For healthcare practices, maintaining a smoothly running schedule can be a challenging task. Patient cancellations and rescheduling can disrupt the flow of operations, leading to wasted time and potential revenue loss. However, with a proactive approach and strategic implementation, practices can effectively manage patient rescheduling while optimizing their operations.
Rescheduling appointments can be a significant undertaking, especially for busy practices. One in 4 appointments end up being canceled. This means, that practices seeing around 100 patients weekly would reschedule roughly 32 patients every week.
Every time a practice manually reschedules a patient, it costs 8.1 minutes of staff time. For those smaller practices, the time quickly adds up. Practices can lose two full days of staff time every month rebooking missed appointments.
Healthcare practices require simple strategies to fill missed appointments that don’t consume excessive staff time. Rescheduling is essential – it prevents revenue loss and ensures patients get the care they need.
Manually contacting patients to remind or reschedule them is not efficient or scalable for today’s practices. With patient scheduling software, it can be easier and faster for staff to mitigate no-shows or cancellations. Here are three simple tips for practices to make rescheduling a breeze.
Tip #1: Automate Patient Scheduling
Today’s patients expect online scheduling capabilities. According to a study, ninety-four percent would prefer and switch to a provider with online scheduling.
Digital patient scheduling software can truly make it easier on staff and patients to manage the daily schedule. Ideally, software should update your practice’s availability in real time so that patients can easily see when appointments are available at their preferred locations and with their preferred providers.
However, another option is to allow the patient to request an appointment time and have staff review and confirm manually. Either way, a digital process is easier for both practice staff and patients.
Online scheduling can also facilitate easy, automated rescheduling. Automate sending patients a link to reschedule after they cancel or miss an appointment. Waiting a little bit of time is best – configure the messages to be sent the next morning, afternoon, or evening.
Practices can also save tons of time rebooking appointments in bulk. Inclement weather, facility improvements, or changes in your providers’ availability can necessitate moving appointments around. With online scheduling software, you can set up messages to send to all affected patients booked within a particular timeframe. Include the link to reschedule to save hours of time.
Tip #2: Send Booking Confirmations
Automated appointment reminders are crucial for practices. They help reduce no-shows and provide a valuable service to patients.
Sending immediate confirmations after a patient has booked an appointment is critical as well. Confirmations make appointment details easily accessible and help patients decide quickly if they need to reschedule.
Plus, appointment confirmations and reminders do wonders for patient satisfaction. This is especially true when they’re paired with the ability to easily reschedule an appointment online. Practices that make it easy for patients to book, change, cancel, and remember their appointments provide a competitive customer experience.
Tip #3: Make Sure Your Technology Plays Well Together
Key to making your practice run smoother and more efficiently is an advanced integration that’s smooth and efficient. Two-way integrations mean your scheduling software reads and writes back into the source of truth for your calendar – usually your EHR or PMS. Sharing information both ways helps ensure your availability for rescheduling is accurate.
Integrations that share data in real time are also essential. This ensures that the time slots your patients see online are up to date. Real-time sharing also helps prevent overbooking.
Plus, advanced integration helps practices minimize errors in their data. Instead of entering information into multiple systems – leaving data rife with human errors – data moves seamlessly between systems.
Automatic patient rescheduling is a huge convenience boost for patients. But it only helps your practice if everything is running seamlessly in the background.
Auto-Rescheduling for Easy Revenue Generation
Managing patient rescheduling in busy healthcare practices requires a proactive and patient-centric approach. By implementing digital technology, sending confirmation communications, and ensuring a good technology fit, practices can minimize disruptions, enhance patient satisfaction, and optimize their operations for improved outcomes. Rectangle Health’s Practice Management Bridge’s engagement platform includes an auto-rescheduling feature so practices can easily:
- Automate appointment booking confirmations.
- Trigger messages to patients after they cancel or fail to show.
- Communicate with patients via text, email, or phone.
- Allow online self-scheduling, rescheduling, or appointment requests.
By embracing technology that prioritizes convenience and efficiency, practices can unlock untapped potential, optimize their operations, and deliver exceptional care. With seamless software, the future of patient rescheduling is both efficient and profitable.
