A major North Carolina health system and a big user of digital healthcare is making scheduling doctor visits easier.

In Charlotte, Atrium Health, formerly known as Carolinas HealthCare System, has rolled out online physician scheduling for family and internal medicine and pediatrics. The health system piloted CarolinasHealthCare.org/make-an-appointment earlier this year with five practices, and since July patients have made more than 59,000 online appointments. “We received an overwhelmingly positive response from patients,” says Atrium Health senior medical director of primary care Al Hudson. “Patients want to be able to schedule an appointment fast, and they want it to be easy.”

Patients can now log into a convenient web page to schedule an appointment by following a few simple prompts. Existing patients can log in through their MyCarolinas account, while new patients will be guided through a series of questions to connect them with the right care, Atrium says.

To use the online appointment tool, patients are asked to choose a location, choose a specialty, a type of appointment, such as if they are new patient, and then pick and confirm a time. The new online physician scheduling tool also lets patients call the health system or conduct a live chat with a service agent if they need help. “Now, they are free to make their appointment when their schedule allows, anytime, day or night.” Hudson says.

Atrium Health, which operates more than 40 hospitals and 900 other locations ranging from doctors’ offices to behavioral health centers to nursing homes, is a big backer and user of digital healthcare. In March, Atrium Health rolled out a newly developed mobile app to help patients better cope with migraine headaches. The app from Atrium Health, which feeds data to the patient’s electronic health record, also has the potential to alleviate a lot of high-cost and ineffective treatment options for doctors and hospitals.

Last November, Atrium launched another digital health application that enables patients with an Alexa-enabled device to ask for the location of the nearest urgent care and emergency department and get current wait times at each facility. Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon and made popular by the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot devices.

“We know the last thing a patient needs during an urgent medical need is to have to figure out where to go,” says senior vice president and chief information officer Craig Richardville. “Using Alexa is quick and convenient. On Alexa, you can easily ask for the nearest hospital or urgent care, saving precious time.”

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