Occasional missed appointments happen in every doctor’s surgery and can even be experienced as a welcome break in an otherwise busy schedule. However, missing medical appointments is a global problem not only in public but also in private healthcare, damaging the practice’s finances and, above all, affecting the health of patients.
According to some estimates, in Polish health care, missed and cancelled medical appointments affect as many as 40% of them [1].
Another study found that in specialist medicine practices, cancellations and absences amount to as much as 22%, more than a fifth of all scheduled appointments, and only a small percentage of ‘schedule gaps’ are filled.
Cancelled appointments
The amount of staff time spent trying to fill last-minute cancelled appointments adds to high costs and interferes with other priorities, such as welcoming patients and efficiently managing registration and check-out procedures. The conclusion? Cancelled appointments hurt. The key to reducing them is to understand why patients cancel appointments in the first place. If your practice isn’t doing what it can to remind and encourage patients to come in for an appointment, you may be just as guilty of cancellation as the patients themselves. At a time when medical liability experts say missed appointments pose a serious legal risk to doctors, limiting cancellations is not only good for business – it’s an ethical obligation. Note that for a doctor to be willing to work with us we need to ensure that they make the best use of their time, and when they have a lot of gaps in their schedule – they will switch to a facility where the appointment system works well.
So what is stopping your patients from keeping their appointments?
Lack of awareness and responsibility
Many patients, despite receiving healthcare, do not feel they are members of the system, so according to their thinking – they have no obligation to cancel appointments. Patients who do not cancel medical appointments are not aware that this has a negative effect on the functioning of the facility and show a lack of responsibility for other people’s health. They also have no knowledge of the extent of this problem. CMP Medical Centre conducted a survey among patients regarding missed appointments. 50% of those surveyed believe that the number of appointments that are not cancelled in medical facilities is 10,000 per year. Unfortunately, data from the National Health Fund [2] tell a different story – in Poland, this figure is as high as 17 million per year!
Convenience
A busy work and family schedule can make for a packed day. Studies show that one in five Poles works more than eight hours a day, and according to Eurostat statistics, Poland ranks fourth in the European Union in terms of hours worked per week. When the repercussions of taking time out of their day to visit the doctor seem more serious than the health problem itself, it is easy for patients to prioritise meetings and tasks over a scheduled doctor’s appointment – especially if they are not seriously ill. Add to this the anticipated waiting time in the waiting room and doctor’s office, and the motivation to keep appointments can fall by the wayside.
By offering appointments in the early mornings, evenings and weekends, your practice can offset appointment cancellations received from busy patients who, despite their best intentions, can’t make it to an appointment during the day.
Availability
Is your practice’s waiting list growing? Are your patients having to wait too long for an appointment? If so, know that these factors affect your cancellation rate. The longer the appointment is, the greater the risk that patients, frustrated by the long wait, will cancel their appointment
and go to another facility if another doctor can accommodate them earlier. Practice loyalty goes down the drain especially if someone is not feeling well and needs urgent care.
Last-minute cancellations come at a high cost to both your medical practice and your patients’ health. By identifying what barriers your patients face –
and working with them rather than against them – you can take the first steps in creating a system that works for both your practice and your patients.
Want more help reversing the loss of revenue and other consequences of last-minute cancellations? The Patient Expert platform is a solution for easy appointment scheduling with specialists, and offers medical providers effective solutions such as a matched waiting pool or automated waiting list to increase their facility’s reach. In turn, it gives patients the convenient self-service tools they expect and saves them time.
Contact us to find out more.
Sources::
[2] https://pacjent.gov.pl/aktualnosc/odwolaj-wizyte-jesli-nie-mozesz-przyjsc
