Feb 24 2021
DrChrono Inc., the company developing the essential platform and services for modern medical practices and Nimblr developers of a healthcare AI assistant, announced today a scheduling automation solution to tackle the overload of appointment requests and eligibility requirements for COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
With President Biden’s vaccination goal of 150 million applied doses by May 1, 2021 the healthcare industry faces a challenge like never before. Millions of Americans are seeking information and attempting to book vaccinations; which means phone lines, websites, and staff are overwhelmed.
Confusion on adequate scheduling and contact channels can overwhelm patients and push them to abandon their pursuit of getting vaccinated. With Holly, the AI assistant that automates scheduling by emulating a human assistant, patients can reach these companies 24/7 to access availability and details across multiple communication channels.
Holly, created by Stanford StartX alumni, operates by registering appointments patients make, incoming from either phone calls and texts, and inputs them directly into the provider’s DrChrono calendar, respecting their live availability and scheduling rules.
This streamlines communication and appointment eligibility by filtering qualified patients and notifying them of further instructions or second dose scheduling.
What makes this solution a key element in the vaccine rollout is its limitless capacity. While vaccination centers can only take a finite amount of phone calls and website requests before they crash, Nimblr’s platform is capable of scheduling thousands of patients simultaneously by leveraging DrChrono’s API and cloud capabilities.
This becomes essential for patients since it reduces their scheduling wait periods by 75% and provides anytime, anywhere scheduling via text. As a result, there’s an increase in accessibility and it eliminates barriers for vaccination. In addition to this, patients receive timely reminders and broadcast messages to ensure they know their appointment time and place and reduce no-show rates.
“We are thrilled to see Nimblr’s new scheduling automation solution in sync with our health platform helping practices with the COVID vaccination rollout,” said Daniel Kivatinos, Co-Founder and COO of DrChrono. “Nimblr is a great example of a company leveraging the DrChrono API. The vaccine rollout will be a major effort and focus area for medical practices of all sizes this year, using the right technology will be key for an overall smoother process.”
An additional challenge vaccination centers are facing is the unpredictability of weekly vaccine supply, meaning their appointment availability is in constant flux. The AI assistant helps tackle this problem with its dynamic re-scheduling system based on the center’s current inventory.
Holly provides a real-time waitlist and auto-fills available slots with the help of DrCrhono’s API call system so centers can fully allocate their doses.
This results in zero waste scheduling and capacity optimization allowing distributors to vaccinate more patients during the workday.
“Our purpose is to help the healthcare industry reach its true potential with the right tools. This takes further relevance by aiding practitioners in the process of public health restoration," mentions Juan Vera, CEO at Nimblr. “DrChrono’s healthcare technology interoperability is a key enabler to achieve this goal and meet the vaccination challenges.”
Nimblr’s AI platform is powered by multilingual NLP (natural language processing) and deep machine learning for patient behavior understanding. DrChrono’s award-winning API allows the AI assistant to seamlessly integrate with the platform and supports healthcare interoperability (HL7 FHIR).
Both companies are focused on developing the necessary technology required to support the evolving needs of patients and doctors across the country.
DrChrono’s API was also recently awarded the 2021 DEVIES Award winner for Best Innovation in Healthcare. DrChrono provides a free and open API and SDK to the developer community for its healthcare platform.
It allows developers the opportunity to create applications that leverage the abundance of health data in the DrChrono EHR, practice management, medical billing and now telehealth platform.