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Automated appointment confirmations in Dental practice

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It is critical that a dental office is run efficiently for optimal patient care, as well as operational efficiency. One of the areas of efficiency that can be easily improved is the scheduling of appointments. The old way of confirming appointments by calling or sending emails (which all come with the potential for human error) takes a long time. We found our reception trying to chase patients for confirmations, this resulted in a lot of wasted time that could possibly be automated. Even if we could reduce number of phone calls by 50% we would consider this a win. At Spire Dental Care Langley, we decided to go with RecallMax to assist our scheduling, decrease missed appointments, and improve patient experience.Schedule showing on a digital tablet

The Problem with Traditional Scheduling

Scheduling appointments manually (calling patients or sending an email appointment confirmation) is inefficient, even when patients confirm or decline appointments with reminders. Patients may not have received the reminder, or maybe the staff forgot to call.

All of these things lead to a higher number of missed appointments and cancellations, while having an impact on patient experience and the clinic schedule. Since missed appointments and last-minute cancellations disrupt the clinic’s schedule and impact punctuality and revenue, it is time consuming to redo appointments with an unconfirmed appointment.

In addition, in today’s digital age, patients have different expectations for how they want to contact their providers. Patient expectations have changed to prefer less phone calls and more texts, or emails. Providers who keep their confirmation process the same may not meet these expectations and find their patients leave or decrease satisfaction.

Advantages of Automated Appointment Confirmations

Reduce No-Shows and Cancellations

Automated appointment confirmations assist in reducing the incidence of no-shows and last-minute cancellations by sending reminders to patients in a timely manner. In fact, RecallMax facilitates clinics to implement this reminder system via text and email.

The timely nature of these reminders allows the patient to keep appointments at the front of their thoughts and is less likely to forget or double-book themselves.

Based on an article by DentistryIQ, patient no-show rates decrease between 18-34% when appointment reminders are automated.

Improved Efficiency and Time Management

Freedom from completing appointment confirmations frees up time for the clinic staff to attend to other responsibilities. RecallMax can be automated and programmed to send reminders, either the day before an appointment, or weeks in advance, meaning everything is scheduled to run efficiently. Manual error is minimized throughout the entire appointment setting process, and clinic staff can spend more time giving superior care.

Improved Patient Experience

woman looking at phone happy about her dental appointmentPatients will appreciate the use of automated reminders sent to their smartphones; they are a click away from being able to confirm or cancel an appointment. Patients are engaged in real time facilitating a better experience. The simple comment of confirm/cancel can enhance the user experience (or simply reply back with “”no”” text the system into responding about the appointment). Moreover, using the patients’ name and appointment details in the message personalizes the communication so they are recognized as an individual, not a ticket for appointment time.

Study published on pubmed found that 78% of responders wanted to receive appointment reminders.

Accurate Record-Keeping:

Automated systems, such as RecallMax, create accurate records of all patient communications. Each confirmation, reminder, and reply will be saved, and automated-appointment-confirmations-in-dental-practiceautomated-appointment-confirmations-in-dental-practiceautomated-appointment-confirmations-in-dental-practicethe clinic will have a full history of all communications that had taken place, which is important when dealing with disputes, tracking patient attendance, and protecting you from liability with regard to healthcare regulations.

Increased Revenue:

Automated appointment confirmations reduce patient no-shows, which means more revenue for the clinic. Less no-shows translate into more predictable revenue, and the automation, which frees up time for the staff, can now be applied to more productive activities to boost revenues such as providing new services or improving patient care.

“Every time a patient doesn’t show up for a scheduled appointment, it sends your entire practice into chaos.”

To learn more about how reducing no-shows equates to increasing revenue, you can check it out at DentistryIQ.

Implementing Automated Appointment Confirmations with RecallMax

Adding RecallMax to your practice is very easy. A support person will run you through app install on your server and you are ready to start setting it up. Here is some example of how this can benefit your dental practice:

  • Customizable Reminders: RecallMax allows you to set up reminders that suit your clinic and customize the words and timing of when reminders are sent. This gives patients a better chance of receiving reminders at the best time for them to keep their appointments. This is customizable per patient. Patients always can opt out of notifications as well.
  • Integrate into Your Workflow Seamlessly: RecallMax integrates with your practice management software so that you can begin using automated confirmations easily.
  • Preference by Patient: RecallMax will send reminders to patients by multiple methods, including text and emails. This allows your dental office to meet individual patient preferences.

Best practices when using automated appointment reminders

  1. Schedule multiple reminders: Send a first confirmation at the point of booking, and then send reminders 48 and 24 hours before the appointment. This way, you will help to keep your appointment front of mind for your patients.
  2. Offer the ability to reschedule: If patients cannot make their appointment offer them the ability to reschedule. This will reduce last minute cancellations and give you the time to fill the appointment with another patient.
  3. Add personalization: All automation is great, but adding a personal touch to the automated reminder message by adding their name and other appointment details will make the communication feel more genuine.
  4. Follow up: Send a follow-up thank you message and/or follow-up survey after the appointment. This is a good way to show you value feedback while also collecting information to review and enhance your service delivery.

What we think

In today’s dental practice world, automated appointment confirmations is vital, especially with advanced systems. Advanced appointment confirmations allow for a reduction in the number of no-shows, provides efficiencies, improves the patient experience, and generates revenue. At Spire Dental Care Langley, we put patient experience as our priority and using RecallMax is just one way of achieving that. If you want to see what this experience is like, contact our Langley Dentist office for your appointment and never miss an appointment!

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Author

Ethan Carter

Maintaining a healthy smile goes beyond simply brushing and flossing; it’s all about taking steps to prevent problems from happening in the first place. Ethan believes maintaining healthy smile is just as important as maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

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