As COVID-19 continue to impact communities, many practices are reopening. To support the safety of patients and staff, practices need to use new tools and strategies to support social distancing. One way to do this is to eliminate the in-office waiting room and ask patients to “park & text” or wait outside and text. This process is easy to set up and support.
- Let patients know upon scheduling that your waiting room is closed and they should wait outside—ideally in a line that is marked for social distancing—or in their car. They should text on arrival.
- Include pre-visit instructions in appointment reminders that patients should wait outside or in their care and text on arrival.
- If patients don’t confirm appointments, consider reaching out via two-way text to confirm and remind them to text on arrival.
- Put a sign up on the entrance reminding patients to text upon arrival and wait outside or in their car.
- Once patients text, if you are checking temperatures or doing a pre-screening, have a staff member go out to the car to perform that check.
- When the provider is ready to see the patient, text the patient to come in.
To further support social distancing and remove other activities that can spread germs, consider adding digital intake forms with a COVID pre-screening form and a mobile bill pay option for collecting co-pays before appointments and other due amounts afterwards. That way patients can have additional screening and no one has to pass around clipboards or devices during the appointment.
If you are a Solutionreach customer, be sure to take advantage of our free templates for signage, intake forms, newsletters and emails to support “park & text." 
To learn about SR Intake, our online intake feature, click here.
