There are roughly 7.5 million missed medical appointments in the US each year. That costs healthcare providers country-wide an astonishing $150 billion in lost productivity and time. And, it’s an issue that’s set to tip our already toppling healthcare industry over the edge if providers don’t work fast to get on top.
Unfortunately, the unpredictability of missed appointments has often made them feel impossible to address. But, technological advances are now making it easier to reduce the prevalence of the problem. Of course, to some extent, a certain number of missed appointments are part and parcel of an appointments system no matter your efforts to the contrary. However, you could still increase attendance a great deal by implementing these simple tech measures within your healthcare business.
# 1 – Simplified Patient Management
Physically phoning a doctor’s office can take upwards of an hour during busy periods. Few people are prepared to sit on the phone for that long just to cancel one appointment. And, when patients don’t cancel appointments, DNA (did not attend) figures inevitably rise.
Patient management systems, ideally those that patients can access and adjust themselves, offer an increasingly valuable alternative. As well as reducing call frequency and freeing up your in-house team, systems that patients can easily sign into from home make it far more likely that they’ll cancel or reschedule an unsuitable appointment. All of which they’ll be able to do at the click of a button, or via a simple AI chatbot that connects them directly to a member of your team.
# 2 – Transport Scheduling
You can’t guarantee patients will attend their appointments, but you can make it easier for them to do so. While it’s not typically cost-effective to offer non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) to every patient, this is a great option for helping individuals who may otherwise struggle to attend an appointment in time.
From a tech standpoint, you can increase the success of your NEMT system by pairing this method with software specifically designed to streamline NEMT operations using automated scheduling and updates. Ensuring fleet cars are fitted with sat navs and linked up to your in-house NEMT software can also reduce the risk of missed appointments because of a mistake made by your driving team.
# 3 – Automated Messaging
Automated messaging software, which sends out patient reminders, may seem like an unnecessary healthcare expense. However, when you consider how much this implementation could save you in DNA appointments, it’s definitely an investment worth making. Patients are only human, after all, and sometimes a DNA happens for the simple reason that they’ve forgotten they booked in.
Ideally, messaging software should send at least two reminders in the week leading up to an appointment, both in advance and on the day. Include information such as the location and time, and provide simple links to your patient software to allow cancellations where necessary, well in advance of yet another no-show.
Missed healthcare appointments are a significant problem, and they’re an expense that an already struggling industry could do without. Address the problem by putting these technologies to work within your healthcare business.
