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I just finished doing all the reminder calls for our appointments tomorrow. I always hate doing them on a holiday because I invariably get people who see my number on their call display and question whether I'm a telemarketer. However, since I've started doing them this way, our no-show rate after long weekends has plummeted.
I'm curious...how many offices out there do reminder calls, and if you do, how early in advance of the appointment do you call?
You must do them the day before. If the appointment is on a Monday, you must call Sunday.
Our office uses a automated call system and calls 2-3 days in advance. People hate it and I think it causes more issues than just having someone call. The only positives is that it will let us know if the call was listened through all the way, if the caller hung up before hearing the entire message and even has a function for them to be transfered to a human being in our office.
We can never get folks at home, and as we are not allowed to leave messages on machines or with other people (the company cites HIPAA), we have given up on calling. Still have a low no-show rate even so.
If we're working the day before, we call that day, if not, then the day before that. I called Monday for today's patients. I would never call on a Holiday.
Harry,Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryChiling
Could you tell me more about your automated system. I was thinking of instituting one in my office and am surprised to hear that your patients hate it. I would imagine that this is a valuable service that you are offering your patients and they should be grateful to have it. The machine that I was reviewing was capable of calling all the patients and having them press a button if they were confirming or cancelling their appointment.
IH
We don't call unless the patient requests that we do. Always guys.
Our no-show rate is very low, and if we have a no-show, we don't mind a little break in the action once in a while.