Enhance Appointment Management & Patient Communication with Reminder Mate

Last-minute cancellations or a no-show for healthcare appointments are both difficult for medical practices. When patients do not keep their appointments, it is both frustrating and costly. If just one appointment per day gets canceled, practices can lose up to $43,000 annually. Luckily, Office Ally offers Reminder Mate, an automated patient appointment reminder service. 

There could easily be hundreds of reasons why patients miss appointments, with most of those being preventable through enhanced patient communication. Helping a patient to reschedule right away at the time of cancellation will increase their likelihood of fulfilling the appointment at a different time and getting the healthcare they need. 

Let’s look at the features and benefits of appointment management and solutions that can make a difference.

The Importance of Streamlining Appointment Management

Healthcare appointments are important, whether scheduled by the patient to address symptoms they’re experiencing or scheduled by the doctor as a follow-up for treatment. They must be kept to help patients improve their health conditions by receiving care. 

Appointment attendance is also crucial to a healthcare organization’s revenue. This ensures payment for providers and practices, which continues the cash flow cycle that ensures revenue is not lost.

Reducing No-Shows

One of the most common missed appointment scenarios is a no-show. A no-show is when the patient does not come to their appointment and does not call ahead to let the office know and reschedule. Without knowing in advance that the appointment will not be kept, that spot is held, which could have been used to treat another patient. The time spent preparing for an appointment that does not happen and time spent trying to contact the patient lowers productivity.

Perhaps the patient simply forgot about the appointment, which is where an appointment reminder could help. Sending an automated reminder via phone, text, or email the day before the appointment will remind the patient, reducing the instance of a no-show. Ensure your practice’s visits happen on time and are successful with reminders. 

Enhancing Patient Satisfaction

With such busy lives these days, everyone has many priorities to juggle. Having this automated service to remind a patient of their upcoming appointment can better help them prepare in advance, making it a more productive appointment. 

With a reminder in advance, a patient can better plan to get to the appointment on time, adjust their schedule around their appointment, and even plan questions to ask their physician during the appointment. This can all lead to patient satisfaction and better health. 

Increasing Efficiency and Productivity

Appointment reminders are helpful to both the patient and the clinical staff. Being reminded of an appointment can help office staff plan for their day ahead and be ready to help patients needing more assistance or taking more time. 

Being prepared can improve efficiency in the office for both patients and staff and productivity in knowing what needs to be done in advance. 

Features of a Comprehensive Appointment Manager

A comprehensive appointment manager has many key features to help a practice run successfully. These include:

Automated Patient Appointment Reminders 

Remind your patients and staff a day before the appointment via text, phone, or email to improve the likelihood of patients attending their appointments. This also gives patients the chance to reschedule if the time no longer works for them, while still keeping the appointment.

Customizable Reminder Formats 

Have the ability to select the type of information needed in your reminder to make it relevant to your practice. This includes messaging, the amount of appointment detail you’d like included, and patient response options.

Integration with Electronic Health Record (EHR) Systems 

Make these reminders work with your electronic health record systems, including those that store patient information, and ensure they communicate with each other. This can also help avoid delays in communication between providers, mismanaging patient medication, inaccurate reporting and so much more.

Benefits of Patient Appointment Reminders for Healthcare Providers

There are many benefits to having a patient appointment reminder.  These include:

Reduced Administrative Work 

The time and paperwork it takes to reschedule a missed appointment and restructure after the appointment has been missed can be avoided with better patient communication.

Increased Patient Satisfaction 

Patients, too, will be happy with patient reminders and knowing what their appointment is for, where it’s located, and what time it’s at to help them plan, especially if it’s been scheduled for quite some time. It will refresh their memory and help them better prepare to address their issues with their physician.

Enhanced Operational Efficiency

Reduce the likelihood of playing phone tag back and forth with patients through digital reminders allowing patients to confirm, cancel, or reschedule their appointments with just a few clicks. 

Improved Revenue Through Reduced No-Shows

Reminding patients ahead of time for their appointments allows them to adjust their schedules to ensure they make their appointments on time. 

‍

Benefits of Patient Appointment Reminders for Patients

There are many benefits to receiving appointment reminders before a patient’s appointment. They are conveniently sent the day before and can be customized to send even further in advance than that to ensure the patient has time to prepare.

The rescheduling options for appointments within the reminders make it easy for patients who know they won’t be able to make it when they receive the reminder. The patient can cancel, confirm, or reschedule their appointment within the reminder. If they need to reschedule, they can do so from their reminder. This makes it easy to keep your appointment from on-the-go, rather than forgetting or waiting until later. 

Appointment reminders enhance communication with healthcare providers by providing another way to connect with them about their appointments and maintain their schedules. 

Reminder Mate: Office Ally’s Patient Appointment Reminder Solution

Reminder Mate is Office Ally’s patient appointment reminder solution. It offers many features and benefits, including automated reminders that can be customized for patients and practices. Program them to send as far in advance or close to the appointment as your practice feels comfortable, and customize the messaging for your practice's patients.

These reminders can be sent through multi-channel communication, such as SMS, email, and phone calls in 16 languages. Both patients and providers will receive real-time updates and notifications to ensure appointments are kept on schedule or are rescheduled. 

How to Get Started with Our Reminder Mate Solution

When incorporating a new program into an existing system, it’s important to ensure integration to support each one. At Office Ally, patient reminders are available with our Practice Mate and EHR 24/7 solutions. Pricing depends on which plan you select based on your practice’s needs. 

There are many benefits for both patients and providers in streamlining a practice’s appointment management through reminder software. Reduce costs, improve productivity, reduce no-shows, enhance patient engagement, and make rescheduling easy all through reminder software.

Digitizing your booking process also eliminates a lot of paperwork for patients and staff, including regarding appointment reminders. It keeps track of appointments, both kept and missed, to assist with related items such as prescription refills and when they are needed.  Its ability to integrate with most healthcare systems offers convenience and flexibility to your patients and simplifies the rescheduling process. This can improve patients' chances of getting the care they need when it fits their schedule.

Make sure your practice is up-to-date with its appointment reminder abilities. Learn more about Office Ally today and what it can do for your practice. Explore all available options through Office Ally to help your practice adopt suitable patient management software. Office Ally provides easy-to-use, affordable solutions for practice management that can revolutionize your practice and take its efficiency to the next level. Optimize and grow your practice today through Office Ally.