How an Effective Appointment Reminder System Reduces No-Shows

Your patients get busy with commitments, making it easy to forget upcoming appointments. Others don’t show up because of fear of procedures or even cost concerns. What this means for your practice is empty appointment slots and lost revenue each time this occurs. Yet, overburdening your staff with the task of manually calling every patient ahead of their appointment can be hectic. Worse, most people rarely pick up the phone anymore.

But with an easier and more efficient way to contact patients for their appointment confirmations, your practice can drastically reduce the number of no-shows. This is where Clearwave’s appointment reminder system comes into play. 

Connecting with Patients Using their Preferred Method of Communication

If you want to communicate with patients and get through to them, your practice must use their preferred communication methods. For most, these are text messages or email appointment reminders. Communicating with patients in these ways is an excellent way of inspiring your patients to confirm or reschedule their appointments. Here’s how:

Most texts are opened within 90 seconds after being sent. This makes them a quick and efficient pre-visit reminder channel that keeps patients involved in their care decisions. Texts also urge patients to follow through with their scheduled appointments.

Another method of communication that makes patients take action is receiving emails. Since patients can obtain these from laptops, desktops, or even on their mobile devices, it makes them portable and easy to use, no matter where they are. With features like links to pre-visit forms and information for ‘Save to Calendar,’ they’ve also never been simpler to use. Clearwave’s high-performance appointment reminder system can help your practice reduce no-shows in many ways:

Sends Multiple Reminders

Sending at least three reminders three days and one day before a patient’s scheduled appointment is more effective than only sending one reminder. But remember not to send the texts too early as patients tend to forget about them. In case a patient cancels, you can prompt them to reschedule instead.

Provides Patients with the Convenience They Demand

As healthcare becomes more consumerized, convenience is king. Using Clearwave, your patients can conveniently receive and reply to reminders on their phones. The patient experience is tied to the proper communication channels; appointment reminders via text or email provide a great experience. Using appointment reminders is an essential part of how your practice can encourage patients to keep coming back. 

Improves Accuracy

Patients are likely to miss their appointments due to mistakes here and there. Even your most detailed-oriented staff can mix up patients’ files, dial the wrong number or even forget to remind a patient of their upcoming appointment, which all contribute to no-shows. But with an automated system, these missteps will be a thing of the past. 

With Clearwave Scheduling and the ability to send convenient appointment reminders, all the data is available on the system. As long as your patients’ information is up to date, you won’t have to worry about accuracy. 

Allows Patients to Prepare for Their Next Visit

Customized touchpoints increase the likelihood that your patients will adequately prepare for their upcoming appointments. You can quickly throw the schedule off when your patients show up unprepared.

It can result in delayed appointments or lost revenue from last-minute rescheduling. 

By providing pre-check instructions for scheduled appointments within automated reminders, your patients will show up ready to go and on time.

Leverage Clearwave’s Automated Appointment Reminder System

Clearwave’s simple-to-use appointment reminder system offers the reliability, flexibility, scale and performance required to ensure your patients receive customized texts or emails every time, considerably reducing no-shows. Your practice doesn’t need to spend time worrying about whether patients will show up! 

Instead, let Clearwave’s patient communication software can take care of the schematics while helping you focus on what you do best: keeping your patients healthy while retaining appointment revenue. 

Wondering what Clearwave can do for your practice when it comes to appointment reminders? Read The Children’s Clinic case study, located in Portland, Oregon, which, thanks to Clearwave, empowered their patients to self-schedule 100% of appointment types, increased patient access, engagement, and loyalty, among much more! Click here to download the Case Study!