It's a growing trend among Southern California hospitals -- the opportunity for patients to make online appointments for emergency room visits.
For a fee ranging from $14.99 to $24.99, patients are assured they will avoid a long waiting-room experience (the fee is a separate charge from the cost of the E.R. visit). In fact, if a patient has an appointment and has to wait more than 15 minutes, the fee is waved.
The service called InQuickER is a product of a Nashville-based company and is now being used in eight SoCal hospitals including Lakewood Regional Medical Center, John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio and Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Company spokesman Chris Song told the L.A. Times:
"InQuickER users are not skipping the line in front of everyone else. They're simply waiting somewhere other than the waiting room."
Lakewood Regional pays $3,000 a month for the service. The medical center offers one appointment per hour and requires patients to schedule appointments at least two hours in advance.
"I'm having medical directors from across the country call me almost on a weekly basis now, to ask how the appointment system is working," Dr. Robert Steele of Loma Linda University Medical Center told the L.A. Times. "I think this is one of those things that's going to sweep the country."
