From a student initiated venture idea to making it to the finals of the Wharton Business Plan competition, DocAsap has been an amazing experience for us. As we learned more about the problems and the possible solutions for easing access to care DocAsap became more than a business for us, it became a mission.

With cancellation rates of over 50% in some practices there is a lot of hidden capacity in the system that neither you nor I get access to. In this age of free information flow, we continue waiting for weeks to get our kids seen by a pediatrician or ending up in emergency rooms to wait for hrs before getting needed care.

DocAsap hopefully would solve these problems.

Showing real time inventory of appointments online would help cater the demand and fill up those otherwise wasted slots. Doctors who are still building their practices would have the legitimate way of communicating that they are available, have great credentials and are just few miles away. Getting care would be easier. Who knows we may even drive significant reduction in costs in the whole system and help more people get access to care. All this seem like a dream today, but sure we have a vision to drive that change.

Congrats again to all the Wharton BPC finalists.

DocAsap’s primary goal is to help patients get appointments as quickly as possible.  Given delays after scheduled doctor appointment times average 20 minutes, and that Americans in total spend 847 million hours per year waiting in doctor office lobbies for care, DocAsap has some tips to help you get out of the waiting room ASAP:

• Schedule your appointments first thing in the morning or immediately after lunch since the doctor won’t have a backlog.  Also, schedule appointments midweek to avoid typical Monday and Friday rushes. (via eHow)
• Visit open-access urgent care centers for non-emergency same day care, as this BusinessWeek article states that they are more likely to provide care without a wait.
• Encourage your doctor or dentist to message you if they are experiencing long delays, either via email or text message, so you can show up later.

Since office waits will never completely disappear, DocAsap obviously recommends bringing good reading material, or homework if you’re a student like us, to fill your time.  We’re eager to hear more time-saving advice, so please share your own tips below.