No-shows do more than just waste your time. They’re costing you money.
One popular estimate I’ve found pegs the average cost of no-shows in the healthcare industry at $150 billion annually. Another stat breaks that figure down to $150-200 in lost revenue per missed appointment for primary care physicians.
Money statistics aside, no-shows are a frustrating problem that every practice inevitably deals with at some point. In order to reduce the amount of headaches and costs to our productivity, it helps to understand the reasons why appointments are missed and what we can do to reduce their occurrences in our practice.
Why Patients No-Show
According to the article Why We Don’t Come: Patient Perceptions on No-Shows, published in the medical journal Annals of Family Medicine, there are three primary reasons why patients fail to show up at their scheduled appointments: Emotional fear, perceived disrespect, and not understanding the scheduling system.
Fear of Bad News
The largest factor contributing to no-shows is an emotional fear over the possibility of bad news. 65% of survey respondents said that negative emotions about going to see the doctor were sometimes greater than the perceived benefit of keeping the appointment.
Disrespected
The second most common reason for no-shows came from people with an ambivalent attitude towards the healthcare system. 44% of those surveyed said that missing an appointment was a way to retaliate against perceived slights from the healthcare industry.
From their perspective, healthcare professionals often disrespected their time, opinions, and feelings. These patients were frustrated by long waiting times, and physicians who did not empathize with their opinions on how to manage their own health.
Lack of Understanding
A third reason for a no-show were patients who did not fully understand the scheduling process nor appreciate the ramifications of missing an appointment.
In fact, many survey participants believed that canceled appointments occurred regularly enough that physicians must schedule around them. Some patients thought that a no-show may actually be a positive event for the physician and their staff.
Clearly, there are patients out there who simply have no idea about the financial costs that they’re imposing on your practice when they don’t keep their appointment.
4 Simple Strategies for Reducing No-Shows
Now that we understand a few of the reasons why patients fail to show up for their scheduled appointments, we can take steps to see what ways we can try to mitigate those risks.
1. Send Automated Reminders
Reminding patients of their scheduled appointment doesn’t directly solve one of the cited reasons above, but it is a simple and courteous way to help prevent easily avoidable no-shows.
People are busy. Investing in a system that manages automatic reminders, either by email or text message, is a must for every practice.
2. Reduce Wait Time
If we expect our patients to respect our time by keeping their appointments, then we owe them the same in return.
Cutting down on the amount of time patients spend sitting in the waiting room, or in the examination room waiting for the physician, can be a challenging topic that deserves a post all on it’s own. Each practice has its own unique logistical challenges to consider.
But if you’re not currently monitoring and prioritizing shorter wait times for your patients, then don’t be surprised if your patients express their frustration with more no-shows.
3. Reward Good Behavior
Charging patients a no-show fee is a hotly debated tactic that has good arguments on both sides. But an alternative to this penalty-based approach is to use a creative rewards program instead.
There are several ways you might consider incentivizing your patients to keep their appointments. One option to consider is a monthly prize drawing (e.g. gift cards) for patients who have honored all their appointments. Another option is to offer a modest year-end credit.
4. Educate Patients With Your Cancellation Policy
As the saying goes, sometimes you don’t know what you just don’t know. If our patients neglect to show up for their appointments because they don’t understand the financial and productivity burden they’ve caused, then shame on us.
Communicate your cancellation policy whenever you schedule new appointments. Even if there isn’t a fee attached to no-shows, it’s still our responsibility to communicate our expectations for reasonable cancellations and the effects of a no-show on our ability to serve our other patients.
Conclusion
There are many different reasons for why patients miss their appointments, and I’m sure many more strategies to consider how we can try to reduce those occurrences.
The ideas discussed here are just a sliver a of a very big topic, but the costs of patient no-shows justifies the attention.
Do you know how many no-shows your practice deals with on an annual basis? Do you know what it’s costing your business? What measures have you taken to improve patient scheduling and reduce the likelihood of no-shows?
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