Abstract
Patient appointments are the gateway to your practice’s revenue. If scheduling and appointments aren’t managed well, you’re going to have holes in your schedule…and your bank account. The pitfalls of patient scheduling–no shows, forgotten appointments, and cancellations–negatively impact the smooth running of your practice and your bottom line. Getting on top of scheduling means you’re going to have to proactively manage your patient flow. With new technologies and expanded functionality, practice management systems for scheduling have the ability to keep your practice and your patients on track.
5 Key strategies to enhance your scheduling process, step 1 of 5
1. No-shows cost you dearly
Private practices are getting squeezed from all sides by changing payment models and declining reimbursements. Patient no-shows are just another element adding to the pressure. It’s a problem across the entire healthcare system–and it’s an expensive one. No-shows cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $150 billion a year and many experts say it is due to poor scheduling as a top culprit in creating no-shows.1
A recent report from an Air Force Base Hospital in Colorado estimated that the total cost of missed appointments was almost $197,000 in 2014 and that a single missed appointment cost $100 to $200.2 Some practices report no-show rates ranging from 24 to 55 percent.3 Limiting the number of no-shows and making sure your patients remember their appointments is critical to the financial health of your practice.
Learn more about how AdvancedMD will improve your scheduling. Schedule a no-commitment personalized demo of the AdvancedMD.
