5 Strategies to Reduce Your No-Show and Cancellation Rates for Patient Appointments
It’s so baffling when a patient cancels their appointment for physical therapy. Surprisingly more terrible, they may not appear at all and leave no warning sign. Patient no-shows and cancellations are big concerns since they cost your practice time and cash and cause re-booking issues. Helping push more patients to appear for their appointments takes constancy and accountability. I will show you 5 tips to reduce your patient no-show or cancellation rates. Before the finish of this article, you’ll see how to get more patients to appear for their appointments.
1. Confirm Your Patient’s Next Appointment in Detail at Your Office
It’s very easy for a patient to miss vital information about the date and time of their next appointment. Prior to your patient leaving your office, confirm their next appointment in terms of date, time, and services that will be given. Taking one moment to confirm your patient’s appointment can clear up any irregularities and encourage a patient to show up. Online patient registration forms can deal with this scheduled reminder. If you are using a software like HENO, set your patients up to receive voice, text or email reminders for their appointments.
2. Create a Missed-Appointment Policy and Inform Your Patients
Meet with your staff and make a policy for patients who miss their appointments. A missed appointment policy has some consequences for patients depending on their misses. For instance, consider a cancellation fee for appointments crossed out within 48 hours. Educate your patients about your missed-appointment policy and attend to their inquiries to accomplish mutual understanding about appointments.
3. Follow up with Patients after Their Re-Appointment Is Set
You’ve booked the next appointment with your patient. That is incredible. Be that as it may, by that time of your patient’s next appointment, their calendar may have changed significantly. Therefore, it’s vital to catch up with patients periodically subsequent to fixing their re-appointment. You can take after the 3-3-1 procedure to follow-up with every patient at intervals of say 3 weeks, then 3 days, and then 1 day just before their next appointment.
4. Educate Patients about the Health Effects of a Missed Appointment
Your patients might be ignorant of the health effects of an appointment missed. Utilize your patient’s time in your office to show them how missing an appointment can cause a decline in their health or in their progress. At the point when patients understand that they are taking a risk with their health by missing an appointment, they’re more likely to appear for their future appointments. This instruction diminishes your patient cancellation rates.
5. Contact Your Patients Right after a Missed Appointment
Contact your patients as quickly as time permits after missing their appointment. All things considered, they may have had a crisis. Additionally, you demonstrate concern and appreciation for them by contacting them directly after a missed appointment. You can reach out again to the patient on a week by week basis in case you can’t get in contact with them.
