ChronoMetriq Aims to Empty Waiting Rooms at Doctors’ Offices, Sends You a Text When it is Your Turn

ChronoMetriq

A new system called ChronoMetriq aims to help patients who are tired of waiting in rooms at doctors’ offices by sending you a text message when it is your turn. The service would allow patients to go home or run errands as they wait for their doctor without losing their spot in line.

To get started with the new service, a patient will register at a qualified clinic, he or she will then take a number and go to a touch-screen kiosk where they would then pay $3 in Quebec, or $4 in Ontario, to be contacted by text message or phone call when a doctor is ready to see you.

ChronoMetriq already operates in 20 clinics in Montreal and is in negotiations with clinics in Ottawa and Toronto. In order for the system to be implemented in Ontario it needs approval from the Ontario Ministry of Health, which it has not yet received.

Marlene Riviere, president of the Ontario Health Coalition, said:

“So someone’s figured out how to make a buck helping you feel less bad having to wait, but it doesn’t do anything to improve access to care.”

The company has received positive reactions from patients and doctors in Montreal and Gatineau who have had the chance to try out the new service.

Louis Parent, a spokesman for the company, said that he would like to introduce the system into hospital emergency rooms in Montreal within the next couple of years.

[via CBC]

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