Healthdirect Australia supports industry to boost online bookings in revamped Service Finder

Healthdirect Australia has launched an Industry Offer to clinical online booking vendors to integrate with the healthdirect Service Finder, which is undergoing a significant enhancement to include COVID-19 and flu vaccine appointments.

In partnership with the Department of Health and Aged Care, Healthdirect Australia is transitioning the Vaccine Clinic Finder to the Service Finder, so consumers need only use one portal to find and book health appointments.

Currently both digital tools allow a consumer to make an online appointment through a practice’s commercial booking engine and are powered by the National Health Services Directory. Service Finder offers a range of GP and other health click-to-book appointment types, while Vaccine Clinic Finder offers COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

The Vaccine Clinic Finder was used by Australians over 50 million times from March 2021 to June 2022; its popularity due to it being an ‘aggregator’ of all vaccine bookings irrespective of the type of health service offering the appointment or the commercial booking engine used.

The initiative to combine the two tools and expand the range of available appointments requires assistance from the booking software industry – to update their platforms and booking data feeds into the National Health Services Directory.

This work is being supported via the Industry Offer to ensure the enhancements to Service Finder and booking platforms are ready for national use ahead of the 2023 winter flu season.

CEO of Healthdirect Australia, Bettina McMahon, says, “The healthdirect Service Finder is the national consumer portal to locate over 300,000 health services, including their open hours, bulk-billing arrangements, telehealth and other accessibility options and, in many cases, to book an appointment seamlessly online.

“As the consumer portal to the National Health Services Directory, the Service Finder helps Australians find a health service that meets their health needs and other preferences. For vaccine bookings last year, we were able to also allow a consumer to filter ‘next available’ appointments which was the final piece of information many people needed to proceed with a booking.

“While Healthdirect plays a unique role in providing the aggregation, this service clearly relies on the tech companies who operate the booking engines. This industry offer recognises the role we need them to play,” says Ms McMahon.

Healthdirect Australia worked closely with peak bodies including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Pharmacy Guild, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine, as well as the Medical Software Industry Association and the Department, in 2021 and early 2022 to optimise the online booking capability of the Vaccine Clinic Finder (previously known as the Vaccine Eligibility Checker).

“The shared goal, combined with an industry offer to accelerate the connections between booking software systems and the National health Services Directory, created a seamless digital journey to a vaccination appointment. This work resulted in a 42 per cent uplift in online booking availability in the Vaccine Clinic Finder and helped Australia meet its COVID vaccination targets.

“We are looking forward to again working collaboratively with industry to realise the potential of that foundational work in online bookings and launch the revamped Service Finder in 2023,” concluded Ms McMahon.