Doctors outsource bookings to cut 'no-shows'

A group of Paris hospitals served by 9,000 doctors are outsourcing a part of their appointment bookings - in a bid to reduce the number of patients who do not turn up for rendez-vous.

Doctolib, a French start-up initiative which allows patients to book medical appointments, has just signed a deal to service Paris Public Hospital (AP-HP).

The service will be offered across 39 establishments by June 2018 according to AP-HP, which predicts 1.2million appointments will be made online each year, out of 4m consultations. Doctolib already gets eight million visits to its platforms each month.

Thanks to a messaging reminder service to patients, organisers expect a "significant" reduction in the number of unattended appointments.

The appointment booking platform is part of a broader digital strategy, such as online pre-admission processes, free wifi in hospitals, and online medical fees.

For Stanislas Niox-Château, co-founder and president of Doctolib, launched in 2013, "it's a big step." Its collaboration with a hospital "as large and complex" as the AP-HP was a "first" for the start-up as for the hospital sector.

Doctolib, the European leader in the sector, has a bookable database with some 21,000 healthcare professionals and 600 client establishments (clinics, health centres and private, non-profit institutions) in France and Germany.

In January, the company raised $28million in investment in order to strengthen its workforce. The company plans to hire 150 employees in 2017 to launch its service in new countries.