards consolidating your calendars. It’s also important to keep HIPAA-compliance in mind so that any private client information (like their name) is not shared on non-compliant (or shared) calendars. For your calendar to be HIPAA-compliant, you must have a signed BAA in place with the calendar provider.

7. Integrated with EHR

Overall, in order for your chiropractic scheduling system to truly be beneficial for your business, it should be integrated with your EHR and practice management software.  This will eliminate the need to switch back and forth between multiple platforms to access client information and complete back-office tasks.  Client chart notes, appointment data, payment data, and journal entries will all be accessible from one place for both you and your clients.  Utilizing an EHR in your practice also allows you to easily keep personal health information secure, yet easily accessible.  Most modern EHRs are both HIPAA-compliant and cloud-based, meaning client’s information will be accessible from anywhere, but also protected. To set up a free Starter account with Healthie today, click here.

Not only is an EHR beneficial for providers, but in order for patients to connect securely with their healthcare provider and receive ongoing care, a Patient Portal is necessary. Patient portals allow patients to access their records, such as notes, recommendations, test results, and other documents. Allowing patients to access important information regarding their health is effective, and research shows that 2 out of 3 patients would consider switching to a physician who offers access to medical records through a secure internet connection.

Healthie’s Calendar & Patient Scheduling System Features

Healthie’s Calendar feature includes all of the features you need to run your chiropractic business, including:

• Embed codes for online booking on your website
• Appointment reminders sent as texts and emails to clients
• Shared calendar for group practices
• The ability to set one-time and repeating availability
• Customize your appointment settings
• External sync with iCal, Google Calendar, and Outlook
• Part of a comprehensive EHR, telehealth, and practice management platform

See how else Healthie can help your chiropractic practice here.