Archive for the 'Appointment Reminder' Category

Make The Most of Your Automated Appointment Reminder With These Tips

B sadewo August 1st, 2010

In the hope of increasing the productivity level of your medical office staff and improving the quality of service, you have decided to use an automated appointment reminder. This is an important step that can lead to the success of your medical practice in getting new patients, while maintaining existing ones by making them feel satisfied. To get the most benefit of the reminder system, there are some things that you should be paying attention to as well. These are tips you can use on how to best utilize the automated appointment reminder.

When you first installed the appointment reminder system, it is essential for you to sit down with your staff and explain thoroughly how the system works. It is an important part of setting the right expectations – both for you and your staff. You must explain how the automated appointment reminder will work for the benefit of the office – as well for the benefit of all staff members. Tell them how the system can reduce unnecessary loads that the staff usually encounters. Inform them that the system can make your staff focus more on their main tasks –to care for the patients and providing only the best level of service.

However, you should also stress that the system is not meant to takeover all your operation and that it merely acts as a great supporting device. Hence, your staff will still need to work hard and not feel easily content – knowing that there’s a system that can back them up.

Having a great appointment reminder system will only work if your patients are happy with it. Some reminder service such as mobile text message reminder, email reminder, maybe not easily set up compare to phone reminder which requires nothing to be done by patients.

Some may not be too tech savvy to understand the instructions given out by the system. You can overcome this possible problem by providing signs and handouts to the patients explaining how the system works. They will appreciate the effort that your medical office is giving and will learn to use the system for their convenience.

To run a successful medical office, asking for feedback from your patients should always be on your list. If you use the right system, you can be sure that you will receive good feedback. Nevertheless, it is always good to make your patients feel that you value their opinions and are willing to implement their suggestions.

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The Benefits of Using an Automated Patient Appointment Reminder

B sadewo July 24th, 2010

When you are using an automated appointment reminder system, the task of reminding your patients about the appointments that they made in your medical practice can be done automatically by the system. This will be done effectively and efficiently at a fraction of the cost of manual system. If you are still unconvinced about making the move to automated system, knowing what benefits the system can provide you with should remove all your doubts.

When your medical staff makes those reminder calls during office hours, there’s a good probability that they can not reach anyone on the other end of the phone. An automated reminder system, on the other hand, can make that reminder calls beyond the typical working hours. The calls can be made in the evening and even on weekends, when there’s a better possibility that your patients will be home.

An automated reminder system is also reliable. If you leave it to your staff to make phone calls after phone calls to remind the patients, there’s a good chance that they’d be bored by the 15th calls – which could negatively affect the tone of voice of the caller. On the other hand, an automated system will have a consistent tone and manner – since the message is pre-recorded using professionally trained voice actors. The recipient of the calls can repeat the message easily if need be.

When you rely on your medical staff to make reminder calls – you will only cut into their efficiency. Either they would be too engrossed in other tasks to be able to complete making all the phone calls – or they would run out of time to do so. This is where an automated reminder system excels.

The system can also compile a report of all the appointments made during a given period of time. What’s even better, you will be access the report even when you are outside the office – since it will be available online as well.

Having learned of all the benefits that an automated reminder system can provide you with, it would be foolish not to invest in one.

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Slash Patient No-Shows Through Automated Appointment Reminder

Richard Lango June 30th, 2010

“Failed appointments pose financial as well as administrative problems for residency practices. Proactive reminder systems are needed to promote patient attendance.” Concludes a study carried out to determine the effects of patient no-shows at clinics. The study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information showed that cancellations and no-shows covered 31.1% of scheduled appointments and gobbled up 32.2% of scheduled time. This results in a revenue shortfall of between 3% and 14% within one year.

Time and money: effects of no-shows at a family practice residency clinic

This study shows the seriousness of no-shows in any medical practice. Therefore, you cannot afford to take it for granted. You need to set up a good patient appointment reminder system to help your patients and your business. Most of the patient no-shows are as a result of the patients forgeting about their appoinments for one reason or another.

The secret here is the word good. There are very many reminder services in the market, and not all of them will suit your purposes. So, what constitutes a good reminder program?

The reminder software you are using helps you to get in touch with your patients in the best way possible. This means that it needs to have a way of reaching all types of people, hence it should get in touch with the patients in a variety of ways, including:

Telephone

Telephone is a very good way of getting in touch with many people. An automated telephone reminder is especially suitable for the elderly who do not often use the newer modes of communication.

You will cater to the needs of the patients who prefer using the telephone. However, you can still miss some people since not all people have installed an answering system in case they are away.

Email

Many people use email nowadays, which makes it a convenient way of reaching them. There are some people who use email as their main mode of communication.

If your reminder software uses email alone, however, you will not serve every person well. In addition, the prevalence of spam mail has resulted in spam filters that can inadvertently send your reminders to the spam folders.

Text message

Apart from the fact that very many people use cell phones, text messages have the added advantage that you will reach your patients wherever they are. This is an especially good choice for busy individuals who travel often.

However, the patients have to pay for the text messages.

Your patient reminder service should therefore include all these options. Preventing just one no-show in a month suffices to cover your subscription.

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How to Avoid Patient No-Shows

Richard Lango April 13th, 2010

According to a survey presented at a conference that was organized by the Royal College of Surgeons, as much as 15% of patients who make appointments do not show up for their appointments. 76% of these patients do not even let their doctors know that they would not go for the scheduled appointments. 15% of them said that they forgot about their appointments while 26% said that they got no notification. From this study, you can see the importance of patient appointment reminder service.

Making appointments is certainly very important. However, if you leave it at that, you will still be losing out. You need an effective way of keeping in touch with the patients to ensure that they do not forget to come for the scheduled appointments.

You have already set up an appointment scheduler. Why should you spend on a patient appointment reminder service? Look at it this way. How many patients fail to show up to your medical practice each month? If 15% of patients do not show up because you do not remind them, how much will you be losing? Yet if you save just one patient no-show within a month, you will have paid for the reminder service.

Now that you have seen the importance of a patient appointment reminder program, what should you look for to ensure that you get the best service?

Avoid large up-front costs:

Just because you have read a good review about a given service should not make you commit to a program that requires a large upfront payment that will tie you up for a long time. You should preferably look for an appointment reminder service that you pay for on a monthly basis.

Different ways of contacting patients:

People have different interests and lead different lifestyles. This means that relying on a service that uses just one method of contacting the patients will not serve you well. Here are some of the ways through which you should be able to contact your patients.

Telephone

Very many people use telephone, both young and old. However, you will miss the patients who are not at home during the call and do not have an answering system.

Email

The advancement in Information Technology has made the use of email very popular nowadays. Email offers a fast way of getting in touch with people easily.

However, if your patient reminder service uses email only, you will not cater for those who who do use email, particularly the elderly. In addition, increasing misuse of email has has made email programs enhance their spam filters, and your reminders may not reach the patients at times.

Text message reminder

Text message gives a convenient way of keeping in touch with the patients wherever they may be. The greatest drawback, however, is the fact that the patients will pay for the text messages.

The automated patient reminder service you use should use a combination of all these methods.

Why Do Patients Forget About Their Appointments?

Bob Current April 2nd, 2010

Using a reminder service to make sure that your patients don’t forget about their appointments is a great way to deliver a very useful service to your patients and make the life of your staff just a little easier.

Why Do Patients Forget About Appointments?


When the patient makes an appointment with your medical office you can be sure that they have a problem that they need you to fix.  They won’t make an appointment because they just want to chat about the weather or the latest news.

They have some sort of problem that bothered them enough to call and schedule an appointment that would take a chunk of time out of their day and cost them some money.

So why don’t they show up for the appointment?  While occasionally it might be because the problem went away or that another larger problem came up that required their attention, most of the time it’s just because they forgot.

So What Can You Do?


A lot of offices try to discourage no shows by charging them even if they didn’t come unless the appointment is not canceled 24 to 48 hours in advance.  But this is an adversarial tactic that will only annoy or even anger your patients.

A better way is to help them remember that they have an appointment.  Medical appointment reminder services are a great tool that you can use to do just that, help your patients remember.

A reminder service is a proactive step that you can take that will be greatly appreciated by your patients.  After all, they needed the appointment in the first place so what would be more user friendly than offering this service.

How Do You Do It?


Virtual medical reminder services are available that make reminders fast and painless.  Why take your staff away from their other duties when a reminder service can do the work for you?

Best of all, even if you have your staff making reminder calls, they are using only the phone and will be making the calls during business hours when your patients are likely busy at their own jobs.

A medical reminder service can contact your patients in a number of different ways including home phone, cell phone, e-mail or even mobile text message. A average reminder service with all of the reminder type mentionned-above cost you very affordable monthly fee. Usually that fee is lower than what a single no-show may cost you. (Do the math!)

This gives your office the ability to add an inexpensive service that will more than pay for itself in the long run with the extra income that is generated by cutting the number of no-shows to your office.

Can You Customise Your Office Scheduler?

Richard Lango March 29th, 2010

Automation is the buzzword in virtually every industry as people take advantage of the technological advancements. When looking for office automation solution related to scheduler, there are many things you will need to consider as you search for the best, one of which is the ease of cutomisation.

The medical field is very broad and different medical practioners have different needs. This is one of the areas where a medical office scheduler that you can customise easily comes in handy. Whether you are a pediatrician or chiropractor, the automation system should serve your needs equally well.

In addition to suiting whatever line of medical practice you are involved in, the medical practice management programme you use should allow you to make several other customisations. It should allow you to give it as much personal touch as you would like to make your business stand out.

The following are some of the ways through which you should be able to customise your system.

i) Define your own appointment rules, name, appointement duration, what day of week you perform the service, if pre-payment is required or not.
ii) Customize your emails for appointment confirmation, reminder and appointment followup
iii) Customize your new patient signup form, what are the insurance you accept.

You should also have the ability to choose whether the patients can make their own appointments for the required services. You will thus set the services that the patients can book on their own and the ones that need to be booked from the office. If you want to give the patients an even greater personal attention, you should be able to give them special pieces of information relating to their appointments, which will help them to be better prepared.

If you can customise your online scheduler in such a way, you will manage to cut down the chances of incorrect booking. Pre-pay requirement, for example, will also help you eliminate no-show.  In short, the more your scheduler allows you to enforce your own business rule with customization, the more efficient your scheduling is.

Realizing the Importance of Patient Reminder System

Dr. Maulik March 27th, 2010

The importance of follow-up calls cannot be neglected in a doctor’s profession. Many doctors are reluctant to give follow up calls as they worry about “bothering the patient” prospect. But, it is crucial to understand the need of having a patient reminder service which can take care of all the follow-ups so that you do not lose your precious patients.

In most cases, a series of appointments is required to treat a particular problem. So your job is not over after just one appointment. Due to negligence, a lot of patients don’t show up regularly and miss some of their appointments. This negligence proves harmful both to you and your patient. This happens because most of us have a busy lifestyle now-a-days. The reason for patients missing appointments is not because they do not want to show up but because they tend to forget. If you have a large client-base then you might also not be able to give regular need-based follow-up calls to all patients, thus there is a high probability that your appointment scheduling will be disorganized.

A patient reminder service acts as a virtual receptionist which can take care of all your patients without bothering you. Just provide the necessary instructions and it will take charge of all your scheduled appointments, so that your patients don’t forget to return for their routine check-ups. A modern day patient reminder service comes along with a doctor appointment scheduler, thus clubbing both to make it one of the most handy and convenient tools for doctors.

The online scheduler can act as medical software for online appointment scheduling by sending e-mails to your patients to remind them of their next appointment. But what if your client doesn’t check his/her email frequently? You need a service which can directly call the patient and fix the appointment, so that the chances of no-shows are decreased to a large extent.

Such a reminder service provides you flexibility to schedule your follow-up calls according to the requirement. They have a soothing voice of a receptionist and can make calls at different times of the day. Since, they are available 24/7 calls can be made at any time of the day. A virtual receptionist can tirelessly call a patient at regular intervals until she reaches the patient and minimize the chances of a no show. In lack of an automatic appointment reminder service the staff has to get into a lot of hassles and maintain some really messy paperwork

Regular follow-up reminder calls ensure that you do not lose your old client base while you focus on expanding it. The trend of having an online appointment scheduler is on rise now and every doctor that focuses on providing high quality service to their client should have it in their offices.

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Choosing right type of patient reminder service

Dr. Maulik March 14th, 2010

In US, a single patient no-show will easily cost you more than $100USD  in business revenu. So it is not surprising that many doctors are out looking for a patient reminder service to slash no-show.

Are you looking for a patient reminder services and you are not sure about your choices? Let us look out for all the availabilities, their pros and cons to learn which one is best suitable for you.

You have many systems that inform the patients about their forthcoming consultations or visits to the clinic. Phone reminder, Email reminder, Text Message reminder are few of the most popular ways to notify the patients about their due visits. Patient reminder service is very important for doctors to tackle no-show patients and prevent revenue loss.

Though Internet is quite a popular tool to reach people, unfortunately, not all patients (especially elderly and those who are not well versed with Internet) are reachable through emails. Undoubtedly, email reminder is quite reliable and generally delivered on time (provided, the sender is not directed toward spam or rejected list) but this is not possible for all patients.

Another patient reminder option is calling them directly. Manually calling by health care desk receptionist may have some punctuality issues but patient reminder service through software or specially designed system is comparatively reliable. Again, the drawback of this system is if patients do not pick up the call or they do not have mail box that receives and stores the message, patient reminder service through telephone goes in vain.

Cellular phone or mobile phone has become an integral part of our lives and hence, text message reminder service is quite a popular tool to notify patients. Text message service is not only reliable but it comes with great facility that patients can set their reminder delivery time (for instance, an hour before due appointment or visit to the center). The issue with this type of patient reminding service is patients with text message facilities on their handsets can only receive this. Also, unlike other patient reminding service, the text message is to be paid by the user –i.e. the patient.

All-in-all, every reminder service has its own pros and cons and that is why, it is always advisable for doctors to set the combination of all three for ensuring fruitful results. This is because; any patient would fit in any of those criteria and will receive the notification by any means.

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