Patient appointment reminders are notifications or messages that patients receive to remind them of an upcoming appointment with their healthcare provider. These reminders play a crucial role in reducing no-shows, avoiding last-minute cancellations, and keeping providers’ schedules full. This not only helps in maintaining a smooth operational flow but also ensures that healthcare providers can deliver timely care.
Manual Or Digital: Which Methods Work Better?
Traditionally, healthcare organizations reminded patients about their upcoming appointments by handing them a paper appointment card, or by asking staff to call each patient before their scheduled visit. But these approaches have significant downsides. Paper cards can easily get lost or forgotten, and calling patients individually consumes valuable staff time that could be spent on more complex tasks.
That’s why healthcare organizations have started embracing digital tools to engage patients about their appointments. Today, some of the most popular channels for sending reminder messages include:
- Emails
- Text (SMS) messages
- Automated voice calls
These digital modes of outreach are more reliable and efficient than traditional channels, giving healthcare organizations greater visibility into when patients receive and acknowledge their reminder messages. They also reduce administrative burden, simplify communication, and make patients more likely to show up for their scheduled visits.
Four Benefits Of Digital Patient Appointment Reminders
There’s no denying that digital reminders are more convenient for patients and staff, but that’s far from the only upside. Indeed, sending appointment reminders digitally can improve healthcare organizations’ efficiency, profitability, and image—and even keep patients on track with the preventive care they need.
Here are four ways your organization can benefit from sending digital appointment reminders:
1. Minimize No-Shows And Cancellations
When patients don’t show up, money is wasted. In fact, missed appointments are estimated to cost the U.S. healthcare industry more than $150 billion every year.
Fortunately, digital appointment reminders can help reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations. Healthcare organizations can send digital reminders at strategic times and at repeated intervals, which helps patients keep the appointment at the forefront of their mind (and reduces the likelihood that they’ll forget about it.) Organizations can also customize their reminder messages based on patients’ preferences and behaviors to increase their effectiveness.
The best part? Digital reminders are delivered directly to devices that patients use regularly, such as smartphones and computers, which makes them more likely to engage with them—and less likely to forget about their scheduled care.
2. Avoid Playing Phone Tag
Most front-office healthcare staff are already overwhelmed—and they don’t have the bandwidth to call individual patients to remind them about their appointments. But with digital appointment reminders, they don’t have to.
Digital reminders are automated, meaning they don’t require any manual intervention from staff. They give patients the power to confirm, cancel, or reschedule an appointment directly from the reminder message—no follow-ups or voicemails required. And by minimizing the need for phone tag, digital reminders help alleviate front-office burnout and give staff more time to focus on tasks that require a human touch.
3. Streamline Patient Communication
Automated reminders aren’t just a value-add for staff—they’re also a boon to patient communication. Unlike traditional phone calls, digital reminders allow patients to manage their appointments on their own time and at their own convenience, without the need to communicate directly with front-office staff.
Digital reminders also reduce barriers to communication. Patients with hearing impairments or language differences, for example, may struggle to understand a traditional reminder message. But customization can help overcome this barrier, through visual texts or emails in multiple languages, for example. This helps healthcare organizations minimize the risk of missed appointments due to miscommunication.
4. Increase Revenue
When a patient doesn’t show up for a scheduled appointment, there isn’t time for someone else to fill the empty slot. That directly translates to lost revenue—and it makes it difficult for healthcare providers to maintain a balanced schedule.
Digital reminders nudge patients to cancel or reschedule their appointments in advance, which gives healthcare organizations the opportunity to fill empty slots with other patients who need care. And when healthcare organizations operate at peak capacity, they can generate more revenue from the services they deliver.
In addition, automated reminders are cheaper than more traditional outreach methods, such as manually calling patients. Those savings on operational costs can add up over time, enabling healthcare organizations to widen their margins—or even reinvest their savings into other parts of the business.
Need Appointment Reminder Software? Look For These Features.
Want to digitize appointment reminders? You’re in luck: There’s no shortage of vendors to choose from. However, that doesn’t mean that every solution will drive the return on investment you’re looking for.
Before selecting a vendor or signing a contract, healthcare organizations should consider the following features to ensure they choose software that enhances efficiency and streamlines patient communication:
- Customizable messages: Does the software give you the ability to tailor reminder and confirmation messages to meet your organization’s specific needs?
- Multi-channel communication: Does the software support various communication methods, including emails and text messages?
- Support for multiple languages: Does the software let you send reminder messages in each patient’s preferred language?
- Direct-response capabilities: Does the software let patients confirm, cancel, or request to reschedule their appointment directly from the reminder message?
- Automated voice calls: Does the software let you send automated voice calls, in lieu of a text message or email? Will it leave a voicemail if the patient does not answer?
- Centralized dashboard: Does the software provide a digital “hub” where staff can review patients’ responses to reminder messages and adjust providers schedules accordingly?
Incorporating digital patient appointment reminders into your healthcare organization can transform your approach to patient engagement and scheduling. By choosing the right software, you can minimize no-shows, streamline communication, and increase revenue. By engaging with patients via the modern, digital channels they want and expect, you can improve patient loyalty and make your organization patients’ go-to choice for care.