Book your trip to the ER on smartphones, laptops

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The days of crowded ER waiting rooms and endless wait times to see a doctor may soon be over, thanks to online booking services.

Services like ZocDoc and InQuicker can now help you with everything from making a reservation at the emergency rooms, to booking a last-minute appointment to see your doctor. You can do it all from your laptop or smartphone.

Urgent care centers, ERs and pharmacy clinics in drugstores have all made the health care industry increasingly competitive.

"What we are really doing, is we are uncovering the hidden supply in health care," said Cyrus Massoui, CEO and founder of ZocDoc.

But in many cases, they haven't decreased wait times, which can sometimes seem endless.

Sites like ZocDoc and InQuicker can help at an urgent care center or your doctor's office.

"Patients cancel their appointments with doctors nearly a quarter of the time. And what we're doing is we integrate to all these different systems that doctors have, and there's 1,400 different systems out there. Anytime there is a last-minute cancellation for one of our doctors, that gets fed to the Internet," Massoui explained.

The service is free for patients. Medical professionals pay for the service, hoping to appeal to tech-savvy patients who are tired of long waits and scheduling hassles.

In turn, these services help health care providers, too. That's because Medicare reimbursements to facilities are partly based on patient satisfaction.

"The Affordable Care Act is looking at managing patient populations. So the ability to create access points into our system is critical to getting patients to use our system and use our services," said Kirat Kharode, the operations chief at Jersey City Medical Center.

Lauren Toth used InQuicker to make a reservation, but it was a medical center further from her home versus a hospital that was closer. Yet, it turned out to be a smart move.

"At the end of the day, it was definitely worth it because I spent far less time in the car going out there that I would have in the waiting room," Toth said.

In many cases, if the ER is backed up and you've got a non-life threatening condition, you'll get a text about the delay.

The online appointment sites have gotten positive feedback from many patients, who say that when something does go wrong - customer support is quick to respond.