Patients who miss their appointments have an unfortunate impact on healthcare services. It causes disruption to the flow of clinic appointments, increases waiting lists for others seeking treatment, and can even hinder proper diagnosis or complication management. As a result, health centers have to bear the cost of lost appointment revenue and staff time in an effort to deal with patient no-shows.
Whether you’re a clinician or a healthcare administrator, it’s important to understand the factors that contribute to missed appointments in order to devise effective strategies to reduce them. While the majority of no-shows occur due to unforeseen personal or work-related commitments, some can be caused by miscommunication and mistakes (frequently made by the clinic), or forgetfulness. In some cases, patients are unable to attend their scheduled appointments for other reasons that may include family emergencies, transportation problems, or mental illness such as depression or anxiety.
The good news is that there are ways to prevent no-shows by implementing panel management practices within your healthcare organization. This approach is designed to improve the quality of care for a group of patients, also known as a panel, by establishing a proactive system that identifies patients who are likely to miss their appointments and allows them to reschedule them with little to no hassle. This is accomplished by using a PMS, or practice management software application, to track when a patient does not show up for a scheduled appointment and then reaching out to them with an empathetic tone that encourages them to reschedule their appointment. missed appointments in healthcare