
A recent article by SCI Solutions, a healthcare IT solutions provider, reports the total cost of missed healthcare appointments in the United States every year is an astronomical $150 billion.
Each open, unused time slot costs a physician 60 minutes and $200 on average. Now factor in that no-show rates are as high as 30% nationwide, and you can see how that $150 billion figure is reached. With so many high-tech, digital reminders at our disposal, you may wonder how such an expensive and potentially dangerous problem exists.
A missed medical appointment could pose serious health risks for patients as it could mean the difference between catching a disease early on or too late. In addition, an inefficient scheduling process can wreak havoc and raise stress levels for both a health systems’ staff and patients.
Below are some tips for health systems to address costly missed appointments:
Providing your patients with easier ways to book appointments will increase revenue. Adding the ability to communicate with your patients online, whether booking, changing or canceling appointments, can result higher patient retention and an increase in new patients. Since medical practices may be slow to adopt this online method, the sooner you can implement an online solution, the more revenue you’ll be able to capture from your competition.
If your medical practice is in need of additional funding to implement an online solution, contact us today to learn more about our Praxis solution. We may be able to provide you with $20,000 up to $1mm and more, in additional funding!