FLORENCE, Ky. — A women’s health clinic in Northern Kentucky is one of the first adopters of a new software that’s significantly cutting down wait times for patients.

The founder of the software says it has completely taken off during the pandemic while people are trying to avoid crowds, and health anxiety is high.

The dreaded situation: sitting in a waiting room at 10:20 a.m. for a 10 o’clock appointment is something that used to happen at All Woman healthcare in Florence, but not anymore.

“One of the things we’re always striving to do is make this unpleasant visit as painless as possible for people,” said Dr. April Tillery, the OBGYN who started the practice. “Because let’s face it, everybody hates coming to the gynecologist in particular.”

“This is one of the wins that has come out of the pandemic for sure,” she said.

Tillery hooked up with Yosi Health, a company that developed a virtual waiting room for patients.

Now instead of coming in, grabbing paperwork, filling it out and waiting, everything is done on the patient’s phone or computer.

At All Woman, it’s cut down patient wait time by 70% percent.

“All of the stuff that everybody really hates about any doctor’s visit, about coming to the front desk, getting that clip board and the insurance card, and going back and forth for 20 minutes, we do all of that before a patient even walks in our door,” Dr. Tillery said. “When they come in, the waiting room doesn’t exist for them anymore. And so they can feel really safe that they are not going to see another patient in the office. They’re going to come right in through the door and go right back to an exam room, and we can take care of their concerns. And then they leave, they don’t see another patient, and they’re back to their car.”

Yosi’s founder Hari Prasad said his desire to fix those annoying wait times was personal.

“I dislocated my shoulder and I went to an E.R. where I was given a set of forms and a clipboard to fill out. So that’s really when the idea for the journey began," he said.

Prasad said the company has grown tremendously during COVID-19, as clinics and patients have looked for ways to limit contact with other people. It’s currently serving 20 different specialties across the medical industry. The software is deployed in more than 38 states.

“It’s unfortunate that it’s taken a pandemic for a lot of the larger industry to realize that the waiting room process needs to be displaced with more technology solutions like ours,” Prasad said. “This is the way that medical office visits will be powered going forward.”

An additional benefit, Prasad said, is patients are providing a lot of valuable information about their health assessment to their provider.

“Oftentimes that vital information is lost on a piece of paper on a clipboard. We’re making sure those are collected and captured electronically,” he said.

Tillery said the software has helped patients feel more confident to return to their normal preventative care. She said she expects other health facilities to follow suit.