Americans live busy lives. The average American will work longer hours than almost any other nation in the world. But all this hustle can have a huge effect on the medical industry and other services that heavily rely on patients remembering their appointments.
In the past, many Doctors offices mitigated these absences by using an automated appointment reminder systems or having the assistants make phone appointment reminders, but still, some outpatient and surgical clinics experience a no-show rate of 50%
In order to counter this effect, many of these clinics are having to over book appointments to ward against the financial effect of their patients constantly missing their appointments.
But there are other ways to avoid these now shows and last minute cancellations. We’ve put together a quick list of tips to avoid this problem in your own office.

Check In Early

Half of the appointments where people no show were made weeks in advance. By the time the appointment is coming up, the patient has completely forgotten or something else has come up. By getting a hold of the patient a week or so before, you are able to greatly reduce the number of no-shows, even compared to a 24-hour reminder call.

Make Patients Aware of the Consequences.

Remember being a child trying to convince your parent to let you skip school because you simply didn’t feel like going? A lot of people never grew out of that impulse. Offices fight against it by imposing harsh punishments for absentee employees, but many patients will not be aware of the consequences of their absence. Make sure to reaffirm the long wait before the next available appointment that results from them not keeping their original appointment.

Send Text Appointment Reminders

While many people today screen their phone calls to the extreme, a text appointment reminders have a much greater chance of getting through to your patients — especially if that patient is a millennial.
Hopefully, these tips will help you and your office cut down on the number of missed appointments and physician appointment cancellations you experience. If the problem persists, then it might be time to sit down with your patients. Read this website for more information.