Why Appointment Reminders Need to Be More Than a Postcard in the Mail

In the past, many practices depended heavily on sending out postcard reminders, but they are no longer as effective as they once were. A large part of this is because patients aren’t as responsive to them as before. With recent technological advances that make remembering upcoming appointments more convenient, postcards require extra effort from a patient.

Relying on them as your only means of appointment reminders sets your practice up for no-shows and unhappy patients. Digitize appointment reminders by automating them instead.

Patient Scheduling and Appointment Reminders

Patients and consumers prefer immediate and convenient scheduling processes and communication over traditional appointment booking methods. Fortunately, your practice can automate many of the tasks that go with scheduling while making it easier for your patients. Provide your patients with the ease and speed they want by automating scheduling workflows and appointment reminders.

Your practice can improve patient scheduling with Clearwave. Your patients can request their appointments at any time, day or night, making it an advantage for both your patients and your practice.

A healthcare consumer survey by Kyruus in 2020 shows booking online is the scheduling preference for 43 percent of those that responded, up from 25 percent in 2017. Take self-scheduling capabilities up a step by providing patients with automated appointment reminders through email or text messages.

What Your Practice Stands to Gain by Automating Appointment Reminders

With every patient no-show, your practice is losing out on revenue. You can solve the pain point of no-shows by automating appointment reminders. Convenience is an absolute priority for your patients, and it’s something that many patients see as a primary determining factor when choosing a healthcare provider, even above the quality of care and insurance.

If your practice still relies on postcards, you could be losing many patients to your competition. Postcards are not as convenient because patients still have to call your practice to confirm their appointment physically. There’s also a good chance that patients may get put on hold or unable to get a hold of any staff when they try to call, which may delay their care for longer.

Automated appointment reminders sent via SMS are powerful. That’s because patients prefer text messages, especially when compared to postcards they receive in the mail. Text messages have an open rate of 98 percent. Your patients are also likely to reply to their text messages in under 90 seconds.

This immediacy, not to mention convenience, makes automated appointment reminder text messages incredibly impactful. As a result, appointment reminders remove the friction from your scheduling process. They allow patients to easily and quickly confirm, reschedule, or even cancel their appointments.

For canceled appointments, your front desk workers can easily fit in patients who may be on your waiting list or even last-minute appointments because they’ll get notified ahead of time. As a busy practice, you see lots of patients every day. Think of the hours your team is spending every week sending out postcard reminders. An automated appointment reminder does away with this manual task, allowing your staff to focus on what matters the most—your patients.

Automate Patient Scheduling and Appointment Reminders with Clearwave

From reducing no-shows to improving patient experience and increasing your revenue, Clearwave is designed to meet the unique needs of your practice. Our proprietary software can be seamlessly integrated with your existing systems, creating smooth workflows your team and patients will appreciate.

Download the Legacy Community Health Care case study by clicking here to see how Clearwave provided this Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with a complete digital patient access solution!