Covid-19 caused many general practice doctors and medical centres to review patient interactions and cash handling procedures. With many seeking safer best practice payment solutions such as Prommt. In this piece, we look at how Prommt helped many medical centres and surgeries to quickly adapt to the challenges.
Adapting to the Challenges
The covid-19 crisis has been the cause of a great many changes across society. With unprecedented restrictions, many businesses were forced to completely change the way they operated. This was particularly true of those essential service providers that were vital to our response to the virus. Medical centres, GP surgeries, pharmacies and other primary care providers all needed to take significant steps to ensure that their businesses did not become vectors for the spread of this outbreak.
It was critical for these medical professionals to continue delivering care across our communities. But, in order to do that effectively while containing the spread of this coronavirus, key changes had to be made. Minimising human contact and face-to-face interaction was a key consideration. Limiting employee exposure to cash and cards was another concern. These businesses needed to protect staff and patients while continuing to function at a time of acute need.
Thankfully, recent advances in technology helped these efforts on a number of fronts…
Video Consultations Limit Contact
Using video conferencing apps such as Zoom, Skype and Teams community doctors and primary care providers were able to quickly implement video consultation services. Dr. Fionnuala NíGhráinne, Dolmen Family Medical Practice in Carlow was successfully able to move most consults online. This was critical to limiting the number of patients needing to attend surgery.
“When the Covid pandemic landed our business model changed dramatically. No longer were we face-to-face with most of our patients. Consultations moved to telephone and online, prescriptions were no longer collected but were sent electronically to pharmacies.”
Fionnuala NíGhráinne | Dolmen Family Medical Practice
Smart Apps that Support Remote Care
Beyond teleconferencing and video consultations, the availability of fast and affordable apps to help across a number of other functions allowed independent doctors to quickly implement completely virtual services. This enabled them to bring their local service and existing patients online. It enabled them to provide services similar to those already offered by established apps such as VideoDoc, Webdoctor.ie and Push Doctor without the need to tie themselves to a specific portal. E-prescribing systems, online booking engines and remote payment solutions such as Prommt have all seen a significant increase in interest from community medical professionals and primary care providers.
Best Practice Remote Payments
In order to effectively provide online consultations doctors need the ability to collect payments remotely. The practice of taking card information over the phone is risky, time-consuming and a data protection minefield. On the other hand, the effort and expense involved in developing an e-commerce platform for a general practice or a local medical centre is hard to justify. Fortunately, Prommt has allowed many of these businesses to quickly implement a best practice remote payment system.
Prommt for Medical Paractices and Vets
Prommt provides local doctors and other medical professionals with a fast, easy and affordable way to request and accpet payments online. It provides the ability to send secure personalised payment links via text message or email. Each link takes recipients to a custom payment page where they can complete the transaction, passing card information directly to the practice’s existing payment provider. This eliminates the need for clinics to process this sensitive data and it provides patients with a seamless user experience that makes payments safe and easy.
“With remote consultations, we did not have the usual point of contact where we were paid for our services. We had seen Prommt in use elsewhere and followed it up. We have been using it since late March and we are delighted with it. Most importantly our patients are also. We definitely see a place for this system in the future for our business after the pandemic.”
Dr. Fionnuala NíGhráinne | Dolmen Family Medical Practice
