Patients late for appointments, last minute cancellations and no shows not only have a negative effect on your practice but can affect the experience of other patients as well. One late patient can cause a trickle on effect causing a number of other following appointments to be late. Cancelled or missed appointments not only affect the bottom line but the efficiency of your practice as well.
The number of no-shows and cancellations varies from practice to practice, you can easily work it out yourself by counting the number of cancellations or no-shows you’ve had in a week, and extrapolating from that how many you may have in a month or year. Times that by an average appointment fee and you might be horrified by the amount of income lost.
As a hypothetical example, say a dental practice with a single dentist seeing 8 patients a day. Around 16.2% of people when polled in 2019 said they skipped or cancelled medical appointments due to cost . If we use that percentage to calculate cancellations and no-shows, 6 patients will miss their appointments a week. According to Choice, the average cost for a full periodontal check, scale and clean and fluoride treatment is $215 . At that rate the dental clinic is losing out on $1290 a week, over $5500 a month or over $66000 a year.
Without even considering more expensive treatments you can already see how great a financial impact last minute cancellations and no-shows can have. So how do you cut down on missed appointments? We’re glad you asked.
1. Create a Late or Missed Appointment Policy
Some practices have a three strikes policy, charging a fee for a third missed appointment or last minute cancellation, whereas others may bump a patient if they arrive more than 10 minutes late for an appointment. The nature of your practice and modality may define the nature of your missed appointment policy, but no matter what it is, clearly communicating the policy is paramount.
Having the policy posted on your website, visible in the practice and even included in followup or reminder emails or SMS can help reinforce the idea that people need to either front up for their appointment or cancel immediately rather than waiting until there is nothing a practice can do to fill the slot.
2. Make Yourself Easy To Find
Some people may miss their appointment simply because your practice is hard to find. Registering your practice on Google My Business and managing your presence on Google Maps can make it much easier for a person to find your practice as well as gauge how much time a trip will take.
3. Enable Payment Plans
One of the major stressors in Australia at the moment is financial uncertainty. While this has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, it is not a new problem. While some people may have the money to pay a large bill upfront, research conducted by financial analysts in 2019 showed that almost half of Australians were living paycheque to paycheque , and could be financially undone by losing their job or a large, unexpected bill.
As mentioned earlier, around 16.2% of people admitted to skipping medical appointments due to cost. This poll was taken before the outbreak of the coronavirus, and while we don’t have any accurate figures to go by as yet, it’s safe to assume that the number of people skipping appointments due to financial burden has risen.
Payment plans offered by companies like OpenPay allow patients to attend appointments without the fear of being financially undone by the cost, as they can integrate a series of smaller payments into the weekly or monthly budgets. Once a payment is due and a plan has been agreed to, the practice is paid the full fee (minus transaction and administration fees). OpenPay takes ownership of the repayments, performing any follow ups as may be needed without input from your business.
4. Add Online Booking Functionality
90% of people indicate a preference for booking appointments online, and around 40% have said they would move to a practice that offered online booking. This all sounds very important when it comes to generating new patients, but having online booking functionality also gives a patient the ability to search for times and dates that suit them, leaving them more invested in the process and committed to the appointment.
MyHealth1st OnlineAppointments enables patients to book appointments 24/7. 55% of all online appointments are booked outside of business hours, and allowing patients to book outside hours gives them time to search for times and dates that are right for them, talk over appointments with family members and otherwise make sure that the appointment is right for them.
In addition to making people more invested in their appointments, MyHealth1st OnlineAppointments also features smart appointment reminder messages, helping to further ensure that patients attend their appointments and that your waiting room is full.
Find out more about how MyHealth1st can help your practice reduce last minute cancellations and no shows as well as increase your bookings, simply click here.
5. Use Reminders
Communication is key for engaging with patients, and one of the most important steps you can take to ensuring that people come to their appointments is to use reminders, telling them the date, time and location of the appointment. A single reminder can boost attendance, but depending on the length of time between booking and appointment an earlier message can remind people they have an appointment coming up so they can better integrate it into their plans.
EasyRecall gives practices an easy and effective way to send bulk communications, recalls and reminders via email and SMS, allowing practices to send reminders in a manner that best suits individual patients.
While email and SMS are a perfect medium for reminders for most people, some practices may need a more personal touch, especially if they cater to elderly patients. In that case, a phone call or even a letter can help remind people of upcoming appointments.
MyHealth1st has long been dedicated to giving medical practices the technology they need to better connect with patients, and patients an easy way to find and book appointments.
