3 Tips to Help Reduce Patient No-Shows At Your Medical Practice
It takes a great deal of time, effort, and money to get a new patient to visit your medical practice. So why not do everything you can to retain that patient? There are many things that help improve patient retention, but efficiency is an important one. Efficiency is critical for medical practices, no matter their size or specific area of expertise. And appointment scheduling and follow-ups are essential components of any efficiently run practice. One all too common headache for any practice trying to maximize efficiency is the prevalence of no-shows. Patients not showing up for scheduled appointments (or cancelling last minute) can lead to wasting critical resources like time, energy, and money. So to help avoid the headache and keep your practice schedule humming as it should, our medical marketing experts wanted to provide a few simple tips to help reduce no show appointments at any type of practice.
Tip #1: Appointment Reminders Are Essential
Things come up, people get busy, life happens. However, the most common reason for no-shows is as simple as people forgetting about their appointments. Which makes sense, especially since many appointments are made months in advance. So how do we combat this? Utilizing automated appointment reminders (a practice management service) is highly recommended. This can come in many forms such as a voice message, an email, a text, or all of the above. Doing so can provide simple, courteous (and customizable) reminders to patients that will help any misses from occurring.
Tip #2: Don’t Leave Patients Waiting
No matter how nice your office or waiting room is, no patient wants to spend too much time sitting there. In fact, the thought of having to wait around can be a major deterrent that causes patients to stay home instead of showing up for certain scheduled appointments. Showing your patients that you value their time will help ensure that they value yours as well. Keeping an efficient, optimized schedule and not booking more appointments than your practice can handle can both help in this regard and improve patient retention.
Tip #3: Allow a Self-Scheduling Option
Many patients prefer having the option to schedule their own appointments, as opposed to having to do so in-person or over the phone. Giving patients the freedom to choose a time that works best for them can ultimately make it more likely for them to not just make appointments, but keep them too. Doing so will also allow patients to schedule appointments for themselves at times when your office may be closed, which can help avoid those missed opportunities.
Our hope is that these tips can help your practice take advantage of booked appointments and avoid as many no-shows as possible moving forward. For more marketing insights, or if you are curious about what professional marketing services can do for your business or medical practice and patient retention, contact McCauley Marketing Services to schedule a marketing consultation appointment today. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram for additional marketing tips and news.