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Every day, practices lose thousands of dollars due to patient no-shows. Some experts estimate patient no-shows can cost a single physician upwards of $150,000 annually, not to mention the labor hours spent rescheduling missed appointments. Staff is forced to divert their attention from improving the patient care experience to searching through schedules, calling patients (often repeatedly), and making new appointments.
Perhaps the most significant cost, although often overlooked, is felt by the patient who missed their appointment and did not receive the needed care. In many cases, missed appointments result from patients simply forgetting their scheduled appointment. With automated appointment reminders from OhMD, you can spend less time rescheduling missed consultations and more time on what’s important.
Value-based care incentivizes doctors to get their patients through the door
Reducing patient no-shows will save providers even more money in the new value-based healthcare system. With the recent transition from the fee-for-service healthcare model to value-based care, providers now receive reimbursements based on patient outcomes, rather than services rendered, incentivizing them to establish positive relationships with their patients. Providers need patients to come for preventative screenings and follow-up visits to ensure their health is monitored and maximize reimbursements. Practices need to get their patients through the door; automated appointment reminder texts make sure that happens.
Phone calls are not the best solution for patient no-shows
Nobody likes to play phone tag, especially when calling about something as simple as an automated appointment reminder. A recent study found text messaging has become today’s preferred method of communication and 62% of patients prefer text message communication over traditional methods. Not only do patients prefer texts, but they also successfully receive them more often; phone calls are much less efficient when it comes to getting in touch with a patient. Telephone reminders have an average successful contact rate of only 30% to 60%. Text messages reach patients between 97% and 99% of the time. Practices that implemented text appointment reminders decreased patient no-show rates by as much as 60% while saving time and money compared to alternative methods.
How OhMD can save you time and money with automated appointment reminder texts
With OhMD, you can easily text appointment reminders to a single patient or many patients all at once. Notify patients of their upcoming appointment with confidence they will see your message. Spend less time sifting through schedules and managing patient no-shows, all while increasing revenue and improving the patient care experience.
Using a tool like Broadcast can enable you to send dozens of messages with just a few clicks – exponentially increasing your ability to reach patients in a fraction of the time. You can send reminders for appointments or bills, vaccinations or more.
Another tool to bolster patient communication is Autopilot – automated text flows enabled by keywords. Patients send in a specific keyword, and will receive a series of questions to answer. This takes the repetitive yet necessary burden of gathering information away from the staff. At the same time, patients are getting a quick and personalized response to inquiries.
Automated appointment reminders are an easy solution for your practice – let’s see where more time and messaging can take you and your staff.
