7 Reasons why Doctor Appointment Reminder Services are Important
Whenever patients are discharged from the hospital after surgery or being admitted, it’s routine to schedule a follow-up appointment. The follow-up is extremely important to ensure the patient’s proper recovery.
It’s during this doctor-patient meeting, that any side effects are spotted and any other medicines are prescribed to avoid another hospital admission. Not going to the follow-up can cause readmissions as well as a slower recovery timeline.
Even though this appointment is vital to anyone’s road to recovery, many patients still struggle to adhere to the time. Either because they’ve forgotten about the time of appointment, or they simply don’t see it necessary.
Because of many medical reasons, it’s vital for a patient to go to their doctor’s follow-up. To help reduce readmissions, doctor appointment reminder services provide an extremely important job.
Not only will they remind you of the time and date of your doctor’s meeting, but reminders can also send you information about building locations, aftercare instructions, and pre-appointment guidelines.
Here are 7 reasons why reminder texts, emails, and phone calls are important:
It Keeps the Doctor’s Schedule Full
According to doctor surveys, a whopping 42% of patients don’t show up for their appointments. Marking almost half of all doctor’s patients. This is wrong in so many ways. Not only are they stealing the physician’s valuable time, but they also took up a spot that could’ve gone to someone else.
Even though some of these no-shows are on purpose, most no-shows are completely accidental. 38% of all who don’t show up to their appointments have forgotten.
It’s therefore important for medical services to send reminders to their patients to ensure that the doctor’s schedule stay filled. A full schedule means financial growth as well as time to tend to all the patients’ needs according to this dentist in Colorado Springs.
Avoids a Cluster of Patients all at Once
Many patients who have missed their doctor’s appointments, need to come in on an alternative date. This can cause a lot of logistical problems. Especially if the medical practitioner is extremely busy.
To try and accommodate all patients, doctors advise their receptionist to let extra patients come in on a first-come-first-serve basis. This means that those who are present and timely for their appointments will be helped. And if there are any spare time in between doctor-patient meetings, doctors will try their best to attend to everyone.
As a result, patients tend to pile up in the waiting room causing a lot of frustration.
Learn more about the reasons why patients tend to wait so long at a doctor’s office here:- https://www.verywellhealth.com/why-do-i-wait-so-long-at-the-doctors-office-2615092
Keeps Practice Staff Productive
It’s evident in many health care practices that staff members spent the majority of their time, phoning patients reminding them about their appointments. Or checking in with patients who are late for their scheduled times.
When practices invest in automatic reminder services, it frees up a lot of time that staff can invest to other tasks.
Having extra time on hand will give staff the opportunity to focus on more important things around the workplace.
Staying Up to Date
Apart from sending you a reminder to pitch up to your follow-up appointment, reminders can also be extremely informative. Giving you extra tips on aftercare, medical news, as well as information about your specific surgery.
Staying informed about the after-effects of your surgery will help keep your morale high. Especially if you’ve underwent a serious surgery, it’s important that you remain in a positive headspace surrounded by support.
Having a service send you updates and other medical news will keep you informed while supporting you during your recovery process.
Generates More Patients
In a modern world where most individuals have resorted to technology, staying up to date with the latest trends in technology is important. Signing up for automated doctor’s appointment reminder services will help you remain professional and current.
Many patients will appreciate the effort your practice puts in. This will evidently improve your patient satisfaction rate to a higher level. Having details on their phones instead of scribbled down on a card will cause less frustration.
These texts will not only remind existing patients to make appointments it can also generate new appointments. Regular check-ups after surgeries are important and when you remind your patients of them, the doctor’s calendar will stay fully filled.
Improves Recovery Time Line
It’s important that you allow yourself relevant time to recover after surgery or being admitted. Part of the recovery process is checking in with your doctor or physiotherapist. The doctor will be able to advise you on any extra after-care measures you have to take, as well as checking up whether you are on the right track.
Forgetting your follow-up appointment might leave certain important issues undetected. This can lead to a slower recovery and even worse – readmission. Hiring a reminder service will help you keep up to date with your check-ups and speed up your recovery.
Click here to learn more about mistakes you make that will slow down your recovery after surgery.
Saving and Making Money
When patients are no shows, it can cost a practice a lot of revenue. Whether you want to charge patients for a missed appointment or not, you will ultimately lose valuable time and money. Money spent on phone bills as well as fees spent on consultations between doctor and patient.
Even if your practice’s no-show rate is low when calculated annually the ultimate cost of loss is extremely high. When you remind your patients about their scheduled times, you will decrease your no-show rate. Furthermore, when patients come to their appointments it will be easier for staff to collect funds for doctor visits.
Ultimately, staff can utilize their day much more efficiently while the practice maximizes their revenue.
Investing in an automated reminder system will help keep patients up to date and make sure your calendar stays filled up. At the least, it will be an investment for your practice towards patient satisfaction and productivity from staff.
