Rural Hospital Achieves 40% Reduction in No-Shows by Improving Patient Engagement
A rural hospital in Illinois has reduced no-shows by 40% and achieved a 50% reduction in the clinical burden on staff through the use of EHR-integrated patient-facing communication technology. No-shows have a direct impact on patient health, interrupting continuity of care, delaying treatment, and increasing the risk of complications for chronic conditions. No-shows are also a significant drain of resources, with one study finding no-shows cost U.S. healthcare organizations more than $150 billion a year. A recent study by the consulting firm Chartis found half of rural hospitals are operating at a loss and are having to cut services with 418 rural hospitals are at risk of closure. The losses caused by no-shows are adding to the problem.
Sparta Community Hospital in Rural Illinois has managed to significantly reduce no-shows by improving patient engagement. The hospital is using proactive, patient-facing communication technology that integrates with its electronic medical record system and delivers appointment reminders and information directly to patients. The one-way communication system generates reminders about upcoming appointments, allows patients to easily reschedule appointments if they are unable to attend, and information can be sent to and collected from patients to streamline their appointments. The platform also provides language services such as translation ahead of appointments to help patients fill out necessary documents.
The system is used to collect health information, insurance details, and identification information and will be used in the future to collect payment information. If a patient wishes to cancel an appointment or reschedule, they can do so with a few keystrokes, rather than having to pick up the phone. The hospital believed that the cumbersome process for changing appointments was one of the factors that was contributing to its high no-show rate.
Before the system was implemented, the no-show rate was almost 15% and staff had to spend time calling patients to remind them about appointments and gathering information from patients when they turned up for their appointments. The automated system has freed up administrators’ time, allowing them to focus on more pressing, high-value tasks such as processing insurance claims and improving the patient experience at the hospital. After implementing the system, the no-show rate was reduced to 9% and the burden on administrators was reduced by 50%. The hospital will now be rolling out the system for its mobile clinics and plans to use the system to collect co-pays prior to appointments.
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