Positive business development, new seal of approval: market leader Doctena draws successful half-year balance 2017

Publié le 31 August, 2017

der tagesspiegel

Doctena, Germany’s and Europe’s leading platform for online booking of doctor’s appointments with its German headquarters in Berlin, draws an extremely positive balance for the first half of 2017. As a result, the company was able to grow organically and inorganically and, with currently around 7,000 registered physicians and dentists in Germany and 9,000 throughout Europe, further expand its undisputed market leadership position. In the first half of the year, Doctena had acquired the platforms terminland.de (Germany) and Sanmax (Belgium) as part of so-called asset deals. At the same time, Doctena has strategically expanded its range of services in recent months and has been awarded the “Tested Service Quality” seal of approval. Dr. Ron Lehnert, Managing Director Doctena Germany: “We are very satisfied with the developments in the first half of the year, in all areas. In recent weeks and months, we have been able to add numerous features to our platform that make Doctena even easier and more intuitive to use. We also succeeded in convincing hundreds of new doctors of the benefits of our online appointment platform and also massively increased the number of patients booking their medical appointments via Doctena.”

In Germany alone, the number of affiliated physicians has increased by 2,000 since the beginning of the year, and by 4,000 across Europe. Doctena has thus further extended its lead considerably in recent months and is the clear number one for appointment scheduling solutions in the physician segment. It was only in March that Doctena acquired the medical division of the Wiesbaden-based online appointment provider Terminland. This was followed in July by Sanmax, a service provider founded in Belgium in 1998. Doctena has thus greatly expanded its presence in Germany and Europe with a total of four acquisitions since 2016. Since its foundation in Luxembourg in 2013, the market leader has relied on both organic, sales-based growth and business development through acquisitions as part of its dual corporate strategy. Doctena is currently present in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Leading online calendar with seal of approval

Since its launch around four years ago, Doctena’s core idea has been to digitize the appointment process for doctors across the board. The figures show how much Doctena has already changed the daily routine of German practices. More and more physicians are relying on the advantages of online appointment scheduling with Doctena for their appointment and practice management – such as real-time appointment scheduling. In Berlin, for example, 600 doctors are already connected, in Munich 330, in Frankfurt 260, and in Hamburg and Cologne/Düsseldorf more than 200 each – and the trend is rising. “The traditional appointment by phone continues to decline. The benefits of using Doctena are clear for both physicians and patients,” says Dr. Ron Lehnert. Practices that manage their appointment scheduling via Doctena save up to 70 percent of valuable time, during which staff can devote themselves to more important tasks than the constantly ringing telephone. Other useful features include freely definable appointment rules such as GKV vs. private insurance, new vs. existing patient or also appointment limits per quarter. Real-time availability also gives physicians the ability to release and reschedule cancelled appointments on short notice. In doing so, Doctena adapts to all individual requirements for the allocation of medical appointments.

Waiting times are minimized

Patients, in turn, can enjoy particularly short waiting times and book medical appointments that become available immediately. In addition, patients benefit from a new waiting list function, which in principle works like a classic waiting list. If a patient cancels their appointment, it is passed on to the first five patients on the digital waiting list. Patients can easily book the appointment for themselves with the click of a mouse. Around ten percent of all booked appointments are short-term appointment slots, the number of which will be further increased with the help of the new waiting list function. Here, too, real-time appointment scheduling plays a crucial role. In addition, Doctena offers patients the ability to manage their medical appointments online. An automatic appointment reminder via SMS also makes it easier for patients to manage their appointments, making it the most practical way to make appointments – so no preventive care appointment will be forgotten in the future. Only in April, Doctena was awarded the seal of approval for “Tested Service Quality” by the German Institute for Quality Standards and Testing (DIQP). With a top score of 96.90 percent, Doctena was able to convince in all service tests.

Big goals for the second half of the year

In the coming months, the successful course is to be consistently continued and supplemented by further technical innovations, such as a mobile app. By the end of the year, the number of physicians and patients who trust Doctena is to be massively expanded further by strengthening the sales and service teams. Dr. Lehnert: “Our goal is clearly defined: We want to strengthen our presence both in cities and in rural regions so that analog appointment scheduling in Germany is gradually shifted to the network. This has already worked in other industries – and thanks to Doctena, it’s now becoming more commonplace in medical appointment management.”

More information about Doctena is available online at www.doctena.de.

About the company:

Doctena, with European headquarters in Luxembourg and German headquarters in Berlin, is Europe’s and Germany’s leading platform for online booking of medical appointments. Founded in Luxembourg in 2013, the appointment scheduling solution, which digitizes the traditional telephone appointment booking process of general practitioners, specialists and dentists and enriches it with many helpful functions for doctors and patients – such as a reminder function, appointment history or calendar entry – currently has around 7,000 connected doctors in Germany and around 9,000 in Europe. This makes Doctena the clear number one in Germany and Europe, and it has been awarded the seal of approval for very good service quality by the DIQP (German Institute for Quality Standards and Testing). Doctena is currently present in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland and employs 50 people. CEO is Patrick Kersten, Managing Director of Doctena Germany is Dr. Ron Lehnert.

Sources:

www.tagesspiegel.de

www.business-on.de

www.wallstreet-online.de

www.finanzen.net

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