Managing patient flow is important for any size practice, but can be especially challenging for larger practices With multiple physicians and staff members moving between exam rooms, it is critical to keep track of patients and room assignments.

Patients do not like feeling abandoned while waiting in exam rooms and doctors don’t like stepping into the wrong rooms. To avoid such problems, practices rely on a flagging system.

However, that system used by physicians was due for a makeover. NextRoom did just that by creating an iPhone/iPod Touch application for exam room management that replaces the medical flag system. NextRoom requires a monthly subscription and an Internet connection. NextRoom gives a physician’s staff the ability to track exam room assignments and lets them know which exam room is next in the queue.

It also makes it easier for staff to track a doctor’s whereabouts because the app marks when the doctor has entered an exam room. Not only does NextRoom increase the overall efficiency of the practice by allowing staff to view all empty exam rooms, but it also allows each user to see all the rooms assigned to them. It gives staffers the ability to assign and transfer rooms between physicians and nurses.

NextRoom enables remote viewing of office workflow allowing staff to attach notes and tasks, and view the status of other users in the practice. NextRoom’s dashboard gives practice managers a way to view stats on average patient wait times, exam durations, and more. NextRoom also compiles data on the number of patients seen by physicians and nurses daily.

This information will help practices find ways to increase productivity. Practices are able to set up, customize, and administer changes to the application without the need for IT support or programming.