PRESENTED BY: ISALUS HEALTHCARE INCREASE PRACTICE REVENUE with AUTOMATED APPOINTMENT 1 REMINDERS www.isalushealthcare.com
HOW AUTOMATED APPOINTMENT REMINDERS INCREASE PRACTICE REVENUE INTRO 1 THE STATISTICS 2 IN THE PAST 4 REDUCING THE NO SHOW RATE 4 HOW DOES IT WORK? 5 MANY MORE REASONS 6 WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? 7 LANGUAGE BARRIERS 7 ISN'T A PHONE CALL MORE PERSONAL? 8 PATIENT HESITATIONS 8 SO HOW EXPENSIVE IS THIS SERVICE? 9 CONCLUSION 9 REFERENCES 10 2
INTRO Though it might seem like the healthcare industry took longer than any other industry to get it together and actually utilize technology to enhance their services, it was with good reason. There was simply too much potential for private information to be put at risk. Finding a way to ensure privacy while following strict regulations was an almost insurmountable task for those in the Health IT world that have worked tirelessly to make it happen. And now, it seems, we have arrived at an era where doctor / patient communication is easier than ever. Like most relationships, better communication equals improved quality of care. One of the simplest technological innovations that can be used to actually increase the profitability of your practice while improving patient engagement is the Automated SMS Text Appointment Reminder. In fact, the Appointment Reminder can be purposed for much more than the obvious reduction of no-show patients. In this ebook, we ll show you how your practice can utilize this seemingly simple piece of technology to reduce office stress, increase patient engagement and improve the overall bottom line of your practice. 1
THE STATISTICS As a healthcare provider, you might agree that one of the hardest things to overcome in the relationship with your patients is when they set an appointment to visit and then, for whatever reason, simply don t show up. Non-attendance of patients can be a drain on your practice to say the least. When a patient doesn t show up, not only do they keep your practice from being able to generate the income necessary to stay in operation, but they have kept another patient from being able to see the provider as needed. Interestingly enough, one study found that a substantial number of no-show patients claimed to have honestly, either forgotten to cancel their appointment or simply forgotten the appointment altogether(1). HERE ARE A COUPLE OF THE STATS FROM THAT RESEARCH: 30% of no-show patients forgot their appointment or forgot to cancel their appointment 2
26% of no-show patients gave no reason whatsoever for non-attendance. The rest of the no-show patients in this particular study had a variety of reasons such as illness that kept them away or they began feeling better and thought they didn t need the appointment any longer. Regardless of the reason, all of these patients just didn t show up and never bothered to cancel their appointment. In fact, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) estimates that the average practice experiences between a 5-7% no-show rate. LET S DO THE MATH ON THAT. If a physician sees 45 patients a day, five days a week that means around 15 patients a week are simply not showing up. Multiply that number by 50 weeks a year and you have 750 appointments unaccounted for. For simplicity sake, let s say the revenue for each no-show patient would have been $75. That s $56,250 in revenue alone that the practice loses because of a patient s failure to attend their appointment. In reality, the number is much higher. That s a lot of wasted time and money. 3
IN THE PAST In the past, the only way to combat patient no-shows was to make it somebody s job to either send out a reminder note or pick up the phone and call the patient. But now we re talking about spending more money a lot more. Add the cost of stamps, ink and paper to the cost of labor and the price of sending letters has become astronomical, but so has the cost of telephone calls. You re still either paying labor for the extra staff member or you re spreading out the phone call reminders amongst staff that are already stressed with the tasks they are regularly assigned. Many times, this stress can lead to increased time off or even an increase in staff turnover. Once again, we re wasting a lot of time and money. REDUCING THE NO SHOW RATE Clearly, the most obvious use of appointment reminders is to reduce the patient noshow rate of your practice. With today s technology, this entire process can be automated from within your EHR. In one research study, it was found that the use of automated appointment reminders reduced the no-show rate of an ophthalmology practice by 38%.(2) Let s see how that impacts your bottom line. Remember those 750 missed appointments that equaled $56,250 in lost revenue? Reduce that number by 38% and you now have 285 more patients showing up and your revenue has increased by $12,825. Not to mention, you no longer have to send out reminder letters, and you no longer need to pay staff to make reminder phone calls. That s a huge savings! 4
HOW DOES IT WORK? Automated appointment reminders work best when they are integrated with your EHR. For instance, when a patient sets an appointment, having an integrated appointment reminder means that a text message can be automatically set for 24 hours before the appointment time. Again, it s only this easy if your appointment reminder is integrated with the EHR. SAMPLE MESSAGE: Note that the patient can choose to respond to this particular text message with a simple Y in order to confirm their appointment. Important Note: Some appointment reminders automatically update the schedule when a patient confirms or cancels. Make sure to ask for this feature! If your patient cannot attend the appointment, this reminder provides them with the opportunity to either call your office to reschedule or make an effort to rearrange their calendar so they can attend. No matter what the outcome, you ve taken away the patient s excuse of I forgot. Remember the study that said 30% of your patients just forget about their appointment? Not anymore! Thanks to your automated appointment reminder, they were reminded in plenty of time to take action. 5
Depending on the appointment reminder software you choose, like one that is not integrated with your EHR, it may require you to download your daily list of appointments and upload them into the software. If that s the case, then you now only spend a few minutes instead of hours of time literally dialing for dollars to get patients to show up! MANY MORE REASONS In a study published in the Australian Health Review, the researchers evaluated both the operational and financial effectiveness of sending SMS text message reminders to the mobile phone of patients with scheduled outpatient visits for things like tests and vaccinations. The outcome was a dramatic increase in attendance in addition to an increase in patient revenue because the cost of sending the SMS reminders was so small. Based on research like this, many practices, clinics and outpatient centers have started to use automated appointment reminders to make sure patients are following through on their care. For instance, diabetic patients who need blood work, Adults and children who need vaccinations, women due for their mammogram and many more routine tests that a patient frequently forgets to schedule in a timely manner. Who knew a simple piece of technology like the text message could have such an impact on improving patient care? 6
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? APPOINTMENT REMINDERS CAN REDUCE: Office stress by taking away the added responsibility from staff and allowing them to be more productive. Expenses based on the cost of postage, ink, paper, and staff wages. The patient no-show rate of your practice. APPOINTMENT REMINDERS CAN INCREASE: Patient engagement The quality of patient care given Your bottom line by thousands of dollars LANGUAGE BARRIERS Not all of my patients speak English so I can t send them an automated text message. Well now you can! When choosing an appointment reminder, make sure you ask if it supports multiple languages. If the appointment reminder integrates with your EHR, it will be able to identify the patient s language preference and send the reminder in the appropriate language. Not all software has this capability so make sure to ask! 7
ISN'T A PHONE CALL MORE PERSONAL? Times are changing. As hard as it is to accept, the truth is that in today s world people are busier than ever and taking a phone call is no longer the preferred method of communication. In fact, a research study from the University of Southern California s Marshall School of Business found that 86% of those surveyed think it s inappropriate to answer phone calls at work.(4) Your patients are busy and more than likely not answering your calls during business hours. Why continue wasting time and resources to essentially leave a voicemail message that would not be listened to as promptly as a text message would be read? The best part is, you patient is the one who will choose how they want to be contacted. Won t it be interesting to see how many of them choose a text message? We think you ll be surprised! PATIENT HESITATIONS What if a patient doesn t want to receive a text message? That s perfectly fine especially if the appointment reminder is integrated with your EHR. It s important to provide the patient the option to receive a reminder based on their personal preference. The right software will allow the patient to choose between receiving a phone call, text, email or any combination of the three. This means that if one patient wants to receive a text only, then that s what they ll get. If another patient wants to receive an email and a text message, that s what they get. Allowing preferences to be set specifically to each patient means that they will interact and respond better to the reminder. Ultimately, this increases patient engagement dramatically. 8
SO HOW EXPENSIVE IS THIS SERVICE? Just like every piece of technology, prices can vary. Make sure to ask about any up-front costs. Customarily, the fee is charged on a per-text basis, usually coming in at around the $.10 mark. Remember the cost of stamps, ink, paper and staff? Using automated SMS appointment reminders comes in at about $5 for 50 patients with zero stress!!! What a huge savings! The last thing to ask about is, of course, whether or not there s a contract. We suggest you try to avoid them! CONCLUSION Without a doubt, using automated appointment reminders is going to save your practice a whole lot of headaches all the while improving your patient engagement and increasing the bottom line. We hope you found this ebook helpful! Feel free to share it with anyone you think will benefit. 9
REFERENCES 1. Murdock, A., Rodgers, C., Lindsay, H., & Tham, T. C. K. (2002). Why do patients not keep their appointments? Prospective study in a gastroenterology outpatient clinic. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 95(6), 284-286. 2. Koshy, E., Car, J., & Majeed, A. (2008). Effectiveness of mobile-phone short message service (SMS) reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments: observational study. BMC ophthalmology, 8(1), 9. 3. Downer, S. R., Meara, J. G., Da Costa, A. C., & Sethuraman, K. (2006). SMS text messaging improves outpatient attendance. Australian Health Review,30(3), 389-396. 4. Washington, M. C., Okoro, E. A., & Cardon, P. W. (2013). Perceptions of civility for mobile phone use in formal and informal meetings. Business Communication Quarterly, 1080569913501862. 10