Case Study: Paediatric Primary Care
Doctor Zora Dostálová utilizes the complete solution offered by Emmy. The software in her office has resolved the complexities involved in scheduling patients for preventive examinations and rescheduling unsatisfactory appointments. Within two months of its introduction, a quarter of the patients have already started using Emmy.
As a result, phone lines remain free, allowing parents dealing with urgent cases to contact the office.
Zora Dostálová has been practicing as a paediatrician for over 25 years, and for the past nine years, she has been running her own practice in Prague. Her practice employs two nurses and serves 1,850 children.
Podívejte se, jak Emmy pomáhá v ordinaci praktické lékařky.
„Pacienti jsou z Emmy nadšení a já na jedno kliknutí přeobjednám celé odpoledne.“
MUDr. Jana navrátilová
"Patient rescheduling used to be a disaster. Now, parents of children using Emmy simply choose a new date and the phone line remains free for emergency cases.
We are also seeing a 50% reduction in missed appointments due to the automatic reminder that Emmy sends.”
Dr. Zora Dostálová
General Practitioner (paediatrician) in Prague
"Making patient appointments used to be a disaster," Dr. Dostálová explains. "Every two years, the nurse would send the date and time of the preventive examination to parents of children over the age of three manually via email. Often however parents needed to change the appointment.
It was even worse for parents of children under one year - we would provide the date of the next preventive check-up immediately during their visit to the office. But usually, something would come up – sometimes the mother couldn't make it because she had to see another doctor. On Tuesdays, they had swimming lessons, and on Wednesdays after lunch, the baby would sleep," the pediatrician listed the most common reasons.
Up to a third of patients would request rescheduling, and a single phone call to the nurse would take at least five minutes. “It really slowed us down. Additionally, parents dealing with urgent issues couldn't reach the practice by phone,” she recalled.
It was also common place that patients did not show up for the appointment at all. In that case, the nurse once again had to pick up the phone and try to find a new appointment time with the parents.
Podívejte se, jak Emmy pomáhá v ordinaci praktické lékařky.
„Pacienti jsou z Emmy nadšení a já na jedno kliknutí přeobjednám celé odpoledne.“
MUDr. Jana navrátilová
Dr. Dostálová first learned about Emmy in the autumn. “During the Primary Care Congress, I spoke with the people from Emmy and explained the complications we faced when booking and rescheduling patients,” she recalls.
Until then, she had only heard of voicebots. “A voicebot wouldn't solve our problems with overwhelmed phone lines. I needed a comprehensive system that could handle much more,” she explains why she became interested in Emmy.
The decision to implement Emmy was expedited by one of the nurses going on a six-week sick leave. “I knew we wouldn't be able to handle the influx of phone calls, appointment organisation, and vaccinations without her. That's why I immediately contacted Emmy Medical, watched the webinar, and ordered the system,” the pediatrician explains.
Emmy is easy to tailor to the requirements of a specific practice like Dr. Dostálová's, and can operate across a range of different specialisations. In particular, it also allows for the customization of structured questionnaires and canned responses (message templates).
“Emmy can do a lot, and it keeps improving,” Dr. Dostálová states. “I can configure most of its functions myself. If something more complex arises, I consult the company’s specialists. They respond quickly to questions, are patient, and always suggest the most effective solutions." Within a week, a junior nurse was able fully to grasp working with Emmy. The interface was user-friendly and intuitive for her. The doctor doesn't force the other nurse to use Emmy, as she will be retiring in June and is unfamiliar with technology. “So currently, only one nurse actively uses Emmy, but even so it has provided significant relief to the office.”
The doctor sent a mass email to all parents, informing them that the practice now uses Emmy. Additionally, they received the same information on the practice webpage, in the waiting room via posters and the patient reception system, and whenever they call by phone.
“Emmy has excellent materials for informing patients, which we have also used in our practice,” Dr. Dostálová comments.
"I was surprised to learn that many parents were already using Emmy with their GPs," Dr. Dostálová explains. In the Emmy app, they can request to represent their child. Subsequently, in their profile, in addition to their own names, they will also see their children's names, under which they communicate with the practice.
Even those who have yet to use Emmy appreciate the ability to schedule appointments online: "The fact that younger parents are proficient in using computers and phones without difficulty certainly plays a role in this, although the oldest father in our office was born in 1960."
Podívejte se, jak Emmy pomáhá v ordinaci praktické lékařky.
„Pacienti jsou z Emmy nadšení a já na jedno kliknutí přeobjednám celé odpoledne.“
MUDr. Jana navrátilová
“My main expectation was that Emmy would simplify the appointment process. We invite approximately 60children per month for preventive examinations. Previously, the nurse would spend 2 to 3 days each month sending individual email invitations to everyone. And then she would spend hours rescheduling," Dostálová recalls. “Now, when I use the bulk scheduling function for patients who will reach a set age in the coming month, it only takes me about 15 minutes," she praises the bulk scheduling feature. "I select a group of patients to book, and Emmy sends them email invitations for specific times. If the dates are unsuitable, and they are registered with Emmy, they can immediately reschedule online. If they don't have Emmy, we ask them to register through our practice," she explains how the the new system works.
During each visit, the nurse verifies the validity of phone numbers and emails with the parents, ensuring an up-to-date contact database. "What's great is that Emmy sends reminders to parents three days and one day before their appointments. As a result, we have observed a decrease in missed appointments by up to 50%, although occasionally the reminders end up in spam," the doctor states. Along with email reminders, Emmy also enables the doctor to send mass SMS messages to patients. The same system is used for inviting patients to mandatory vaccinations at the age of 10 against tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, and polio.
The phone remains the primary communication channel for emergency cases, even with the introduction of Emmy. Everything else is handled through the new software.
With the colour-coded and clear calendar, Dr. Dostálová can easily view all booked patients and the purpose of their visit. "I know right away what awaits me each day, without needing to check multiple sources," she explains. Moreover, she can conveniently access the system from home outside of working hours using just an internet browser.
Emmy's flexibility was particularly helpful in planning visits for three- and five-year-old children. "Children of this age group do not cooperate well, and communication with them can be challenging. Therefore, Emmy allows for a maximum of one such preventive inspection per day," the doctor shares.
She also praises the improved utilisation of practice time, stating, "Before the introduction of Emmy, it used to happen that nurses wouldn't schedule any patients for the last half hour because they wanted to leave early. When I addressed this issue, the improvement lasted at most a week. Only Emmy resolved the situation."
Emmy's assistance during COVID-19 isolations in the practice was also noteworthy. "I created a structured questionnaire that asked parents about their child's contact with infected individuals, whether they underwent testing or were contacted by the health department," the doctor explained. She then transferred the data from the questionnaire to the child's file, saving a significant amount of time.
Podívejte se, jak Emmy pomáhá v ordinaci praktické lékařky.
„Pacienti jsou z Emmy nadšení a já na jedno kliknutí přeobjednám celé odpoledne.“
MUDr. Jana navrátilová
„Emmy's customer support is excellent, as is the development of new and improved functions," the doctor states. For instance, Emmy recently added a new feature: detailed filtering of the patient database by age directly within the platform. "For me, this means much a easier workflow. I don't have to export data from the practice management system and then import it into Emmy when doing mass schedulting," she explained. "Emmy brought order and peace of mind to our practice. I would recommend it to all doctors, even those facing similar specific challenges in their field. Emmy's flexibility is incredible, and yet it is still really user-friendly," Dr. Dostálová concludes.
Arrange an online demonstration with us. We'll introduce you to Emmy and answer all your questions.
Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Emmy
Founder and CEO