ZocDoc Comes to Portland, Helping Patients Find Doctors and Instantly Book Appointments Online

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ZocDoc arrives in the Portland area today, helping residents effortlessly secure faster access to medical care. ZocDoc is a free service that allows patients to find a doctor nearby who accepts their insurance, view the doctor's real-time availability, and instantly book an appointment online. The typical ZocDoc patient sees a doctor in 24 to 72 hours – a vast improvement from the two week average that Portland patients currently wait to see a doctor.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111128/NY11439LOGO )

At launch, patients in Portland can book appointments with participating primary care doctors, dermatologists, and dentists. Many more specialties will soon be launched on the service.

To use this free tool, patients simply enter their location, insurance, and the type of doctor they would like to see on the ZocDoc website (www.zocdoc.com) or the free ZocDoc mobile app for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry. The service then shows local doctors' availability, qualifications, and verified patient reviews to help patients choose the Portland physician who best fits their needs. Patients then select an available appointment time and complete a brief confirmation process. With ZocDoc, patients can book anytime, anywhere – whether the doctor's office is open or closed.

"We've heard about weeks-long wait times throughout the Portland area, and we look forward to making that wait dramatically shorter for local residents," said ZocDoc founder and CEO Cyrus Massoumi. "We are hoping to improve Portland patients' access to the quality care they need and deserve."

ZocDoc puts some of the power back in Portland patients' hands by revealing a hidden supply of doctor appointments (including many last-minute cancellations) and making them instantly available online. This transparency reduces patients' long wait times and increases efficiency for local doctors' practices – a vital service given the country's current doctor shortage, which only stands to become worse with 32 million new patients entering the system under the Affordable Care Act.  

ZocDoc currently offers medical appointments in major metropolitan areas across the US including Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Palm Beach, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa Bay, and Washington, DC.

ZocDoc also offers a Spanish-language version of its free service called ZocDoc en Espanol (espanol.zocdoc.com; iPhone and Android) that helps Hispanic patients effortlessly find Spanish-speaking doctors and book appointments with them.

To learn more about ZocDoc, please visit the ZocDoc press room. Follow the latest ZocDoc news on the ZocDoc blog, via Twitter, or on Facebook.

About ZocDoc
ZocDoc, founded in 2007, is improving access to healthcare by enabling patients to search for doctors, sort by location and insurance accepted, read verified reviews, and instantly book appointments online or via the free ZocDoc Apps for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry. More than 1.7 million people use ZocDoc to find a doctor or dentist each month.

Contact: Jessica Aptman, (212) 715-8647, [email protected]

SOURCE ZocDoc