Appointment management Patient flow management

What is a COVID-19 vaccine scheduling solution?

Graham Gidley |April 16 2021 | 7 min

As a patient flow management specialist, my job is to help our clients improve their patient and staff experience by using patient flow management techniques. In this article, I'll describe what a COVID-19 vaccination scheduling solution is and how it fulfills patient and healthcare providers current needs.

What is a COVID-19 vaccine scheduling solution?

A COVID-19 vaccine scheduling solution has all the standard components of a patient flow management system, allowing you to monitor, plan, and manage all patient touchpoints. Furthermore, this is a system that has been refined and adapted to deal with the specific challenges of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Below I briefly explain some of the main features that we have included in our solution to help you provide a safe vaccination experience for your patients.

Appointment scheduling

The system includes a portal for patients to find a location and book an appointment for the vaccination. There is also an interface for your staff to manage appointments from an office or call center.

Patient communication

The system automatically manages notifications to the patients, such as confirmations and reminders. You can easily communicate with the patient through email or text message.

Arrival management

There is an additional app for your staff to manage the arrival of patients, including solutions such as check-in and notifications to guide the patients from a waiting area to the vaccination area.

How to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 vaccinations

To successfully carry out thousands of vaccinations you need to overcome several challenges. Below I describe how our solution help you overcome the challenges of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Match supply with arrivals

The unpredictable supply of COVID-19 vaccines can lead to two unfortunate situations:

Scenario 1: You have many patients arriving at the facility, but you don't have enough vaccination in stock.

Scenario 2: You have a lot of vaccination in stock but too few appointments with patients.

Since the COVID-19 vaccine needs to be used after it is unpackaged, it is critical to match the appointments with the supply. Thus, we have carefully designed our vaccination solution to help you prevent these situations from occurring. With the system, you can get control over the appointment and arrival process. With dashboards to track arrivals, you can see the number of no-shows, which might dictate that a less than expected amount of vaccine should be prepared.

Manage second dose appointments

Many healthcare providers express that there is a challenge managing second-dose appointments. It's easy for you to schedule the second dose during the observation period after the first dose is administrated with our solution. This allows you to ensure the patient schedules the correct manufacturer for the second dose and enables them to choose a time that suits them.

Move the patient seamlessly from appointment to observation

To ensure a safe visit, you need to manage the entire patient journey, including waiting, registration, injection, and observation. With our vaccination solution, the visitor receives a QR code which can be scanned upon arrival. You can inform the visitors through messaging like text messages or media displays what to expect and where to go.

What to consider when choosing a vaccination solution

Every time you choose a system, you need to consider the target audience. Who is your patient, and what are their specific needs? When it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations, we've seen that it's crucial to meet the most vulnerable and elderly patient's needs. For example, you need to be able to offer a simple way of making appointments.

It's not enough to put up a first-come-first-serve website. You need a solution that reserves slots for call-in appointments and even community outreach to find proactively and sign-up older people.

Another essential feature is that the solution needs to accommodate multiple languages.

Healthcare providers may have different patient flows. COVID-19 vaccination occurs in clinics, pharmacies, drive-throughs, and temporary locations like community centers or even large civic centers. Each site has its unique challenges and required infrastructure. Thus, it would be best if you chose a solution that accommodates all the scenarios and patient flow you may encounter.

Watch the demo of Qmatic's vaccine scheduling solution

The Qmatic's vaccine scheduling solution is designed to solve all scenarios and challenges that COVID-19 vaccination may entail. Do you want to learn more about how the solution can help you?

Click the bottom below to watch a demo, which covers the four main steps in the vaccination process: