"Quickticket"

Styrian abolishes long waiting times at the doctor’s

Founder Katharina Feiertag in front of the ticket machine at a practice(Bild: createju)

Who hasn't experienced the eternal twiddling of thumbs in the waiting room? Katharina Feiertag has put an end to this problem by introducing digital waiting lists for doctors' surgeries. Since then, patients have been able to see from home when it is their turn. Now the Styrian has reached a milestone.

Katharina Feiertag had the brilliant idea in January 2020: "Especially with GPs, you often have to wait a long time before you can get in." - The health informatics graduate was annoyed by this. So she looked for a technical way to improve this problem in the healthcare system. The result was "Quickticket", software that shows patients their waiting list place on the practice website in real time.

This field on the homepage says, for example: "Waiting time one hour and 8 minutes, current ticket number 22, you would be number 32." In this case, it would usually not be worth leaving home now. Especially during coronavirus, when the system was introduced at the first practices, the concept proved its worth as protection against infection. Feiertag now has customers throughout the DACH region, and even the first hospitals in Switzerland. She herself was recently voted one of the "Forbes DACH 30 under 30".

The young entrepreneur studied health informatics.(Bild: createju)

"The important thing is that you don't have to download an app," emphasizes the 28-year-old entrepreneur from Söding in western Styria, "we naturally thought about how all patients can register, regardless of their age." So you can also register with a phone call or, if necessary, simply on site. Quickticket" provides receipt printers for this purpose.

The longer patients wait, the more annoyed they are. Then the process is not smooth - neither for the staff nor for the patients.

Hausarzt Martin Handel

Ticket number 500,000 was drawn
General practitioner Jan Hörmann from Lieboch explains: "I'm one of those practices where there's more talking. The disadvantage of this is that patients often have to wait unexpectedly." Knittelfeld GP Martin Handel adds: "The longer patients wait, the more annoyed they are. Then the process is not smooth - neither for the staff nor for the patients." The ticket system has been well received in his practice. "Many patients are now very enthusiastic and the number is increasing," says Handel.

Around 150 healthcare facilities now use Feiertag's software - the first Styrian practice was Julia Pichler's in Weiz. "We used to have waiting times of up to three hours, but now it's much more organized than before," she says. Feiertag's team, based in Graz, now comprises five people. And a week ago, they achieved great success: half a million tickets have been drawn since the company was founded. "I want even more GPs to be relieved in the future, they have a really stressful job anyway," says the 28-year-old.