Patient no-shows are detrimental to health care facilities. This paper will not only address the issue of patient no-shows, but analyze determining factors and present a solution. For the purpose of our study, a no-show is referred to as a patient who does not show up to their scheduled examination or who calls within fifteen minutes prior to their examination time to reschedule. By calling just fifteen minutes prior or less, that does not leave any chance for the examination slot to be filled by booking another patient. Although calling to reschedule the same day of the appointment, greater than fifteen minutes, can still cause an empty examination slot, as long as the reschedule was made more than fifteen minutes prior of the appointment
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First, no-shows have a negative effect on both the patient and the health care facility. According to articles No-Show to Primary Care Appointments: Why Patients Do Not Come and Appointment scheduling under patient preference and no-show behavior Operations Research, no-show patients cause a delay in patient care, decrease the efficiency of the daily schedule, and cost the facility revenue 1,2. Another reason showing up for a scheduled exam is important, not only to diagnose possible symptoms, but to discover dormant pathologies as well. Medical screenings in the diagnostic world have become more prevalent. Medical screenings are attributed to the decreasing mortality rates of cancers 3,4. Health care facilities also lose money every time a patient no-shows to an examination. When a patient no-shows there is rarely a patient on stand-by that can fill the spot at the last minute. Therefore, the facility is not only paying a technologist to work through an empty slot, but they also do not gain …show more content…
The patient would be reimbursed for kept appointments 6. This method would also help to defer some of the revenue loss due to no-shows, but as Bob Levoy points out in a separate article this is “unfriendly” and could deter patients from the facility. Levoy further explains that it is important for a facility to generate a “friendly” atmosphere to increase and maintain successful operation of the facility. Forcing a patient to pay for a missed appointment could decrease patient satisfaction and loyalty which would ultimately have a negative impact on the facility
First, no-shows have a negative effect on both the patient and the health care facility. According to articles No-Show to Primary Care Appointments: Why Patients Do Not Come and Appointment scheduling under patient preference and no-show behavior Operations Research, no-show patients cause a delay in patient care, decrease the efficiency of the daily schedule, and cost the facility revenue 1,2. Another reason showing up for a scheduled exam is important, not only to diagnose possible symptoms, but to discover dormant pathologies as well. Medical screenings in the diagnostic world have become more prevalent. Medical screenings are attributed to the decreasing mortality rates of cancers 3,4. Health care facilities also lose money every time a patient no-shows to an examination. When a patient no-shows there is rarely a patient on stand-by that can fill the spot at the last minute. Therefore, the facility is not only paying a technologist to work through an empty slot, but they also do not gain …show more content…
The patient would be reimbursed for kept appointments 6. This method would also help to defer some of the revenue loss due to no-shows, but as Bob Levoy points out in a separate article this is “unfriendly” and could deter patients from the facility. Levoy further explains that it is important for a facility to generate a “friendly” atmosphere to increase and maintain successful operation of the facility. Forcing a patient to pay for a missed appointment could decrease patient satisfaction and loyalty which would ultimately have a negative impact on the facility