Reducing No-Shows with Automated Outreach

Wichita Falls Gastroenterology Associates (WFGIA) is a Texas-based practice providing high-quality digestive health services. Striving to deliver the very best care, WFGIA continuously works to enhance the patient experience and improve clinical outcomes.

CHALLENGE

In addition to its significant impact on practice revenue, patient no-shows can place a large burden on workflows by reducing clinical capacity. In an effort to decrease last-minute cancellations without increasing work for office staff, practices are always looking for efficient ways to reduce no-shows and educate patients about upcoming visits. With this goal in mind, Wichita Falls Gastroenterology Associates sought a patient outreach vendor that could provide more comprehensive account support.

SOLUTION

As a part of the practice’s no-show reduction initiative, WFGIA replaced its previous technology with CipherOutreach to make pre-appointment calls to all patients and ensure they are prepared for their visits. On the outreach calls, patients are reminded of the date, time, location of their appointment and name of their physician. The automated reminders then provide patients with the option to confirm, reschedule or cancel their appointments. If the patient chooses to reschedule, the call is triaged via a real-time alert to one of WFGIA’s staff members who can follow up and change the appointment time.

RESULTS

By leveraging CipherOutreach, WFGIA has made more than 8,000 appointment reminder calls and rescheduled more than 600 appointments. Patients who engaged with pre-appointment calls were 98% less likely to cancel due to a no-show and had a 13% higher appointment completion rate. Overall, an impressive 83% of WFGIA patients who confirmed appointments on a pre-appointment call successfully completed their visit.

CLIENT: Wichita Falls Gastroenterology Associates, PROFILE: Physician Group with Two Locations, PRODUCT: Appointment Reminders, DATA PERIOD: Jan 2017- Jun 2017