Klaus Bartosch, MD of MyHealth1st platform, and Visualeyez director Craig Robertson at the Auckland launch

Klaus Bartosch knows more than most the importance of being able to act on a whim and book a health appointment quickly and easily, out of hours.

The co-founder of patient booking and engagement software MyHealth1st, and managing director of the platform’s parent company 1stGroup, had just finalised plans for his Vision Crusaders cycling team to complete the Australian Ride to Conquer Cancer fundraising races when his family urged him to get the swelling of his right knee looked at. Bartosch thought it was just a symptom of his recently diagnosed arthritis, but given his family’s concerns he somewhat begrudgingly went online, using his own platform, at 9pm to book an appointment the next day with a local doctor.

He had no white blood cells left in his body. The doctor packed him off to a specialist pronto and he was diagnosed with advanced-stage leukaemia and committed to hospital for emergency treatment.

If he’d gone cycling; if it had not been so simple to book the appointment, he could easily have died, he says. The memory is a powerful one, and few at the Auckland launch of MyHealth1st didn’t tear up when Bartosch went on to share how his daughter took his place in the endurance race, raising the promised funds for much-needed cancer research.

That was 2013 and neatly illustrates why Bartosch, together with an experienced team of online and health practice veterans, had joined forces to shake up the age-old way of booking healthcare appointments and engaging with patients.

Background

Since launching in Australia in 2012, first in dentistry before moving into other health areas, MyHealth1st has netted more than 6,000 customers and booked more than 6.5 million online appointments. It began selling the platform to Australian optometry practices just over a year ago and today books online appointments for more than 1,200 Australian practice owners; over 60% of the country’s independent optometry market.

Of the optometry bookings made online in Australia today, 43% are new customers and 57% are existing. But perhaps the most interesting statistic of all, says Bartosch, is that 70% of all online bookings are made during business hours, demonstrating that the vast majority of patients, if given the choice, would rather book online than have to call a practice.

A Kiwi case study

Sharing the Auckland launch platform in March for MyHealth1st in New Zealand, was Whangarei-based practice Visualeyez director Craig Robertson.

Frustrated by his own business’ inability to allow new and existing customers to book online, last year Robertson asked his practice management software provider, Optomate, for help and was referred to 1stGroup. After just two months of using the MyHealth1st booking system, Robertson was hooked. It helped drive bookings to his practice, was simple to use and integrated seamlessly with Optomate, his website and his Facebook page, he says. He also can’t wait to add 1stGroup’s patient recall service, EasyRecall, to his online marketing toolbox, despite the extra cost, he says, as soon as it becomes available in New Zealand.

“As a consumer I want to be part of the digital revolution. I want to contact people with emails and book online and I found it very frustrating that I couldn’t do that with my own practice, so that’s why I tried it. It’s a cost effective, very simple platform. It’s easy,” Robertson told the Auckland launch audience.

More compelling numbers

Of the 30-plus practice owners and managers at the Auckland launch, all the ones NZ Optics’ spoke too were having the same frustrations and were keen to provide an easy and effective online booking service to their current practice management systems. Many signed up on the night.

Bartosch, quoting from an international survey, says these frustrations are common among consumers, with 90% saying they wanted to use digital channels to manage their healthcare, 88% preferring digital reminders and a worrying 37% who switched providers to ones who offered online appointments.

Using an online booking and engagement platform like MyHealth1st allows you to convert your website and social media traffic into booked appointments, 24/7, says Bartosch. To date, the average return on investment for practices which have joined MyHealth1st’s booking and patient recall service is A$5,000 to A$20,000 a month per practice, with an average 41% of bookings being new patients, according to the ASX-listed company’s own data.

Other services

As well as its patient online booking and EasyRecall services, 1stGroup will also be rolling out its EasyFeedback service, allowing patients to engage more easily with the practice and let it know how it’s performed and what it can do better. The company also runs a free, optional contact lens service, designed to encourage more patients to consider contact lenses as an option. On average, those practices which have opted in to the contact lens add-on are having 20% more discussions about contact lenses, says Bartosch, 62% of which are converted into contact lens sales.

As in Australia, 1stGroup also intends to launch a MyHealth1st portal in New Zealand in June or July, which acts as an independent online directory to drive consumers to your practice, says Bartosch. Once a consumer selects and books with a practice, however, those consumers won’t see any competitor practices when they decide to sort out their next booking, just the first practice they booked with, and complimentary local healthcare service providers, such as dentists or GPs, until they’ve built up a group of their preferred suppliers and can then use the portal to book all their health requirements online, whatever the time of day or night, he explains.

The pitch

Given the way the internet is changing the way we do business, you can’t just sit idly by, Bartosch tells his audience. “Here we are, in the age of the internet and yet nearly all of us still require patients to pick up a telephone in business hours to do something as simple as book an appointment… Can you imagine booking hotels like we used to… looking for a job, browsing for a home?

“The way we do business is changing, whether we like it or not. We can’t stop it. The question is how are you going to engage with it, leverage it, get ahead of the curve and do it, before others do!”