Consumer health app iTriage has expanded its appointment booking feature to also offer scheduling for Walgreens' Take Care Health System Clinics. iTriage can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices.
At Walgreens Healthcare Clinics, which are located at around 750 Walgreens locations across the country, patients can schedule and confirm an appointment on their iTriage app to see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant about a range of medical issues. Walgreens already offers appointment booking for the clinics on its website and the clinics also accept walk-ins.
“We are always looking for innovative ways to help our patients better manage their health, and by enhancing access to information and appointments iTriage furthers this goal,” Walgreens divisional vice president Heather Helle said in a statement. “As Healthcare Clinic continues to expand services and serve as an entry point for many into the health care system, it’s critical to leverage the latest technology, especially mobile, as a tool to help our patients get, stay and live well.”
Besides appointment booking, iTriage offers users a symptom navigator so that they can enter in symptoms, learn about potential conditions they may have and see what treatment options are available for the conditions listed.
Walgreens first worked with iTriage on appointment booking last year when the companies piloted the program for Walgreens' Take Care Clinics in Chicago and Denver. The iTriage app was available for 13 Walgreens locations in Denver and 41 in Chicago, although iTriage also provided users a list of all the other Take Care clinics in the United States. At the time, iTriage CEO and co founder Dr. Peter Hudson said that iTriage would expand the online scheduling service if the pilot were successful.
"Healthcare Clinic at select Walgreens locations and iTriage wanted the pilot to establish a few things," iTriage Chief Operating Officer Jim Greiner told MobiHealthNews in an email. "First, that the technology functionally worked and second, that it met a true consumer need. The pilot delivered key insights and foundational ROI that justified taking the program national to 400 Healthcare Clinics at select Walgreens locations."
In August, iTriage collaborated with its parent company Aetna to offer employees of mid-sized companies a customized iTriage app that guides users to in-network providers. With this expansion, iTriage integrated company members' ID cards into its app so that employees must go through an authentication process before accessing their insurance information and employee benefits system.
