When is it best to send appointment reminders to reduce failures?

Not keeping orthodontic appointments by patients (no-show) is a common occurrence that results in a significant loss to your orthodontic practice.

‍

Failures, No-shows, DNAs, however you choose to label them, are costly to your practice.  

For orthodontists, a no-show results in reduced efficiency, lost time and reduced practice revenue.  For patients, it's reduced quality of care while also affecting other patients who may benefit from an early or emergency appointment.

Knowing the costs involved, there’s a good chance you’re already using some sort of reminder process. Whether that's manually texting patient in advance of their appointment, sending post reminders or even calling them in advance to ensure their appearance. Whatever route you're taking, scheduling, planning, and reminding patients will be more seamless, effective and far less onerous with the right technologies working for you.

‍

Book, confirm, remind and remind

When it comes to timing, there's actually no one-size-fits-all or no perfect time.

‍SMS reminders are simply one effective means of improving appointment attendance.

Emails also fulfil that role.

Calendar reminders on patient's own phones, scheduled to alert one day before, 4 hours before and one hour before are also highly effective.

‍

When taken together, bundled into series of reminders, there's nothing as effective. And that's why Orthobridge automates all of the above processed on your behalf to maximise results and reduce failure to a minimum.

‍

And finally, one more feature that might seem counter-intuitive to some, is to enable patients to effortlessly cancel appointments up to a given time period before the appointment date. Doing so allows them to cancel in a frictionless way and also allows your practice team to fill the chair with a late appointment candidate - managed through our custom lists.

‍