No show patients have an annual industry impact estimated at $150 billion, and cost your practice about $200 per unused timeslot. In fact, some experts say practices lose an average of 14 percent of their potential earnings each year due to missed patient visits. Not only that, but no-shows mean that patients don’t get much-needed care on the schedule they should be receiving it, which can ultimately hurt them from a health standpoint.
Therefore, reducing your no-shows should be among your highest priorities as your practice moves toward 2023. Even if you collect a fee for every no-show, you’re still losing out. Your best bet is to launch a multi-step strategy to minimize no-shows.
These five tips can help you reduce the number of no show patients at your practice.
1. Identify Chronic Offenders and Why They Miss
Begin tracking which patients repeatedly miss their appointments, and reach out to ask why they missed their visit. Ask each patient if there’s anything you can do to help them make their appointments, such as sending better-timed reminders. Keep a list of the reasons that patients give you for missing their appointments and determine whether you can identify any similarities between them so you can begin to tackle those issues.
2. Have a Policy, Enforce It Equitably
Make sure you have a strong no-show policy that outlines any fees patients will face if they don’t show up for appointments, as well as how long prior to the appointment they have to cancel if needed. Be sure to enforce the policy the same way with every patient. You shouldn’t show favoritism from one patient to the next.
3. Add Extra Reminders for Chronic No-Shows
Patients who chronically fail to show up may require additional appointment reminders. Perhaps you send them a few weeks before the appointment by email and text, call them one week before, and reach out with all three methods four days before the appointment, followed by a call 24 hours prior. Use the schedule that works best for you so you can find the patient’s best reminder method. Don’t rely too heavily on the patient portal to remind patients of their appointments, since not all patients log into their portals.
4. Keep a Waitlist
Some practices find success by maintaining a waitlist for appointments. If a no show patient falls through, you can call a patient from the waitlist and let them know that an opening arose. This allows you to fill a slot that would have been wasted, and it makes the patients who are pulled off the waitlist happy as well.
5. Maximize Your Use of Telehealth
Studies indicate that telehealth visits have a significantly lower no-show rate than in-person visits, so you should boost your use of telehealth with your patients. In particular, make sure to let the patients who chronically miss appointments know about the benefits of telehealth. They may be more likely to show up for visits if they don’t have to leave their homes.
No-shows not only cost your practice money they can also add a serious legal risk to your practice. Get practical, step-by-step instruction from attorney, Jeana Singleton, JD, on how to reduce your legal risk and revenue due to no-shows in her online 60-minute training: Patient No-Shows: Reduce Legal Risks and Lost Revenue.
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