How to Prevent No-Shows: Doctor's Offices

No-shows really cut into your business bottom line -- there's nothing that hurts small business more. In a doctor's office, there are usually plenty of patients available to fill the gaps -- if only you knew the gap was coming! Today we are looking at how to prevent no-shows in your doctor's surgery, tactfully and inexpensively.

The gold standard: Scheduling SMS reminders

A call may help cement the appointment better in people's minds -- yet they can be seen as intrusive, take time and labor hours and cost money to execute. A scheduled SMS message is:

• Less intrusive
• Takes less time to check
• Can be automated
• Doesn’t cost phone call rates (which can be high if a large percentage of patients use cells as their primary phones)

However, this is but one part of a successful anti-no-show plan!

General communication

Let patients know that you depend on them to let you know when they can’t make an appointment. Set up a dedicated SMS line for this purpose -- try to link the mobile number to your phone number to make it easy for patients to remember. This way people don’t have to wait on hold to tell you that they can’t make it. You may be able to link this to your scheduled SMS messages for reminders.

Consider setting a cancellation fee

Cancellation fees are becoming more popular among doctor's offices. While it is often not practical to take an appointment deposit (due to the high number of appointments in a day), cancellation fees have proven to discourage people from not showing up. You will need to consider various factors, however:

• There can be a collections cost associated if people choose not to pay
• Cancellation fees can create patient ill-will
• If your practice is one where patients frequently encounter long waits, cancellation fees can be seen as unfair; ie, the doctor or practice must be compensated for their lost time, but the patients waiting for their appointments do not.

One unique idea is to add a cancellation surcharge to the patient's next appointment. This removes the cost of collections, and minimizes ill-will. Consider waiving the fee for patients that actually call and let you know in advance, even on the same day/ Also, make sure your cancellation policy is clearly published and communicated to all patients if you plan to charge for missed appointments.

Organization: Job stockpiling

If the percentage of no-shows at your practice is relatively low, it can help to simply keep a stockpile of jobs that can be performed at any time, with little notice. Administrative tasks, cleaning unused areas etc can help fill up staff time and while it isn’t quite as good as making money, at least it is not wasted.