When patients are overdue for recare appointments, they should receive a call the next day. Some practices wait weeks or months to call and in some cases don't call at all. The result is a practice that cannot reach its true production potential.
Be persistent with reminders. Patients may be willing to come in for a regular appointment, but perhaps time has "snuck up" on them and the friendly reminder of receiving a call will motivate them to make an appointment. The chances of patients scheduling an appointment are greater on the first day they are overdue than at any point after that. Why wait?
Don't allow the situation to deteriorate. Patients who are off-schedule also hinder practice profitability over time. I estimate that most general practices will give up $500,000 or more over 20 years simply because of overdue patients. By calling all patients when they are one day overdue and following up for three weeks by phone (and three more weeks by letter), a very high percentage of patients will remain on the schedule.
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