Best in Category: Empowering
Interaction Awards 2013
ZocDoc’s purpose is to empower patients to be more engaged and empowered with their healthcare planning and decision-making.ZocDoc is a digital platform that provides patients unprecedented access to healthcare. ZocDoc’s core feature, online booking, enables patients to find great doctors who take their insurance, view those doctors’ availability online, and instantly book an appointment with the doctors they choose.ZocDoc goes even further by providing tools that empower patients to complete their medical/registration forms online, make follow-up appointments, and manage their ongoing health care. Whereas most healthcare technologies focus on building software for physicians and often treat the patient user experience as an afterthought, ZocDoc’s focus is on making the entire patient-doctor relationship easier, more transparent, and above all more patient-centric.In fact, the driving philosophy behind ZocDoc’s design is “Patients First”. The goal is to transform how we think about healthcare by, for the first time ever, putting patients truly in control.
Context
We’re in a time of great change in the American health care industry. Just over half of U.S. doctors have adopted electronic health records systems, and that number is growing. Healthcare reform is about to bring millions of new patients into the healthcare system.
But the patient experience is sorely lacking. The average wait time to see a doctor is three full weeks. In an era where consumer technologies gives us greater control over so much of our lives, from managing personal finances to ordering take-out food, it makes sense that patients should be just as empowered in managing their healthcare.
Healthcare is an area of life where individuals are uncertain and vulnerable. Too much of the healthcare ecosystem is opaque and inaccessible to patients. Even the first step booking an appointment is fraught with challenges: It’s a struggle to pick the right doctor (who takes your insurance), coordinate the best appointment time, and to communicate with the doctor so the visit is productive.
We created ZocDoc to allow patients to find those open time slots and book appointments when they need them, even on the same day.
Impact
ZocDoc is one of New York’s fastest growing startups, but by far our most important impact is on patients, and on the healthcare system overall.
Patients who use ZocDoc see the doctor more often, and more quickly, than they would without ZocDoc. We’ve seen deaf patients use ZocDoc to make appointments they could not have previously made over the phone. We’ve seen severely ill patients get diagnosed and treated months in advance of what the old phone system would have permitted. Shy and reluctant patients can seek healthcare discreetly using ZocDoc’s easy web-based tools.
ZocDoc’s iPhone and Android mobile apps have earned 5-star ratings in their respective app stores. Over 130,000 people have downloaded our apps.
Our new Check-in feature, which allows patients to fill out all their registration and medical information forms online before going to the office, has a nearly 90% completion rate for patients who begin the process. These are very complex forms, but patients are finding our process quick and easy to complete. As a result, patients are seeing doctors with less hassle and more accurate information.
Craft
Booking an appointment is ZocDoc’s core functionality. Our interaction model is as simple as can be: showing patients only doctors who take their insurance, letting patients read verified reviews of those doctors, and only exposing those doctors’ time slots that are available.
Behind the scenes, this is immensely complex. There are over 100 practice management (scheduling) software systems in use. A key challenge ZocDoc has overcome is providing both software- and service-based systems for medical practices to quickly and accurately synchronize their schedules with ZocDoc.
The ZocDoc patient user experience is not only simple and clean, but also light and just a little fun with friendly illustrations and conversational language.
ZocDoc also makes it easy for patients to stay healthier by staying connected with their Medical Team. Not just when they’re in an emergency, but for annual check-ups and physicals, for preventative specialized care, and for ongoing treatment planning.
