ZocDoc is an online service that makes it easy to find a medical professional and schedule an appointment. It’s sort of like OpenTable for doctors. If you’re a patient, ZocDoc makes the process of finding a doctor and booking an appointment much, much easier. If you’re a doctor, ZocDoc can help you fill openings due to last minute cancellations by allowing patients to book appointments on short notice.
The company recently launched a mobile app for Android which lets you look up doctors by specialty, book an appointment, or view your existing appointments on the go. ZocDoc also offers an iPhone app.
There are a few caveats. ZocDoc is only available in a handful of cities (New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, LA, Houston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta), and not every doctor in your area will be listed. I’m in Philadelphia and my current primary care physician and dentist aren’t listed — and the nearest eye doctors listed are in the suburbs.
But when I lived in New York a few years ago and ZocDoc was a brand new startup, I decided to put the service to the test by booking a dentist appointment and ZocDoc made the entire process of finding a dentist, reading reviews from other users, and booking an appointment ridiculously simple. There was no waiting on hold, and no waiting months for an opening, since I could see the available appointment slots on my computer screen.
The mobile apps don’t offer all the features you get from the website. For instance, you can’t search by a doctor’s name. But you can read reviews and read doctor profiles with information including languages spoken, professional memberships, and education. When you combine the mobile apps with the company’s useful website, they definitely make the process of booking appointments a little more painless.
