ER Save a Spot

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Patients want to minimize their time spent in a waiting room with potentially infectious patients, especially now during a pandemic.

In 2020, we were given notice that our vendor would be sunsetting. This prompted us to evaluate the need for online reservations, particularly at our emergency rooms and urgent care.

We interviewed patients, who responded overwhelmingly that the ability to “save their spot” and minimize the time spent in a waiting room was more important than ever, especially during the pandemic. We also interviewed our internal stakeholders, who explained their very manual process of copying over patient information from a vendor website into Sharp’s tracking board & scheduling system.

Based on this, we decided to build the new product in-house, and integrate directly with the scheduling systems already in place.

Time slots are available 1 hour from the current time, and every 30 minutes thereafter on a rolling 24 hour schedule.

After selecting their desired time, patients are taken to a page on Sharp.com to complete their reservation.

Any red flag term (for ex, “stroke” or “chest pain”) entered in the reason for visit field will trigger an alert message that directs patients to go in immediately for care.

Note: There is a 911 modal that appears at the start, alerting patients of urgent conditions that should be seen immediately.

Confirmation page and email include the date and time of the visit, location information, and information on what to bring and where to park.

The email also includes a link to cancel. Once a patient clicks cancel, they are automatically removed from the tracking board and scheduling system on the hospital's end.

Save a Spot is officially live on sharp.com as of April 20, 2021.