Prevalence of Phone vs. Online Booking: Across many healthcare providers – including those on the East Coast – the majority of appointments are still scheduled by phone. Industry analysis indicates that as many as 88% of healthcare appointments are booked via phone calls, with only a small fraction completed through online systems.
Prevalence of Phone vs. Online Booking: Across many healthcare providers – including those on the East Coast – the majority of appointments are still scheduled by phone. Industry analysis indicates that as many as 88% of healthcare appointments are booked via phone calls, with only a small fraction completed through online systems (42 Statistics Healthcare Marketers Need to Know in 2024). In fact, a prior Accenture study found that historically only about 2–11% of appointments were self-scheduled online, highlighting how dominant phone scheduling has been (42 Statistics Healthcare Marketers Need to Know in 2024). This trend holds true at many large hospitals and health systems, which have traditionally relied on call centers for scheduling.
Growing Demand for Digital Options: Despite the phone’s prevalence, patient preferences are shifting toward digital scheduling – especially among younger demographics. Surveys show 63% or more of patients want the ability to schedule appointments digitally (via a website or app) instead of calling (Build and optimize the digital patient journey – Press Ganey). A 2024 patient access survey similarly found 89% of patients want to schedule online or on a mobile device (8 reasons to use patient scheduling software – Healthcare Blog). This demand is strongly generational: over 72% of Millennials and Gen Z patients say they prefer to book medical appointments online or through an app (rather than over the phone), whereas only about 40% of Baby Boomers report the same preference (Automation in Healthcare: How It’s Changing Medical Practices – BillFlash) (How Milennials, Zoomers & Boomers Choose Care – Press Ganey). In other words, younger patients largely favor digital self-service, while older patients are more evenly split or tilted toward phone scheduling.
Adoption by Providers: Healthcare systems on the East Coast have been investing in “digital front doors” (patient portals and apps) to meet this demand, but adoption varies. Many East Coast academic health centers (e.g. New York-based systems) now offer online appointment requests or direct scheduling for established patients via their portals. By 2019, two-thirds of U.S. health systems were expected to offer self-scheduling tools according to Accenture’s forecast (Two-in-Three Patients will Book Medical Appointments Online in Five Years, Accenture Forecasts | Business Wire), and indeed most major providers (including East Coast hospitals) do offer some form of online scheduling today. However, availability for new patients or certain specialties may be limited – a 2020 audit found about 60% of top-ranked U.S. hospitals did not allow new patients to self-book appointments online (Report: 60% of top 20 US hospitals do not offer online scheduling for new patients – MedCity News). In practice, this means phone lines remain busy. Even when online options exist, many patients continue to use the phone out of habit or necessity, resulting in a mix of behaviors. (One East Coast example is Mount Sinai in New York, which noted that digital bookings rose sharply – by ~40% – after improving their online scheduling interface, yet phone calls still account for a substantial share of appointments (Reducing Cost and Improving Patient Satisfaction by … – EpicShare).) Overall, phone scheduling still outweighs digital scheduling at most providers today, but the gap is gradually closing as healthcare systems enhance their digital offerings and as more patients become comfortable with online tools.