MyKelseyOnline Patient Portal Updated to Streamline Appointment Scheduling

Streamlining web-based appointment scheduling improves convenience for patients and helps reduce medical costs.

Houston (March 16, 2016) – Kelsey-Seybold Clinic schedules 5,000 appointments through MyKelseyOnline (MKO), a secure online patient portal. With more than 250,000 MKO users, the web-based portal has been upgraded to enhance the scheduling of self-service appointments with the goal of having 20 percent of all appointments enabled on MKO scheduled online by the end of 2016.

“Kelsey-Seybold has always prioritized convenience for patients in all aspects of their medical interactions – from our capital investment in clinics, that are highly accessible in communities where our patients live, to our electronic medical records system,” said Phil Price, Vice President of Information Systems at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic.

“Advances in technology give patients the ability to choose how they want to interact with their physicians – and MKO is an example of the direction in which patients are choosing to connect – which is why we’ve updated the platform to improve the online scheduling function.”

Changes to MKO include:   

• It is easier for patients to specify the type of appointment they need.
• The system recognizes key words designed to alert that a patient may need to be seen sooner. Depending on the key word, the patient will be directed to take appropriate action, such as calling the Contact Center or the After-Hours Nurse.
• MKO – MyKelsey App now lets users schedule appointments using their smart phone or tablet through the app. Touch ID is another new feature to allow a more convenient, secure login process when logging in from an Apple device.

In addition to the added convenience for patients, scheduling appointments through the MKO patient portal helps reduce overall medical costs with self-scheduling costing an average of $0.01 versus $4 that is spent on each telephone interaction to schedule an appointment.

“Our patients like the ability to schedule appointments and communicate with their doctor’s office in a self-directed fashion when it is convenient for them. Implementing this improved technology fulfills the need to give patients a self-scheduling, detail oriented platform wherever they may be,” said John Lyle, Vice President of Operations at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. “As technology improves and changes, MyKelseyOnline will continue to expand its capabilities while improving the efficiencies in communication for our patients and doctors.”

Kelsey-Seybold Clinic patients interested in registering for or learning about MKO can visit www.kelsey-seybold.com/mykelseyonline.