Many local healthcare facilities are usually quite busy, which means there can be negative consequences when someone doesn’t show up for their appointment. Missed appointments in healthcare cause major administrative strain. Not only does missing appointments cause problems for staff, but it also raises issues for the health authorities and governments who are looking to fund this healthcare. That missed timeslot could have been used for someone else who is also in need of healthcare services.
In a perfect world, no one would ever miss their appointments. We all know that this simply isn’t realistic, so the best we can do is try to minimize the number of missed appointments as much as possible. This is where SimplyCast’s automated appointment reminder solution comes into play. Instead of manually calling or sending out reminders for each appointment, there is an automated solution that does all this work for you.
In this blog, we will go over why you should be using an automated appointment reminder solution to help decrease the number of missed appointments at your healthcare facility.
Reduce No-shows
A missed appointment without being informed ahead of time could happen for several reasons, but the main reason is likely because patients simply forget. Sometimes these appointments are made weeks or months in advance, which makes it easy to forget about them when the day comes. Therefore, patients should be sent reminders in the days leading up to the appointment. Luckily, this is an easy fix for any organization that doesn’t already send out automated reminders.
Setting up an automated appointment reminder solution will reduce no-shows because sometimes all you need is that little reminder message. No-shows are often unintentional, but it means that staff have lost out on filling that specific timeslot for someone else’s appointment. Automated reminders help prevent this situation, while also making the process more efficient for healthcare staff.
Personalize Communications
One of the common misconceptions of automation is that you lose the aspect of “personalization” with your patients or customers. With all the tools offered in our automated solution, this is simply not the case. You can be efficient while also maintaining the personalization aspect.
Using the solution, when a patient books their appointment, their contact information goes into a central database. So, when appointment reminders are sent out automatically, you can easily add a client’s name and any other relevant information in the message. In fact, you can set up your solution so that all these things are done for you. This small touch can help grab the patient’s eye and you still maintain that sense of personalization, as if you were personally contacting them.
Save Time
A day in the life of a healthcare administrative worker can be quite hectic. They must deal with scheduling appointments, filling out paperwork for admissions, helping patients solve any issues regarding their appointment, and many other tasks. If you have a manual appointment reminder process, then sending out reminders is just another task added to this list. Implementing an automated reminder solution can help save lots of time and administrative workers will be able to focus on other tasks they have on their plate.
Leverage Reports
When using a manual appointment reminder process, it usually consists of a phone call or text message that an administrative worker sends out. So, after this message is sent or the call is made, then what happens? The answer is unclear. With a manual process, there is not really any way to track how patients interact with your messages.
With an automated solution, there are reports generated automatically once the reminder is sent out. These reports show loads of useful data such as open rates, click-through rates, and any responses that patients may have sent. This data is helpful because you can use it to determine if you need to make any changes to the process or if it is working well.
Interested in an Automated Appointment Reminder Solution?
If you’re looking to implement an automated appointment reminder solution, SimplyCast has you covered. Our team has already developed an automated solution that can be used by any healthcare facility to make this process more efficient. You can even customize and tailor the solution to your specific needs.
Once you implement an automated appointment reminder solution, you will see how much more efficient it will make the whole process.
Click the button below to request a one-on-one demo to see how the solution works first-hand.
