CONSUMER PORTAL FOR HEALTHCARE APPOINTMENTS ACROSS PRACTICE GROUPS
Systems and methods for aggregating available healthcare appointment times across multiple unaffiliated practitioner groups, including search and display algorithms. A centralized marketplace is provided for real time booking of healthcare appointments which does not require the patient to have a preexisting relationship with the practitioner. The aggregated booking system enhances the number of available near term and conveniently located appointment options while the search and display algorithms reduce the complexity of the patient and practitioner information required to maintain accurate and synchronized database booking records.
1 . A method for online booking of a healthcare appointment comprising:
accessing a website offering a plurality of healthcare appointments from a plurality of healthcare practice groups for online booking;
requesting an appointment from the website based on practitioner specialty and patient location; and
booking an appointment by selecting from available appointments, provided on the website, which match the requested specialty and location.
2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
selecting the requested specialty from predefined practitioner specialties provided on the website.
3 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
specifying the requested location based on a zip code, address or municipality.
4 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
selecting from predefined insurance categories provided on the website to be included with the request; and
wherein the selection is made from available appointments which match the requested specialty, location and insurance category.
5 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
browsing practitioner profile information provided on the website.
6 . The method of claim 5 , comprising:
identifying a practitioner with the request; and
wherein the selection is made from available appointments which match the requested specialty, location and practitioner.
7 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
selecting from predefined procedure types provided on the website to be included with the request; and
wherein the selection is made from available appointments which match the requested specialty, location, and procedure type.
8 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
specifying a desired appointment date, to be included with the request; and
wherein the selection is made from available appointments which match the requested specialty, location, and date.
9 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
opening a patient account via the website, prior to completing online booking of the appointment.
10 . The method of claim 9 , comprising:
providing a patient phone number unique to the patient for opening of the patient account.
11 . The method of claim 1 , comprising:
the selection is made by clicking on one of a plurality of links provided on the website, each link being specific to an individual available appointment start time.
12 . A system for online booking of a healthcare appointment comprising:
providing a webpage display of available healthcare appointment time slots from a plurality of healthcare practitioner groups for online booking of an appointment;
the webpage including associated practitioner location and practitioner insurance information; and
the webpage including a means enabling a patient to send an online request for a selected one of the available time slots to book an appointment.
13 - 20 . (canceled)
21 . A system for online booking of a healthcare appointments comprising:
providing a website offering a plurality of available appointments from a plurality of healthcare practice groups for online booking from the website;
the website providing search criteria enabling patients to specify for a desired appointment:
practitioner specialty;
procedure type;
location; and
insurance.
22 . The system of claim 21 , wherein:
the website provides practitioner profile information and a search criteria for specifying a desired practitioner.
23 . The system of claim 21 , wherein:
the website provides patient reviews of practitioners, wherein the reviews are limited to patients who have completed an appointment booked via the website.
24 . The system of claim 21 , wherein:
the insurance criteria includes insurance carriers and insurance plans.
25 . The system of claim 24 , wherein:
predefined insurance carriers and plans are provided on the website from which a patient can select.
26 . The system of claim 21 , wherein:
predefined lists for each of practitioner specialty, procedure type and insurance are provided on the website from which a patient can select.
27 . The system of claim 21 , wherein:
the website provides a search criteria for at least one of a desired date and time of the appointment.