Patient Scheduling Missteps can be Costly - by Jordan Levin
Every practice has them, patients who cannot keep an appointment. Whether it’s a “no show,” a “late cancel,” or the patient showing up late, it leaves a hole in your schedule. There are a variety or reasons for missed visits. Most of the time the patient is at fault, but not always. Your staff may also be to blame when a patient misses a visit. Smaller practices usually know what patients are likely to miss a visit, and larger practices or those with good electronic scheduling software are able to use practice analytics to pinpoint those who are repeat offenders. Ultimately time is money, and you need to take steps to avoid lost revenue caused by scheduling missteps. Below are a few:
1. Identify the patients who miss appointments regularly. They need to be called when they miss an appointment not just to reschedule but to be told that it is unacceptable to miss a visit unless they give at least 24-hour notice, or whatever your office policy is. You should use this discussion to find out why they keep missing appointments.
2. Patients who frequently miss appointments should be given future appointments at the end of the day. If you have a break for lunch you may also schedule them as the last appointment of the morning. This way if they don’t show up you either have an extra few minutes for lunch or get to start your end of day work early.
3. We don’t typically recommend double booking a patient, but for those who regularly miss visits it can be considered. If both patients do show up, see the one who shows up first or, if you prefer, the one that doesn’t miss appointments first, its probably going to be the same one.
4. Reminders! All patients should be reminded about appointments at least 3 days before their visit and again the day before. For frequent “no showers” you may also consider confirming the morning of the appointment. If a patient often misses appointments and your office is not confirming them, its your staff’s fault too for the missed visit.
5. If its too much for your staff to confirm appointments, you may consider an automated service.
6. Physicians should be aware of the patients who miss visits and also address it during a kept visit. You may find there is a very good reason for their behavior. You need to emphasize to the patient that it is unacceptable to at the very least not call.
7. Consider dismissing patients who don’t show up to appointments.
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