The Key to Cutting Down No-Shows (by Crystal Schwanke)

June 29th, 2006

No-shows are expensive; there’s no doubt about it. Cutting down on those will increase your office’s profit incredibly (and keep the doctors and staff happy!). You could be losing up to $144,000 a year simply because of ten no-shows per day, at $60 per visit (that’s $600 per day). What’s the solution? Adequately reminding each patient of their appointment—close to their appointment date.

When a patient has several appointments to juggle, they do realize they’re important, but they may also slip a time or two, forgetting when each appointment is. The appointment card you gave them at the office is easy to misplace. That’s why you’ll need to call them one, two, or even three days in advance to remind them of their appointment verbally. This will be the quickest way to get a response on who is able to make their appointment and who, regrettably, is not.

Calling each patient from your practice can be a drain on time and employee energy. In reality, you’re paying an employee to do something a reminder service can do, and other areas of office function may need more immediate attention. If you do have an employee make the calls, you may be paying him or her more per call (based on their hourly rate) than you would if you used a reminder service like ClientTell (www.clienttell.net).You can increase employee productivity and office efficiency by handing off reminder calls to someone else.

ClientTell appointment reminders run between noon and 8:30 PM—later than most doctors’ offices are open—to reach as many patients as possible, decreasing your no-shows by up to 70%. Messages will be left on answering machines if no one picks up, enabling patients to listen to them again and again to make sure they have the time, date, location, and doctor’s name correct.

A few other tips for decreasing no-shows:

When a patient makes an appointment in your office, you’ll want to make sure they know exactly when their appointment is. Say it out loud and confirm that that day and time is okay with them. Point out your phone number on the card when you hand it to them so they’ll know where to call if they need to cancel or reschedule.

You also will need to inform them of WHY the appointment is necessary. If they realize how important it is for their health, they’ll be less likely to dismiss it mentally.

Send a letter in the mail. Make the font size large enough for your elderly patients to read. Keep in mind that since mailing a letter costs at least $.37, it will be cheaper to call them in most cases.

Simply taking the time to remind your patients of their appointments will cut down your no-shows and, in turn, increase your practice’s profit. The least expensive way of doing that is to utilize a reminder service. Calling at least two days before the appointment gives patients time to arrange for time off from work to make it to your office at the scheduled time, or cancel in time for you to fill the empty appointment slots again. Try it out and watch your no-show rates fall over the course of just a few weeks.

Entry Filed under: appointment reminders