As a chiropractic practice, your main objective is to deliver the best patient care. You care about your patients. We know this is your top priority. However, there is always a business side to your practice. In order to continue providing great patient care, your chiropractic practice needs to be profitable. But patient no-shows and cancelled appointments negatively impact your profitability if not taken care of on time.

Patients may not realize that they are costing you money when they don’t show up for a scheduled appointment. Sometimes, they simply forget about their appointment because of work and family commitments. Text reminders for appointments can help your practice to stay on top of their mind and ensure that scheduled appointments actually happen.

Missed Appointments = Loss of Income

A survey revealed that the average patient no-show rate varies from 5%-7%. If a practice has 2 or 4 missed appointments per day, all those missed appointments translate as a loss of income for providers.

Manually calling or sending text messages to patients takes administrative hours of your staff, when there’s so much else to do. Why waste time and money when you can send automatic and timed reminders, and get confirmation or cancellation from patients?

Most chiropractic practices have transitioned their appointment reminders to automated text messaging as text reminders for appointments tend to be more efficient than calling or voice messaging. With cloud based chiropractic EHR software featuring an integrated appointment reminder software, sending appointment reminders becomes easy.

Appointment Reminders and Profitability

Let’s discuss the context that makes text reminders for appointments such a powerful tool for your chiropractic practice!

How can you determine the value appointment reminders can bring to your practice in terms of new revenue and cost savings?

First Method

You can calculate the number of additional appointments that you’ll generate as a result of text reminders for appointments. To determine this, you can find the value of:

Total appointments each year x Anticipated rate of no-show improvement = Additional appointments per year

A chiropractic practice sees on average 140 patients per week as per one survey by Chiropractic Economics.

With 7000 appointment each year x 5% improvement in no-show rate = 350 additional appointments

A practice can generate 350 additional appointments and corresponding revenue annually if it has an efficient appointment reminder.

Second Method

The best way to calculate ROI on every dollar spent on an appointment reminder system is to follow this rule:

ROI = ((Cost Savings on Staff and Bills + New Revenue from Additional Appt. – Cost of Investment on a Reminder Solution)/(Cost of Investment)) x 100

Cost Savings = It will be in terms of saving staff’s hours for not having to call patients and remind them about your upcoming appointments. You will save money on phone bills if you start using an automated reminder solution.

New Revenue = Revenue generated from additional appointments that will happen as the patient no-show rate will decrease as you start sending reminder messages.

Cost of Investment = This is the cost you’re paying to use an automated reminder system. Now imagine if you could find the top chiropractic EHR software with an integrated reminder system asking for zero charges for sending reminders to your patients? No cost of investment on a reminder solution, right? zHealth is one of the top cloud based EHR solutions that gives you the facility to send unlimited text reminders for appointments through text messages and emails. Contact us to learn more about our appointment reminder software.

Benefits of Appointment Reminders

Automated appointment reminder software is more than just a way to remind patients about their upcoming appointments. Using one of the top cloud based EHR solutions that have an automated appointment reminder feature can provide more benefits to your practice than patients. These reminders results in:

• Higher revenue
• Lower no-show rate
• Better appointment utilization
• Fewer unfilled appointment slots
•  The ability to see more patients
• More time for staff to oversee admin tasks

The Approach to Automated Appointment Reminders

Let’s look at how different reminder messages complement one another to minimize costly missed appointments or no-shows.

– Send the first reminder 1-2 days ahead of the appointment.

Patients show up for their appointment when the message is sent 24-48 hours prior to the appointment. If the patient is busy and they get a reminder, they can easily reschedule their appointments and you can fill that empty slot with other patients.

– Send the second reminder 30 minutes prior to the appointment.

The second reminder can serve as a helpful day-of reminder that prompts the patient to actually attend their confirmed appointment.

Additional food for thought

• Automated reminders not only help to reduce no-shows but also save staff time spent confirming appointments, which improves efficiency and productivity.
• If you use a text message reminder, ensure you have straightforward text that is easy to comprehend and patients can respond with a simple “yes” or “no” if they wish to reply.
• It is a wise decision to choose the best chiropractic EHR systems integrated with automated reminders. Look for the best EHR software for chiropractors that does not charge you extra for sending automated appointment reminders.

Conclusion

If your chiropractic practice is looking to reduce the patient no-show rate or finding it difficult to fill slots due to missed appointments, you should be considering implementing an appointment reminder system. With automated appointment reminders sent strategically days and hours before the appointment, your practice can reduce no-shows and increase revenue. Keep in mind that you should look for a cloud based chiropractic EHR solution that does not charge you extra for sending reminder messages.

At zHealth, we want to help your chiropractic practice stay connected and engaged with your patients at every step of the patient’s journey, from when they book an appointment to when they write a review. An important step on this journey is automated appointment reminders. We believe in making this experience user-friendly with our cloud based chiropractic EHR solution:

• The ability to send text reminders 48 hours prior to the appointment
• The system also sends appointment reminders 30 minutes prior to the appointment
• 2-way communication support between your practice and patients
• HIPAA compliant reminder system that protects patient information
• And much more.

Click here to get a free demo of zHealth and discover how your chiropractic practice can increase profitability with reminders, EHR, and more solutions that we offer.