Pilot program at Take Care clinics is allowing patients to use iTriage to schedule appointments.
The Walgreens Take Care Health Systems is using an mhealth app that will allow patients with smartphones to use these devices to schedule appointments at any of their retail clinics in Chicago and Denver.
This trial program has drawn the attention of the entire healthcare industry.
In order to take advantage of the service, users of Android devices and iPhones must download the free iTriage application. So far, there have been approximately six million downloads of the app throughout the last three years that it has been available. Its features will now be expanded in those two cities to allow appointments to be made.
Other than this new services this new mhealth application also offers a number of other options.
Among them are primarily a series of online resources that assist consumers with understanding the symptoms that they have. It also provides them with a directory of the emergency rooms, urgent care centers, physicians, and retail clinics across the country.
Take Care at Walgreens is the second largest American retail clinic chain. It currently has 355 locations throughout the United States and has already been accepting the scheduling of online appointments as of January through its website. That website also provides quality and cost information to patients regarding the clinics, and the wait times at the nearest locations.
According to the Walgreens’ Consumer Solutions divisional vice president, Heather Helle, spoke about this mhealth program, saying that “With iTriage, patients can quickly see whether they can get an appointment at a particular location, or, if that location is booked, check a different location.” Helle also added that “It brings simplicity, ease of access, and a new level of convenience for patients.”
Helle also said that Walgreens’ Take Care clinics are the first retail operation of this nature to provide mhealth scheduling abilities to consumers. She pointed out that the clinics of competitor companies are also available within the directory of the iTriage app. This keeps Walgreens well ahead of primary care practices, which have fallen well behind in mobile services.
For more articles on Mhealth trends.