January 2019 - Vetters Enterprises, LLC

Your office staff always have their hands full between checking patients in, scheduling appointments, answering the telephone and handling all of the other tasks that help keep your practice running. Unfortunately, appointment scheduling mistakes are very common, and they can be very costly to your reputation and bottom line.

Not Sending Reminders

How many times do you remind patients of their upcoming appointment? If an appointment card offered at the end of another appointment is the only thing you’re doing, you have plenty of room to improve. You should always send patients both email and SMS reminders when they book the appointment and a day or two beforehand. Patients will appreciate the reminder, and you will increase the likelihood of your patients showing up on time or rescheduling the appointment and freeing up the space for someone else.

Over-Booking Appointments

This common appointment scheduling mistake happens when your receptionists pack too many appointments into a single day, and every patient shows up. Unfortunately, this leads to sky-high wait times and upset patients. You should use a scheduling system that keeps everyone on the same page and prevents overbooking. While it can be tempting to squeeze a few extra patients in, is it worth losing your reputation and goodwill with patients?

Not Asking Enough Screening Questions

How much do you ask patients when scheduling an appointment? Confirming things like insurance coverage in advance is critical to making sure that appointments start on time and coverage is clear when the patient arrives. You should also always ask details about why the patient is scheduling an appointment. A patient coming in only for a flu shot should be allotted a different length of appointment compared to a patient coming in for a comprehensive annual physical and bloodwork. It’s better to ask now and be happy you did later than wait.

Not Maintaining a Waiting List

While last-minute cancellations and no-shows are unfortunately not 100% avoidable, one of the best ways to avoid wasting that time entirely is by keeping a waiting list of patients who are looking for an appointment as quickly as possible. You’ll be able to make the patient getting the last-minute call very happy and not miss out on an opportunity for an appointment.

Avoid Appointment Scheduling Mistakes with Vetters Enterprises

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

Patients today are very educated about healthcare, and many are also footing a bigger proportion of the bill than ever before. As a result, there is a great deal of concern over pricing for health care services. While some offices worry about revealing too much about pricing, it can actually increase patient satisfaction. When consumers understand the quality that they are receiving for the price and the true value of care, they are more likely to make an educated decision.

Why Is Price Transparency So Hard?

Price transparency is a problem that many in the healthcare industry are already aware of. However, nothing captures a potential patient’s attention more than cost. As more consumers utilize high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), they are hoping to spend less in the short-term at the risk of shelling out more if they are injured. As a practice, it can be difficult to predict a course of treatment for a patient in advance, which leads to a misperception on behalf of patients that doctors are intentionally misleading about how much care will cost.

What Solutions Could You Implement?

Some practices are experimenting with price estimators to increase price transparency and improve patient satisfaction. This allows you to engage the patient and explain potential treatments one-on-one. When presenting pricing, consider explaining things in one of two ways:

A bundled out-of-pocket estimate for medically necessary services
An estimate of the rate for a procedure covered by insurance and the associated patient costs

Remember that we are living in the age of Amazon, which means that consumers want the most possible for their money, in addition to transparency over what they will be getting. In your conversations, you should also make it clear that everything is an estimate. The projected costs might not align with the actual costs due to a variety of reasons.

Showing Additional Benefits

While price is the biggest pain point when it comes to patient satisfaction, there are many other things your practice can do to show your value. Board certification, experience and patient experience all make a difference in what patients are willing to pay. When talking to patients and marketing, make it clear that you have plenty to offer beyond the actual services and procedures you provide.

Vetters Enterprises, LLC

Month: January 2019

The 4 Most Costly Appointment Scheduling Mistakes