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When managing no-shows, the most applicable performance metrics are Total Count of No-Shows and the No-Show Rate. The No-Show Rate is calculated by counting all no-show appointments and dividing by the total number of booked appointments per month. Let’s take a brief look at a formal way to assess, improve, manage and optimize our patient scheduling by decreasing No-Show Rates.

The first step to effectively address this issue is to layout a formal Performance Improvement Plan. Start by identifying the most applicable performance metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). In this case, we have selected No-Show Rate. Measure your recent trends to determine your current baseline and agree on an attainable goal to work toward. We may find that our current No-Show Rate is as high as 10% and our goal may be to lower it to 8% or better. We can continue to improve on this in the future. Quantify those results by knowing the exact maximum number of expected no-shows per month. The next step is to introduce new policies or procedures that address the issues and drive improvements. These new solutions must be closely Monitored and Analyzed using the KPI results to continuously drive Improvements. The final step is to repeat all of the above with your newly gained knowledge and powerful management model.

Ideas to help minimize no-shows

Here are a few real-world ideas that can go a long way toward minimizing no-shows and improving your overall no-show rates.

• Set up a formal process for appointment reminders using automated software or make daily reminder calls.
• Make sure to immediately reschedule no-shows.
• Flag Patients that may need extra reminders.
• Track a list of patients who are willing to visit the practice with short notice. They can help to offset no-shows with a same day replacement patient appointment.
• Lastly, don’t be afraid to have an honest conversation with patients about their reasons for not showing up. Ask them how you can help.

As you integrate these improvements into policies and procedures, it’s important that you continue to actively monitor the results against expectations and fine tune your processes as necessary.

This is just one example of how monitoring KPIs can impact your practice. Performance Improvement Models such as the one we just described can be applied to other areas, like Patient Flow, using performance metrics such as: Average Wait Times, Exam Times or even Total Appointment Times. Similarly, Physician Access can be addressed using 3rd Next Available Appointment.

By systematically reducing No-Shows while improving Patient Access and Patient Office Flow, your practice should see a significant increase in revenues due to consistently higher visit volumes.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this brief discussion on the benefits of optimizing scheduling and related Performance Management concepts. Accurate analytics are tough and tedious to calculate manually but they are definitely worth the effort.

We actually enjoy this stuff! Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us at dashboardMD with questions or comments. We’d love to hear how you may be applying these metrics and we’re always happy to help.

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