Self-Scheduling Process Efficiency and Utilization of Online Self-Scheduling of Lab Tests: A Retrospective Analysis of Self-Scheduled Appointments for COVID Testing

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID 19 pandemic increased the need for rapid and accurate diagnostic testing for COVID. When testing became available, a systems response was needed to efficiently accommodate the high-volume flow of patients who needed testing. Self-scheduling of COVID testing was developed to help patients safely and efficiently schedule their COVID testing online or with a mobile app. Methods: We captured the counts of COVID test appointments, time patients spent in scheduling COVID test appointments, appointment lead times, and no-shows for COVID test appointments. For 17 months of self-scheduling, we retrospectively compared self-scheduling with the concurrent staff scheduling of COVID tests. Results: From November 2020 through March 2022 there were 619 104 scheduled appointments for COVID testing with 22% (136 252) being self-scheduled. For asymptomatic self-scheduled COVID tests, accounting for 10.3% (63 605/619 104) of total COVID tests scheduled, median time to self-schedule was 3.1 min, interquartile range (IQR) [2.4,4.7]. For symptomatic self-schedulers accounting for 11.7% (72 647/619 104) of total COVID tests scheduled, the median time to self-triage and self-schedule was 5.8 min, IQR[4.3,8.9]. Self-scheduled COVID appointments increased to 44% (42 387/97 086) of the total COVID appointments during the peak month of January 2022. Median appointment lead time for symptomatic self-scheduled COVID test appointments was 6.6 h compared to 2.9 h (P