Patient demand for consumer-friendly tools is on the rise, as Americans want their healthcare providers to offer the same seamless experiences they get from other industries such as banking and retail.

Implementing self-scheduling software so that patients can book their own appointments online is a crucial step in the right direction. Many health systems are trying to take this step, but a lack of physician buy-in is preventing the technology from taking off, according to a report released Wednesday by the Center for Connected Medicine, which is jointly operated by Nokia and UPMC.

Physicians should come around to the idea sooner rather than later if they want their patients to be satisfied with their care journey, said Dr. Joon Lee, executive vice president of UPMC. He noted that demand for self-scheduling tools — especially among Millennials and Generation Z — is far outpacing the number of self-scheduling services that healthcare providers are currently offering.

Some vendors offering this type of software include Keona Health, Elation Health and NextGen Healthcare.

To Dr. Lee, self-scheduling software not only addresses patients’ demands for more consumer-friendly tools, but it also communicates respect for patients’ time.

“If you rewind five or 10 years and ask what a really successful doctor looks like, the image is of a physician with a waiting room full of patients,” he said. “What’s wrong with that picture? That means you are expecting every one of those patients to forgo their own priorities and that their time is not as valuable as yours.”

Still, physicians are hesitant to buy into the software. The Center for Connected Medicine’s report found that 38% of healthcare providers that are working to deploy self-scheduling tools cite a lack of physician or organizational buy-in as their top challenge.

A key reason for this could be physician’s reluctance to give up control of their schedule. For many physicians, their schedule represents their last bastion of autonomy, Dr. Patrick McGill, Indianapolis-based Community Health Network’s chief transformation officer, said Tuesday at the Transform Virtual Summit hosted by LeanTaaS. He said there is “nothing more sacred in healthcare right now than schedules.”

To win physicians over, having software that is flexible and can adapt to individual providers’ needs and preferences will be key, Dr. Lee argued.

“If we have concrete technology, my ability to get the culture change amongst the providers and the people who are running the offices is going to be nil,” he said. “But it’s a different story if the technology is slick and flexible and allows us to make changes in terms of day-to-day operations.”

Ensuring the adaptability of self-scheduling software will be critical as UPMC works toward its goal of getting 20% of its organization-wide scheduling done via online self-service tools by the end of the year. Dr. Lee admits that this goal is lofty, but he believes it’s a necessary part of improving patient satisfaction.

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