• Magazine
    • Past Issues
    • Subscribe
    • Change Mailing Address
    • Surveys
    • Guidelines for Authors
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Editorial Deadlines
    • Dynamic Chiropractic
      • Newspaper
      • Subscription
    • The American Chiropractor
      • Magazine
  • Practice
    • Business Tips
    • Chiropractic Schools
    • Clinical & Technique
    • eBooks
    • eCourses
    • Sponsored Content
    • Infographics
    • Quizzes
    • Wellness & Nutrition
    • Personal Growth
    • Podcast
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
  • Resource Centers
  • Products & Services
    • Buyers Guide
    • Products Directory
    • Submit a Product
    • Vendor Login
  • Datebook
    • Become an Events Poster
    • Post an Event
    • View Events
  • Jobs
    • Jobs
    • Post a Job
  • Advertise
    • Advertising Information
    • Media Kit
    • Contact Us

Your Online Chiropractic Community

Chiropractic Economics Your Online Chiropractic Community
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • News
  • Webinars
  • Chiropractic Research
  • Students

A virtual waiting room could be vital for chiropractic in a COVID world

Tina Beychok July 30, 2021

<a href=
Photo by Direct Media on StockSnap

In a virtual waiting room patients can wait in their car until they receive a text when they can be taken to an exam room, minimizing the amount of physical contact

Although it may be tempting to push for turning the clock back to how things were done prior to the pandemic, one change from the pandemic that should stay in place involves COVID-19 safety protocols for patients and health care workers, such as the virtual waiting room.

Virtual waiting rooms — in which patients wait in their cars, outside the office, until they receive a text that it is their turn to see the doctor — are effective in maintaining social distancing and minimizing contact within the waiting room and front reception desk of the doctor’s office. In fact, a recent marketing survey showed that patients were strongly in favor of keeping virtual waiting rooms in place as the country moves forward in recovering from the pandemic.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the survey data and what it might mean for your day-to-day office operations, in terms of patient interactions, COVID safety protocols and bringing about a virtual waiting room.

Breaking down the virtual waiting room

The survey of 2,400 people was done for Lifelink Systems, a tech company that specializes in creating patient interface platforms for health care providers. You can find an infographic showing some of the highlights here. The survey was conducted to gather patient input on virtual waiting rooms, which are online platforms that allow patients to check in using their mobile device.

They will then wait in their car until they receive a text when they can be taken to an exam room. A virtual waiting room minimizes the amount of physical contact not only between patients and health care workers, but also between individual patients.

Data from the survey

More than 75% of survey respondents rated the traditional waiting room experience as either fair or poor. In contrast, 81% wanted virtual tools used during the pandemic, such as virtual waiting rooms, to become a standard part of the health care system, once the entire country opens back up after the pandemic. Almost all of those surveyed (91%) would continue to use a virtual waiting room service, if it was offered to them.

When asked why they preferred virtual waiting rooms to traditional ones, 55% of respondents thought it would help them avoid coming in contact with other patients who may be contagious. Most of those surveyed (84%) also thought that a virtual waiting room and check-in process would be an excellent means of scheduling and arranging COVID-19 vaccine appointments. Survey respondents noted other benefits to virtual waiting rooms, including efficiency (56%), not needing to arrive early (53%), less paperwork to fill out after arrival (53%), and avoiding delays in the waiting room until they were called back (50%).

Certainly, there are some parts of the pandemic we will be glad to put behind us, such as being isolated from friends and family, as well as balancing working from home with homeschooling our kids. However, virtual waiting rooms are part of the pandemic that can stick around to help streamline the administrative end of your office.

Related Posts

  • Cannabinoids protect against COVID; market predictions after new research revealedCannabinoids protect against COVID; market predictions after new research revealed
  • Chiropractic schools, students, faculty must work together in managing how to survive COVIDChiropractic schools, students, faculty must work together in managing how to survive COVID
  • How the pandemic has changed patient behavior and anticipating an end of COVID-19How the pandemic has changed patient behavior and anticipating an end of COVID-19
  • COVID has changed patient communication preferencesCOVID has changed patient communication preferences
  • Treatment for long COVID: supplementation, oxygenation, and suggested treatment modalitiesTreatment for long COVID: supplementation, oxygenation, and suggested treatment modalities
  • Weathering the unpredictable by recognizing the 3 chiropractic levels of careWeathering the unpredictable by recognizing the 3 chiropractic levels of care

Filed Under: Chiropractic Business Tips, Chiropractic Practice Management, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tagged With: coronavirus, covid-19, pandemic, virtual waiting rooms, waiting rooms

Current Issue

CE issue 4 cover

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube logoYouTube logoYouTube

Compare Subscriptions

Dynamic Chiropractic

The American Chiropractor

3948 3rd Street South #279,

Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

Phone 904.285.6020

CONTACT US »

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Copyright © 2021, All Rights Reserved

SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE

Get Chiropractic Economics magazine
delivered to your home or office. Just
fill out our form to request your FREE
subscription for 20 issues a year,
including two annual Buyers Guides.

SUBSCRIBE NOW »

Latest Chiropractic News

  • House, Senate Reintroduce Bill to Increase Medicare Coverage of Chiropractic Services
  • ‘Impact of Back Pain in the Workplace’ Authored by Foot Levelers Chairman and CEO Kent S. Greenawalt, Publishes in The Journal of Compensation and Benefits
  • Life Chiropractic College West Expands to a Second Campus in Bellevue, Nebraska
    Life Chiropractic College West logo