Patient no-shows are an expensive problem for independent diagnostic imaging centers that may cost anywhere from 10%-20% of the facility’s revenue. Patient engagement can help reduce these no-shows by providing patients with the information they need to prepare and be confident in their visit, increasing patient satisfaction while also reducing overall costs associated with rebooking missed appointments. Our Patient Engagement CRM system was built to help streamline and automate patient communication to reduce no-shows and poor prep by leveraging email and text messaging.
A study conducted by Philips and Yale New Heaven Hospital showed that pre-visit appointment-specific education, reminders and instructional content help reduce the no-show rate, improve patient preparedness for scans, improve patient satisfaction, and ultimately increase revenues.
By leveraging text messaging as part of patient outreach capabilities, the project sought to streamline and automate patient communications to improve slot utilization, and increase patient preparedness and ultimately revenue capture.
What Is Patient Engagement?
Medical imaging clinics need to deliver instructions and content conveniently and directly to patients’ mobile devices, the preferred, most convenient means of communication. Our text message-based outreach program delivers SMS-based pre-visit navigation programs designed to educate and provide step-by-step guidance to patients before their medical procedures.
Clinics can also use SMS messages to follow up after a procedure, as well as contact patients who have missed an appointment or test results. The system is easy for clinicians to use: they simply enter a patient's phone number into their scheduling software and click send.
Messages are sent via a secure messaging platform that is HIPAA compliant and compatible with all major smartphones including Android, Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Phone 7. Message delivery is guaranteed through 99%+ open rates on average - better than email!
Consider Where You Are Currently
Are you looking at patient no-shows through a specific lens? If not, it can be helpful to stop and look at where you are now. One way that medical professionals have done so is by conducting thorough reviews of their own practice. These self-evaluations can help you pinpoint where your strengths and weaknesses are.
They also allow for comparisons over time as a means of learning how your practice has evolved—or regressed, as may be more common. The most important thing about evaluating your current status is taking action on what you learn.
Adopt New Technologies
All the SMS-reminder studies helped improve patient medical compliance and appointment show-up rates. These tools can be extremely helpful in improving your practice’s overall efficiency—not only will you have fewer no-shows, but you’ll also have fewer cancellations (and thus more revenue).
Working with a partner like Radiology Marketing Agency that has the experts to help you navigate the technical complexities and that can provide you a single source for all your content development needs, including SMS texts, informational videos and articles, allows you to focus on creating a better patient experience and providing a higher level of care.
Measure Your Results
The best way to tell if a program is working is through measurement. You may have heard that businesses need to get really good at measurement or risk being disrupted by those who do, and it’s true. One of your goals should be figuring out how you can improve engagement between patient and and your imaging clinic as a service provider.
Think About Value, Not Cost
It’s easy to approach patient engagement as a financial issue, but that rarely works in your favor. Money is important, but it isn’t always what people care about most. In fact, Gallup found in its State of American Wellbeing report that on average, Americans value safety and health more than any other area of life.
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