Build a Doctor Appointment App like Zocdoc: Guide for Healthcare Sector

Quick Overview: Prioritizing health is the utmost need in post-COVID times. Considering that healthcare providers offer streamlined medical and doctor services via apps. The mainstay app that has taken center stage is Zocdoc. It is the top online doctor consultation app in the USA. Yet you can develop a doctor appointment booking app like ZocDoc. Willingly to know how to create, features to include, cost, etc. The article fits the best to serve you with all the requirements. 

As COVID-19 struck the world, the significance of health is wealth has been boosted. People who may have had negligible health issues earlier, now understand the importance of healthcare and the medical sector. Similarly, the healthcare industry has been on the waves to provide the best treatment. As per Deloitte’s 2023 Outlook, the global healthcare sector will require about 80M more workers by 2030. So, the healthcare industry will dominate in the future demand and may have a shortage of workers.

The pandemic has also given weightage to remote solutions. As a result, these days, everything is available at your fingertips on mobile phones. There is an app to order food, clothes, groceries, etc. Expanding this evolution, the healthcare industry has also encouraged doctor appointment booking apps like Zocdoc.

Such apps serve ease of use for medical services from your home. It is sort of preventing complications for patients. So, they can access the healthcare assistant without any obstacles. 

You can also set up your application and help mankind. Also, it will be a revenue-generating business idea. Continue reading to understand minute details on creating a doctor consultation app for upcoming years. 

What is a Doctor Appointment App like Zocdoc?

The revolutionary technology excellence in the form of apps to schedule doctor’s appointments time and date is known as doctor appointment apps. It is highly beneficial for patients to get healthcare consultation with just a matter of clicks. One of the leading and relished examples of such application types is Zocdoc. 

This efficient healthcare service provider app was established in 2007. The CEO and founder, Oliver Kharraz has invented the Zocdoc intending to offer healthcare services at the convenience of patients. Emphasizing that, it has built a Zocdoc application with features for browsing, comparing, and booking the doctors or specialists from your mobile phones. It is free to download from Apple Store and Play Store. 

How Does the Zocdoc App Assist Patients? 

The market size of Zocdoc has remarkably expanded after the pandemic. Zocdoc has captured a vast audience in the USA and gained their trust. Consequently, it serves more than 40% of the US population.

Being a New York-origin healthcare provider, Zocdoc provides a smooth user experience to patients. Its services are available across  2,000+ cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas. However, it is also growing its boundaries to more areas. So, Zocdoc fetches the patient’s location and offers a local doctor’s list accordingly. 

Alongside, patients get a choice of either visiting doctors in person or attending video calls for checkups. Zocdoc is indeed the best online doctor booking app in the USA. Its versatility provides healthcare experts of various categories. Patients can see the doctor’s name, years of experience, verified reviews, and ratings. So. It simplifies the task of patients to select the appropriate one. 

Therefore, Zocdoc offers a doctors network from multiple categories ranging from Primary Care Doctors, cardiologists, neurologists, dentists, pediatricians, Psychologists, Therapists, and so on. It provides medical facilities for every minor fever to surgical treatments.

In addition to that, to make your treatment cost-effective, Zocdoc also provides insurance plans as a good alternative. There is a list of health plans to choose from based on your needs. So, it will get you covered throughout your treatment.   

How does a Healthcare App like Zocdoc Make Money?

The monetary sources of Zocdoc are numerous. So, your business idea is profitable and will make you gain money efficiently. When you build a doctor appointment app like Zocdoc, it earns from patients and doctors or providers. Let’s have a look at the segments of income.

Subscription fees– The application allows doctors to build profiles and access premium features at minimal fees. Usually, these premium services either keep the doctor’s name on top of the search or any value-based benefit.

Paid Marketing– In-app marketing or advertisements are the lucrative income streams. Many healthcare providers or doctors want to market their service and name. So, your app can earn through showing their ads.

Offering related services– You can also enhance your income by offering healthcare-related services like medicine delivery, blood and urine test collection, Ambulance for emergency, etc. 

What are the Must-have Features of a Zocdoc-like Healthcare App?

Here are the key features for creating a healthcare app like Zocdoc

User login

The most common feature while you build a doctor booking mobile application is the user profile. For both the patient and doctor panel, it’s obvious to allow users to register themselves in the app. It will generate their account to access the app. Additionally, it keeps you updated about the authenticity of users.  

Availability of the Doctors

Users can browse for doctors and check their availability on a real-time basis. So, they can even schedule the appointment depending on their availability dates or times. It saves time in visiting the clinics as you get updates about available doctors remotely. 

In-App Notifications

The Zocdoc-like app should notify the users about the appointments and booking status. For instance, if the patient has requested the appointment of a specialist, then the specialist should be notified about it. Furthermore, when the specialist confirms the booking, the patient should be updated about it through in-app notifications or SMS. 

Slot Management

The app allows patients to oversee the availability of the doctors and select appropriate slots. In the doctor’s panel, they can also control the booking slot. It allows them to accept, reject, or postpone the appointment.

In-built Call and chat options

Users have the privilege to video call and chat with doctors using the app. For remote consultation or any emergency, users can virtually connect with the service providers. 

Compare Doctors

Making users search personalized, your doctor appointment app like Zocdoc should offer a feature to compare doctors. Os, users can search for specialists, and compare their ratings, prices, and experience. As a result, users can make more insightful decisions.

Real-time reminders

The application should be equipped with real-time reminders for the availability of doctors and appointment alerts. For example, if you have an appointment at 3 p.m. with the doctor, the app notifies you at 2.50 p.m. about it. So, you will be alert about it. 

Easy Payment Integration

Users get various payment options for settling medical bills. The Zocdoc app consists of various payment options. So, users can set up as per their choice and manage the app efficiently.  

E-prescriptions

Doctors can provide users with prescriptions through the application. Also, if the user prefers ordering medicine, the prescriptions are automatically sent to the pharmacy to deliver medicines. Hence, it minimizes the hassle for both parties. 

Feedbacks and ratings

All the listed or registered doctors get reviews and ratings based on their services to users. Zocdoc makes it one step forward, with verifying the reviews. So, it double-checks the genuine feedback. Ultimately, the users pick their specialty doctors examining their ratings.

Access to medical history & health reports

As users utilize the app, it tracks and records users’ medical history and health reports. The app stores the data in the cloud, so it remains secure. However, it allows users to access their health reports and history at any time in the future.

Therefore, you need to integrate these highly functional features while developing an app like Zocdoc. You can add more features as well, but these are the major ones that can’t be neglected. 

How to Develop a Doctor Appointment Booking App like Zocdoc?

As you understand the features, it’s time to move ahead with the development part. Building a doctor appointment app like Zocdoc from scratch is an attention-to-detail task. To prevent issues and  make your process smooth going here are the stages you need to follow rigorously.

• Collect the Database of Doctors & Clinics

Firstly, you need to start by collecting the database of local doctors and clinics. It demands analyzing the target audience from your target location. Evaluate the list of doctors’ directories based on their specialty. There are a few websites handy to get the huge database from like Doctor Database. 

Gather contact information and check their past track records. You can also examine their ratings on Google. Accordingly, get details of pharmacies and negotiate on the prices of the medicines. It will set up your network of doctors and pharmacies. So, you can efficiently serve the patients with the required facilities. 

• Project Wireframing

As the online doctor booking app prerequisites major 3 panels;

• Doctors Panel
• Patients Panel
• Admin Panel

So, it demands creating a wireframe while making an app like Zocdoc. Making your app’s blueprint will assist developers or designers in structuring the application accordingly. It minimizes any confusion and keeps the process on track. Hence, you can make modifications depending on the visual representation. 

• Make a prototype

Now, the prototyping stage is also the critical one. It needs to put the initial wireframe into the live application. Although this process is more widely known as MVP app development. You actually don’t need to integrate all the features and compliances. 

Making your minimum viable product will analyze the market response. So, you can change the roadmap and advance the main application. You can easily utilize no-code tools to develop and launch a doctor appointment booking app.

• Hire Expert App Developers

The main app development requires you to hire healthcare app developers. You should start by looking for talents from the appropriate talent marketplaces. The expert app developers will proceed with the stages of coding and designing the application. Ensure to choose the developers after proper interview rounds.

• Coding of healthcare application

As soon as you onboard the developers, start the coding of your doctor appointment booking app like Zocdoc. This stage demands to be performed with thorough analysis. It will make your app deliver an optimized user experience. Furthermore, the UX also determines the development of the mobile app as well as the web version. 

Your application should be accessible to all device types. Making it responsive will take care of that aspect. So, your online doctor appointment booking app development should be done based on standard parameters. 

• Security Compliance

The app should incorporate security measures to safeguard valuable patient data. So, the process of booking treatment should be encrypted with reliable compliance. As your application fetches data to share with the doctors, integrating secure architecture is a precondition. 

Your application should follow the regulations of the data security councils like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). So, consider adhering to your service based on the security rules. 

• Test & Launch

The quality of your application should be robust and competitive. The efficiency of the healthcare sector has increased. So your doctor consultation app delivers error-free and better performance. Therefore, it is important to operate quality testing extensively. It will find and prevent the bugs. Finally, your application is ready to launch the platforms.  

• Maintenance & Support

The process is not done with just developing a doctor booking mobile application. It is equivalent to maintaining applications and upgrading as per the requirements. Also, the updates support delivering the latest mobile versions as per the user’s feedback. Thus, you can keep up the functionality and maintain your app’s position in the marketplace. 

Read also: How to Build Telemedicine Application?

What is the Tech Stack for Zocdoc-like Doctor Appointment App Development? 

The technology stack for any app development project is the major success factor. So, you should select the right tech stack that is compatible with your project. To put it in simple terms, here is the categorized view of platforms and their technologies. 

Mobile development languages: Swift (iOS), Java or Kotlin (Android), Dart (Flutter)

Frontend development: HTML, CSS

Location APIs: Google Maps API, MapKit

Backend Technologies: PHP, Python; [Database Management: MongoDB, Postgres]

Payment Integrations: Stripe, PayPal, Braintree

In-app calling/messaging: Twilio

Cloud Hosting: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure 

Electronic Health Records (EHR) APIs: Google Cloud Healthcare, Amazon Comprehend Medical

Moreover, the buzz of Flutter for on-demand healthcare apps like Zocdoc is quite high. The functionality of Flutter hasn’t left any industry. Its growth is noteworthy, so Flutter for healthcare applications can do wonders in the long run. Need more clarification on this? Read the article to know why to use Flutter for the healthcare app development.

What is the Estimated Cost to Develop a Doctor Appointment App Like Zocdoc?

The most searched question for any project is the cost. Well, the Zocdoc like app development cost is usually determined through multiple factors. Some of the primary of are;

• Expertise & experience of developers
• Feature and functionalities
• Region of developers
• Hiring model
• Project Size
• Time duration

Depending on these, your average cost to develop a healthcare app like Zocdoc would be around $15,000 to $60,000. However, if you make better and future-ready app solutions, you should use technologies like AI and wearable. Therefore, it will increase the cost accordingly. 

How to Surpass Zocdoc in the Race of Healthcare Application?

You have come a long way in offering streamlined healthcare consultation app solutions. Yet the existing and top player Zocdoc has a huge audience. Your application should aim to initially sustain and eventually exceed the Zocdoc in numbers. 

For doing so, the advanced technology trends are what you should consider. In this post-pandemic world, people are in search of remote and relevant solutions. So, we have performed the market analysis and have concluded with some of the must-have solutions. These are the ultimate ways to keep your app ahead and make users’ first choice. 

• Integrate AI-based Feature
• Focus on Cyber Security
• Maximization of Wearable Technology
• Implement Telemedicine system
• Advantages of the Internet of Things (IoT)

All these will have a fruitful impact on your application. Although we have just stated the names here. You can check out the detailed guide from our blog on healthcare app development trends! 

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you have got enough insights for your doctor consultation app development. Also, on-demand apps like Zocdoc have established their brand recognition. Till the moment you launch your app, the competition will grow, so now is the time to execute the development process. 

Look for a mobile app development company and hire the resources. If you are facing difficulty with that, you can connect with us anytime. Our experts will guide you through the healthcare app development process!