30-60%
of Find a Doctor searches for a provider end with one not bookable online.
$229K
a year in new-patient care comes from one OB/GYN provider bookable online.
70
out of every 100 searches led to a booking when the median wait time was under 7 days.
Online scheduling brings in new patients one provider at a time. As you set 2027 priorities, DexCare’s booking data shows what online scheduling is worth for each specialty.
Our analysts evaluated online booking trends across six of our health system customers from April through September 2026. The data confirms what healthcare executives have heard for years: that every provider a health system opens to online booking brings in new patients.
Read on to explore the full results and benchmarks you can use to plan your organization’s 2027 patient access strategy.
How much additional revenue could one provider generate through online scheduling?
A typical provider patients can book online brings in between $21,000 and $229,000 a year in new-patient care, depending on specialty, at Medicare-based rates.
Family medicine sets the baseline, with providers booking 9.5 appointments per month online, or 114 a year. About 82 of those are new patients, and their first visits, plus the follow-up care in the 12 months after, are worth roughly $31,000 per provider.
Some specialties bring a higher return due to the complexity and frequency of follow-up care. Orthopedic providers, including foot and ankle surgeons, book at nearly the same pace as family medicine providers, attracting nearly 80 new patients and 111 appointments per year. But their downstream revenue is $145,000 per provider, nearly five times the baseline.
OB/GYN providers book about 90 appointments a year, 65 of them new patients, worth $229,000 per provider. That figure includes pregnancy care, worth about $14,700 per pregnancy.
| Specialty | 12-month new-patient value per provider, per year (median) | Online bookings per provider, per month (median) |
|---|---|---|
| OB/GYN | $229K | 7.5 |
| Orthopedics | $145K | 9.25 |
| Cardiology | $84K | 4.5 |
| Physical medicine and rehab | $74K | 7.75 |
| Internal medicine | $36K | 7.5 |
| Family medicine | $31K | 9.5 |
| Pediatrics | $28K | 3.5 |
| Gastroenterology | $23K | 3 |
| ENT | $21K | 5 |
What percentage of patients searching for care can’t find a provider who books online?
Across the six health systems studied by DexCare, 30% to 60% of Find a Doctor searches for a provider by name land on someone who can’t be booked online. Between 10% and 44% of specialty searches are for specialties with no online scheduling options.
A patient who searches for a doctor by name has already chosen that clinician. Search data can’t show what each of those patients did next. Some likely called, others searched for a different provider, and some may have booked with a competing health system. But what the data does show is that a patient who looked for care couldn’t book in the moment.
What are the biggest drivers of online appointment scheduling conversion rates for hospitals and health systems?
Data shows that patients are motivated to schedule a doctor’s visit online when the wait time is short, open slots are visible, and the booking flow is easy to finish.
Short Waits Create More Bookings
Specialties with wait times under 7 days generate roughly 70 bookings per 100 searches. When that wait extends to 30 days or more, bookings fall to 6 per 100 queries.
UNDER 7 DAYS WAIT TIME
~70
bookings per 100 searches
30 DAYS OR MORE WAIT TIME
6
bookings per 100 searches
Visible Open Times Increase Engagement
Website visitors who search and see open slots book 2x to 8x more often than visitors who neither search nor see open slots. One health system client saw its online bookings rise 18 percentage points (seasonally adjusted) after adding open slots and search landing pages to its website in the same release.
A Simple Booking Flow Boosts Booking Rates
At one health system DexCare works with, about 90% of patients who reach the summary step finish booking. Across other clients, booking rates range between 73% to 83%.
What does data tell us about when patients book medical appointments online?
Patients of all ages and their caregivers book online any time that is convenient, often outside business hours.
- About 30% of online bookings are made before 8 a.m. or after 5 p.m.
- Patients 65 and older represent around 16% of online bookings at most systems. About half book from a desktop computer.
- Between 9% and 21% of online bookings were made by a caregiver seeking care for someone else, such as a child or parent, so booking flows also need a clear way for a caregiver to book on another person’s behalf.
About 80% of patients say they want to schedule from home or on a mobile device, and the booking data shows they already do, at all hours, on every device and for the people they care for. With staff stretched thin, a booking flow built for all of these patients gives them a way to schedule that doesn’t depend on reaching someone by phone.
What’s the financial value of online urgent care scheduling?
Across systems where urgent care could be measured, online bookings brought in anywhere between $312,000 to $1.1 million a year per location in new patient care. That figure includes only patients who booked online, not walk-ins or patients who called.
The real return depends on what the patient books next. When primary care and specialty providers are bookable online too, the patient who scheduled urgent care online can book that next visit the same way instead of leaving the system to find it.
Five Steps to Inform Your 2027 Patient Access Strategy
Pull the data from your current online booking and Find a Doctor analytics to see where you stand and plan for 2027.
1
Measure bookings per bookable provider, by specialty.
Track appointments scheduled online per bookable provider each month and build the business case for adding more providers based on anticipated volume.
2
Count the Find a Doctor searches that end without a bookable provider.
Prioritize adding the specialties and providers patients search for the most but cannot book.
3
Rank the next specialties by 12-month value per provider and median wait time.
Use family medicine as the baseline. A specialty worth several times that per provider, with a median wait of under seven days, is the strongest next candidate for online booking.
4
Show open appointment times on provider pages.
Report the share of provider page visitors who see an open time each month next to booking volume.
5
Check how many patients drop off at the last step.
If your rate is near the low end of the benchmark (73%), review the summary screen with your digital team, identify the blocker, and fix it before you spend more money to bring traffic to the site.
What’s the Bottom Line for 2027 Planning?
Our data shows that online booking attracts new patients, and the value grows with each specialty a health system adds. If you’re struggling with making online scheduling work, reach out to our team at DexCare. We’ll review your data against our benchmarks and show you where your biggest opportunities exist.
Methodology
This report covers six health systems using DexCare for online booking, from April through September 2026, using DexCare’s booking and web analytics.
Dollar values count new patients only and are based on Medicare rates for the first visit and the care that follows over 12 months.
Return visits and some services, such as labs, carry no dollar value here.
The figures describe revenue DexCare books for health systems, not all revenue that online scheduling created.
Per-provider medians reflect the typical active provider across the systems that book each specialty online.
