Telephone Reminder Service

How to improve your patient collections

Thursday, February 2, 2012 by Susan Linton

Why patient collections are a concern for most practices

While workers are asked to pay more and share in healthcare costs, employers are still facing rising healthcare costs. A PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report issued in June 2010 found that "for the first time, a majority of U.S. workers are expected to have health insurance deductibles of $400 or more as more employers return to pre-managed care “indemnity style” cost sharing by raising out-of-pocket limits, replacing flat-dollar co-pays with percentage-based co-insurance, and adding high-deductible health plans."

At the same time, Medicare is reducing reimbursement rates, so an increasing percentage of revenue will be coming from self-pay patients and patients with health savings accounts and high-deductible plans. This requires practices to be better at collecting directly from patients.

How automating account balance notifications can improve patient collections

A typical practice mails the explanation of benefits and then mails account balance due reminders as many as 3 to 6 times before turning over the account to a collections agency or writing off the debt. The results usually leave much to be desired.

Combining mailed reminders with phone calls is more effective than using either alone. Mail the reminder first and follow it in a week or two with a phone call. Multiple reminders by mail, phone and email usually work better than reminders using just one communication method.

Automated account balance notification calls delivered by a telephone reminder service make it easy to quickly reach patients with a message to contact your office to discuss their account status. This type of call is far less awkward for the office staff to handle than one where they are asked to call the patient to initiate a conversation about payment.

Mailed reminders can easily be ignored or overlooked but once you have someone on the phone, you can figure out a payment plan or find other ways to facilitate payment.

With automated reminder calls and emails, patient account balance notifications can be sent in just minutes compared to days (when mailing reminders). By speeding up the reminders process, patients receive reminders faster and they pay their balances faster as well.

The underuse and underappreciation of vaccines

Thursday, January 26, 2012 by Susan Linton

Long thought to be primarily a means to reduce infectious diseases, the role of vaccines has expanded to include the prevention of non-infectious diseases. Expect to see an increased use of vaccines as a way to prevent or treat conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer's, type 1 diabetes, etc.

The challenge is to increase the rate of vaccinations. Rates of adult immunization continue to be lower than what U.S. health officials recommend and this is particularly true for the elderly and Hispanic population. One reason for these lower than recommended levels of vaccination is the communication gap between physicians and their patients. The National Foundation of Infectious Diseases surveyed patients and physicians and found evidence of a significant communication gap:

87% of physicians said they discussed vaccines with their patients
47% of patients said their physician did not discuss vaccines with them, except for the flu vaccine

Dr. Susan J. Rehm, medical director of the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases stated that "we really need, as health care providers, to do a better job of conveying the importance of immunization to our adult patients."

At the same time, physicians have less time to spend with patients as they're forced by economic necessity to see more patients. This is precisely the type of situation that can be helped by using currently available broadcast voice messaging technology. Rather than communicate with each patient one on one, this technology makes it easy to send reminder calls to all your patients who could benefit from a vaccine. The total time involved for your front staff is just minutes. They would need to generate a file with the names of patients who require a reminder call and then transmit that file to the call reminder service.

Because of the high levels of trust patients have in their physicians, these types of calls are likely to be quite effective at raising vaccination levels.

Broadcast voice messaging powered by telephone dialer software makes sense for practices of all sizes, offering an affordable way to improve communication between the practice and the patient and ultimately to improve population health.

Dealing with the top challenges faced by medical practices today: EHR adoption

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 by Susan Linton

Back in June 2011, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) released the results of its member survey. Members indicated that the top challenges they faced were:

Changing reimbursement models that place a greater share of financial risk on practices
EHR issues - selecting and implementing the EHR system and participating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' EHR Meaningful Use incentive program
Rising operating costs
Implementing and/or optimizing an accountable care organization

Financial, technological and compliance issues were clearly the main challenges. At the same time that practices plan on dealing with adopting a complex new system (EHR) that will require major changes in workflow, they also need to deal with managing potentially lower reimbursements and rising costs.

Ideally, the EHR will reduce administrative complexity, increase efficiency and lower operating costs but that takes time. Adopting an EHR has many other benefits for patient practice communication. Once patient records are digitized, they can be more easily shared with other systems, including a host of inexpensive, on demand web-based services. These services include automated appointment reminders, appointment scheduling, automated account balance notifications, patient surveys, and more. Such services can easily improve patient-practice communication and they also (1) save staff a considerable amount of time, (2) improve documentation and possibly reduce potential for legal action against the practice, (3) increase patient satisfaction.

Automating appointment reminders is a step that benefits the majority of practices. These types of calls typically are routine and the essential information can easily be conveyed by a quality appointment reminder service. Typically the practice only needs to generate a file with patients to be called and transmit that file to the telephone reminder service. This process can take just a few minutes. Appointment confirmations can be automatically tracked.

For additional information, please visit Webley.

The patient's perspective: Front desk reminder calls vs. automated reminder calls

Thursday, November 17, 2011 by Susan Linton

A common concern that medical practices have when considering automated reminder calls is their patients' reaction. The staff may believe that patients prefer a call from someone they know at the practice and that these calls are more effective than automated reminder calls. While some patients will prefer the personal call from your practice, you shouldn't assume that they represent the majority of your patients.

Many patients appreciate the automated reminder call service for the following reasons.

Greater efficiency. The calls use custom scripts and provide useful, personalized information to patients. Patients may be able to interact and respond to the message by pressing a button to confirm or cancel an appointment. Patients with more complex needs still have the option to call your practice.
Greater convenience. The telephone reminder service isn't limited to office hours. The service can call patients in the evening and on weekends, when they are more likely to be home.
Personalized and customizable experience. Automated calls can easily be replayed or offer options such as delivering the message in another language.

Pre-recorded reminder voice messages are not necessarily more impersonal than a call from your staff practice. Your staff often reaches someone's answering machine or voicemail so there isn't much difference between the automated reminder call using a pre-recorded message and the call from a staff member.

Some phone reminder systems send pre-recorded voice messages. These are human voice messages. Sound quality and the clarity of the speaker may still vary but high quality pre-recorded appointment reminder messages are recorded with professional voice talent in a controlled studio environment.

If you're concerned about patient acceptance of automated calls, ask your patients for feedback on your service. If most hate it, you'll know that you either need to find a better automated reminder service or find another solution.

For additional information on automated reminder calls, please visit Webley.

Revenue boosting and cost cutting strategies for smaller medical practices

Thursday, November 10, 2011 by Susan Linton

A Sermo survey found that 26% of solo physicians (single physician practices) have either closed their practice or are considering closing. Many have turned to practice management companies for assistance. Cash flow concerns are such that a delay in reimbursement can jeopardize the practice, so some solo physicians are switching to a cash-only model and/or becoming a non-participating provider.

"Physicians point to a variety of issues including low and delayed reimbursements, problems with management companies, and a lack of business/practice management education."

Finding more revenue opportunities

Most solo practitioners find that income is limited by the number of patients that can be seen per day. There are several ways to boost income. If the physician cannot see additional patients, it may make sense to add nonphysician providers (NPPs) who deal with routine cases or offer extended hours. If the physician has additional capacity, then consider adding a wider range of related services and econsults.

Take a close look at staffing and productivity

With the high cost of staffing, it's important to make the best use of your staff. Start by comparing your staffing levels with your peers and find ways to increase staff productivity. Technology can help. Some practices have no support staff. This is not to say that support staff are unimportant but that certain aspects can be outsourced or automated using technology (e.g., adding an online patient portal can reduce demands on your existing staff and allow patients the convenience of paying bills, requesting appointments, making prescription refill requests and so forth, online.)

Control your no shows

Manage your no shows. Be sure to send appointment reminders. Lower no shows further by asking for confirmations. Follow up with patients who don't show up.

Take advantage of federal incentives

The federal government offers several incentive payment programs, including those for ePrescribing, EMRs and reporting of quality measures to Medicare under the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS).

Online communication benefits both patients and providers

Tuesday, November 1, 2011 by Susan Linton

"Your patients are already getting and using health information online – shouldn't they be getting more from you? The report suggests providing patients with online health tools such as reminders, instructions and educational information about their diagnosis and treatments."

The quote comes from a recent article in Healthcare IT News entitled "Top 10 ways to engage patients with IT." I particularly liked how the article talked about how patients trust their physicians/healthcare providers and how they online social media should be thought of as a valuable opportunity to engage and educate patients, while building your own brand, managing your own online reputation, and strengthening the provider-patient relationship.

It's easy to continue to communicate to patients the way you always have and call it a day, but if you want your practice to continue to be successful in the future, you need to be responsive to changes in the environment.

It's clear that relationships are crucial in the healthcare service industry and finding new avenues to communicate with patients can help set a practice apart from others. Many practices are struggling to keep up with patient communications and not taking advantage of affordable automated patient communication services.

An automated notifications system that uses telephone dialer software is able to quickly send broadcast voice messages to the patient base, making communication easier than ever. Some notification services can send automatically send email and text notifications as well. Automated messages can inform patients of upcoming appointments, lab results availability, outstanding account balances, and more. By automating some outbound communications, practices can keep patients better informed and decrease incoming call volume. In turn, informed patients will feel more satisfied with the practice.

Patient communication preferences have changed and many of them are highly engaged online. Opening a Facebook or Twitter account is free though it takes time to contribute content. Blogs can be created for free as well, on sites such as blogger.com and wordpress.com

Facebook and social networking sites like it help build visibility and make it easier for current, past and future patients to find useful information. Online review sites provide free feedback from patients that is usually honest.

Cut costs, grow revenues and streamline your practice by increasing staff productivity

Thursday, September 29, 2011 by Susan Linton

Do you wonder how you can grow revenues and save money without compromising patient care? Did you know that support staff costs account for 32% of operating expenses at the average practice?*

It makes sense that most practices are looking to save on staff salaries. Sure you can ask your staff to forgo a raise but there are better ways to increase staff productivity and reign in costs. Namely, smart practices are turning to technology to automate some of routine tasks around the practice and increase accessibility without compromising service. In fact, shifting the routine tasks to an automated system frees up time for your staff, allowing them to spend more quality time with patients and work on more complex tasks.

Appointment reminder calls and other routine correspondence (e.g., account balance notifications, normal lab test results reporting) with patients can easily be handled with greater reliability and at a much lower cost by a good automated telephone reminder service. Appointment reminders delivered by email and SMS text messaging can be effective as well. These services usually capture contact attempts and the results of each contact attempt. They can also offer multilingual messaging, custom scripts, and so forth.

Patients hate to be kept waiting, whether the wait occurs in the waiting room, on the phone, or after hours. An automated voice answering service or virtual office receptionist can direct callers to the person or department that they'd like to reach, take and relay messages, and put an end of unanswered calls and busy signals. The virtual office receptionist can field your after hours calls as well, and ensure that the on-call physician is quickly alerted when a patient calls looking for clinical advice.

For additional information on how medical office automation technology can help your practice, visit Webley.

* Source: 2009 MGMA cost survey

Understanding the basics of automated appointment reminders

Thursday, September 15, 2011 by Webley MD

Driven by economic necessity, many physicians are seeing more patients than ever. Some are extending their hours to accommodate more patients. "According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, more than one in three primary care doctors now sees patients after hours, a figure experts say has surged among all specialties in the past 12 to 18 months."

This increase in patient load puts a greater demand on office staff as well. Over 75% of physician's practices use reminder telephone calls from their staff to remind patients about their appointment time and date. Even the smallest practice can benefit from automating appointment reminder calls.

Reminder phone calls from a phone dialer program help maintain peak patient flow. An automated appointment reminder system uses a computer software program to dial customers at a preset time before their appointment. A pre-recorded message provides a details of the appointment, including date, time and patient name. Even messages that are left on answering machines serve as effective reminders. However, the most effective reminder (i.e., the one with the lowest probability of a no show) is one where you reach your patient and your patient confirms the appointment.

Traditional communication methods have grown less effective

Many traditional patient appointment reminder techniques are no longer as effective today because lifestyles and communication preferences have changed. It's easier to reach many people on their cell phone and email than at home with a phone call.

Calling patients to remind them of upcoming appointments may take up several hours of effort. Dialing each person by hand and speaking with them, or leaving a message takes away from patients that are in the office. Using an automated phone reminder service can help to reach patients without the effort of a staff member. And the phone dialer can make calls during the evening, when the practice is closed and patients are more likely to be home.

Automated phone reminders are more efficient and more cost effective. The cost of making an automated phone call is typically 80% less than mailing a postcard and 72% less than making a manual phone call.

The same call reminder can deliver other routine messages, such as account balance notifications, lab test results, recommended health screenings, and more.

Automated phone calls have proven effective at getting the patient's attention and may offer interactive features that make it convenient for the patient to respond. This also makes it extremely easy for practices to track responses.

Tips for keeping your automated calls respectful, personal, and effective

Thursday, August 25, 2011 by Webley MD

Automated telephone reminders can sometimes be perceived as impersonal. However, this misconception is easily corrected by working to improve your patient's experience with your new computerized system. Here are three easy ways to be respectful, personal, and effective with your automated reminder calls.

1. Be aware of your messaging schedule
Have your reminder service send your messages at times that people are most likely to be home (after dinner) and available to take your call. Many people will not answer the phone during dinner, so avoiding the 5:30pm to 6:30pm time frame is a wise practice. Also, be aware of holidays and weekends, especially high travel times like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year celebrations.

2. Always be respectful
As you are well aware, medical matters require the utmost privacy. In your appointment reminder, don't reveal what the appointment is specifically for. Sometimes even mentioning that your doctor is the OB/GYN can be embarrassing for some. “Remember your appointment with Dr. Smith” is perfectly sufficient. Remember that just about anyone can be listening to the messages on an answering machine or taking the reminder call. Be respectful of your patient's privacy and they will be grateful.

3. Invite a two-way communication
One of the benefits of having your receptionist perform your reminder calls is that if the patient has any questions, she is already speaking with a live person who can answer them. In most cases, the patient doesn't have questions, so the pre-recorded message is sufficient. But sometimes the patient will have a question. To account for this possibility, be sure to include the practice phone number in your message script.

Your automated reminder may also be interactive. For example, the patient may be able to confirm the reminder by pressing a button. This type of message is superior to one that does not allow for two-way communication.

In the end, remember that automated communications can be just as personal and convenient as having your receptionist perform all the calls. It just takes the right combination of respect and usefulness to make the new system satisfying for your practice and your patients.

Robocalls to patients are on the rise

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 by Susan Linton

A growing number of patients are now receiving robocalls, automated phone calls that use a phone dialer program to deliver a pre-recorded message. There are several reasons for the recent uptick, including:

Declining revenues. Many practices have seen a drop in patient visits, a rise in no show rates, and an increase in bad debt/unpaid services. In response, some have become proactive about increasing demand for services, e.g., looking for new revenue streams like health screenings, sending reminders about overdue exams, etc.

Increased ease of broadcast messaging. At the same time that revenues have been falling, many practices are digitizing patient health records. This transition from paper to electronic records makes it much easier for practices to use robocalls. For example, some practice management systems have integrated billing and appointment reminder features. It can be easy for practices that do not have a PMS with integrated appointment reminders or billing to quickly send broadcast messages. Typically the practice only needs to generate a file with patients to be called and transmit that file to the telephone reminder service. This process can take just a few minutes.

Effectiveness of robocalls. Many practices are finding that robocalls are effective, driving wider adoption. While some patients may find automated calls annoying, a practice can help increase acceptance of robocalls by informing patients of what to expect and choosing a quality reminder call service.

Robocalls are not all the same and they need not sound robotic. Some services use prerecorded messages read by professional voice talent and recorded in a studio setting. You can probably save money by using a service that uses text to speech technology but these calls will sound "more robotic" but this technology continues to improve.

For additional information, visit Webley.

The ABC's of improving collections with automated account balance notifications

Thursday, August 11, 2011 by Susan Linton

As health plan deductibles and co-payments rise, medical practices are finding themselves collecting an increasing proportion of their revenues directly from patients. This trend makes it increasingly important for practices to improve their billing and collections process. Practices can benefit by learning from debt collection agencies without using a collection agency.

Practices should be doing more to improve their own collections efforts because of the high cost of using a collection agency. The typical collection agency is able to recover 14% at a cost of 33 cents per dollar (source: American Collectors Association). Follow the ABC's below to improve your collections effort:

Automated account balance notifications

Benefits of multi-channel reminders

Mailing account balance reminders on a regular basis (e.g., every 30, 60, 90 days) is a step in the right direction but collection agencies have found that phone calls are the most effective way to collect on debts. Combining mailed reminders with phone calls is more effective than using either alone. Mail the reminder first and follow it in a week or two with a phone call.

Mailed reminders can easily be ignored or overlooked but once you have someone on the phone, you can figure out a payment plan or find other ways to facilitate payment.

Collect in fewer days

With call reminders, your practice can get the attention of more patients and prompt them to call your office. Email reminders can work well for some patients and automated notifications technology makes it easy to send account balance reminders by email. Multiple reminders by mail, phone and email usually work better than reminders using just one communication method.

To learn more about automated account balance notifications, visit Webley.

The fundamentals of medical collections

Tuesday, July 5, 2011 by Susan Linton

Experts estimate that by 2012, direct payments from patients will account for 30% of providers' revenues. With such a large percentage of direct patient payments and record levels of healthcare bad debt, providers are challenged to become better at collections.

The medical billing and collections process is currently a labor intensive one. But there are things you can do to make it easier for your patients to pay you and make it more likely that you will be paid. Good communication is the key to maximizing the amount collected.

Prompt billing and clear statements, along with consistent reminders and a clear payment policy are the basics that each practice should aspire to offer.

Be flexible and accept additional forms of payment. Being able to accept credit cards at the point of care is a good first step to take. Accepting online payments is the next logical step to consider. The smallest businesses accept online payments today - there is little excuse for medical practices to not offer this convenience. Before you grumble about credit card transaction fees, ask yourself if you want to get paid.

Automate your account balance notification reminders. You can save money and time on postage and labor by using an automated patient notification service to handle your account balance notifications. These automated reminders can take the form of a phone call, email, text message, etc. Phone calls tend to work best when it comes to collections. Telephone reminder services have the ability to call in the evening, when patients are most likely to be home. Multi-channel electronic communication solutions allow for greater reach and better effectiveness than single channel solutions.

For additional information, visit Webley.

Improve patient care by improving communication

Friday, June 24, 2011 by Susan Linton

The patient-practice communication gap
The typical medical practice is a busy place. In an effort to maximize the number of patients seen per day, physicians and their staff have little time to spend with patients. A study by Tai-Seale, McGuire, and Zhang (HSR 2007) examined how primary care physicians allocated their time based on 392 videotaped office visits. The authors found that the average length of a visit was 17.4 minutes, with 5 minutes spent discussing the major health issue and 1 minute on minor issues.

With just a few minutes spent discussing health issues, it's clear that medical practices could use some help with patient communications and proactive patient care.

Automated messaging facilitates better patient care
Simply improving patient communications can improve patient health. Automated patient messaging systems make it easy, efficient and cost-effective to communicate routine messages to your patients, including reminders for health screenings, appointment reminders, lab test results and more.

Proactive patient care involves tracking patients and analyzing the patient population to identify candidates for intervention/care. Examples include reminders for preventive exams, active disease management (monitor patient's vital signs, sends messages when appropriate), wellness, etc.

The traditional approach of mailing reminders for health screenings typically receives a response rate of 1% to 2%. A recent Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study published in the July 2010 edition of Medical Care found that automated telephone reminders increased colon cancer screening rates by 30%.

Automated phone calls are an effective way to improve patient-practice communication.

Population health management and the power of automated telephone calls

Thursday, June 9, 2011 by Susan Linton

Many practices are starting to focus their efforts on population health management (PHM). Technology makes PHM possible because it simplifies the task of tracking population health and sending automated messages to patients.

Reminder call software can aid PHM efforts through a variety of messages, including preventive health messaging and medication compliance. For example, a 2010 study published in Population Health Management found that personalized telephonic, interactive voice response (IVR) health messages improved adherence to a cholesterol-reducing drug.

Riverside Medical Group of Newport News, VA, adopted a web-based population health registry. Automated calls led to 13,420 appointments in the first six months and it's estimated that 9,173 of those appointments would not have been made had it not been for the automated messaging service.

Automated messaging systems can also help patients manage their chronic disease states, e.g., by having them report vital signs, keep track of medications, and more. And they're still excellent at reminding patients of upcoming appointments.

Improving communication with your patients

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 by Susan Linton

I recently reread an excellent article published in Family Practice Management in 1999 called Improving Patient Communication in No Time. The author provides many easy to adopt tips for being a better communicator. Many of the communication tips involve being a better listener and paying full attention to the patient during the exam. The article also includes the following intriguing paragraph:

"Use computers creatively. Some physicians are now using e-mail to answer patients' questions and avoid getting tied up in lengthy telephone conversations. "I know one doctor who even has e-mail hours," says Davis. "It's like a chat room. It keeps patients in touch with their doctors, and with managed care anything you can do to decrease the demand on a doctor's time helps." Thiedke uses her computer as a patient information tool; she'll occasionally tell patients about sites she's located on the World Wide Web that are specific to their health care needs."

The basics of good communication haven't changed since 1999 but communication technology has definitely changed a great deal since 1999. New ways to communicate with patients have emerged.

The popularity of social networking sites like Twitter, Sermo, Facebook, etc., make it easy to monitor your online reputation, contribute content, etc. For tips on managing your online reputation, see the post, Social Media Helps Doctors Manage Their Online Reputation.
Just about everyone has a cell phone with them at all times and text messaging outpaces email among teenagers. Consider how your patients communication patterns have changed over time. Has your practice adapted and kept up with the times?
Secure e-mail messaging, patient portals, econsults, patient self-service kiosks, virtual medical assistants...the list goes on. Are you using technology to provide added value to your patients, e.g., decreasing check in time, making forms easily accessible?
Patients are used to broadcast voice messaging and the quality of pre-recorded appointment reminders is better than ever. Sending appointment reminders is easier and more affordable than ever with Web-based automated appointment reminder services. Learn more about automated appointment reminders by visiting Webley.

Why making reminder calls might not be enough to drive down your no show rates

Friday, April 1, 2011 by Webley MD

As a busy medical practitioner or office manager, you realize the importance of sending your patients reminders for their appointments. If you completely eliminated your reminders, you can expect your no show rates to increase immediately. So, you have your receptionist sit down with the list of patients with upcoming appointments and she makes phone calls for several hours. She does the same thing the next day, and the next day after that. Yet you may still find that your no show rates aren't as low as you'd like them to be.

It's not that your office doesn't make the effort to remind people to come in. The problem could very well be that the way you are approaching your reminders is ineffective.

Telephone calls to someone's home during the day are becoming an obsolete form of communication. That's because 80% of people are at work, school or out and about during the day. When your receptionist leaves a message on an answering machine, if there is an answering machine, there is no confirmation that the reminder has reached the intended patient. If there isn't an answering machine or the line is busy, your staff tries to call the person again (if there is time to do so).

Most people are home during the evening, but your staff doesn't make calls after your practice is closed. If you want to increase the effectiveness of your appointment reminders, you should make the calls when you're more likely to reach your patient and also listen to how they would like to be reached.

Some of your patients want to receive emails from your office. That is what is most convenient for many people today. While that may sound like more work than making reminder calls, in truth, it is much simpler. With an automated notifications service, all your receptionist does is generate a report with a list of patients that need appointment reminders and upload that report to the service provider. It takes her minutes, not hours. The messages reach your patients in ways that are convenient for them and the system automatically tracks the success of reminder attempts, appointment confirmations, appointment cancellations, etc.

The end result is that your no-show rates begin to decrease, your revenue increases, and your receptionist has a little extra time on her hands. It really is that easy.

How automating the appointment confirmation process can reduce no-shows

Thursday, March 24, 2011 by Webley MD

Missed appointments are a significant problem for most medical practices. The average no show rate is 20% according to MGMA and that's a percentage that's far too high for most practices to live with.

Initiating an effective two-way communication system between your office and patients is the number one way to battle no-shows.

The first step to improving communication with patients is to consider what's convenient for them and realistic for your practice to provide. An automated communication system can provide multiple channels of communication to accommodate your patients communication preferences. Whatever is most convenient for them, whether it is the standard telephone call reminder or an email, or both, the system can handle it. If you have your patient's email address and phone number(s) and an automated multi-channel electronic communication system, you'll have more chances to connect with your patient.

Automation is important because it allows your practice to quickly send messages to patients using multiple channels of communication. If you had your staff make phone calls, it could hours a day and tie up at least one phone line.

The next step is to automate your appointment confirmation process. The traditional postcard reminder made it difficult for a patient to confirm or cancel an appointment and phone call reminder made during the day usually reach an answering machine. Automated reminder services can make reminder calls during the evening - and thus are more likely to reach a live person who can then easily confirm or cancel the appointment during the call by pressing a button. Or with email appointment reminders, the patient can click to confirm or cancel an appointment. The system captures these responses and allows them to be easily viewed in an electronic report.

Patients who confirm appointments a day or two before the scheduled appointment are far less likely to miss their appointment.

Time to tune up your practice

Thursday, March 10, 2011 by Webley MD

The top medical practices run like award-winning cars. They are streamlined for reduced air resistance. They are well-oiled for frictionless performance. They are fuel efficient.

Take a look at your practice. Is it running the way you'd like it to? Have you changed the oil in the last thirty-five years? If you haven't, the engine could be on its last legs.

You want your practice to run like a well-oiled machine. Let's take a look at the mechanics of the top medical practices. What is underneath the hood that makes them so great?

In short, it's the technology. Top medical practices have adapted their communication systems to integrate the most updated medical technology available. One of the major upgrades they've made is automation, especially for their appointment reminders. Receptionists no longer waste time manually calling patients one by one. Instead, they let an automated appointment reminder service to do the work.

The automated system can also communicate through multiple channels. Depending on the patient's preferences, the computer can send a telephoned voice reminder by phone or send an email. They can send reminders in the evening, when the practice is closed and the patient is likely to be home. Appointment reminders are more convenient for the practice staff and for its patients.

The modern patient has evolved right along with the technology. They've become used to a more convenient forms of communication. And it's not just a few whipper-snappers who have mastered the art of mobile communication. “According to AARP, 82 percent of baby boomers use the Internet for everything from e-mail to managing their finances and playing online games,” writes Rosemarie Nelson, a health care technology guru and writer for Physicians Practice.

It's time to make the all-important oil change, shake the dust off your tires, and come out of the garage with a revitalized practice.

The “Seven C's” of Automation

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 by Webley MD

Automated patient messaging systems make it easy to send large volumes of messages to patients by phone and by email. Automating patient messages also have other benefits that go beyond the ability to send volume messages and save time. There are seven major benefits – that conveniently begin with the letter "C" – that can adequately begin to describe such a powerful system.

Consistent
Often when performing reminder calls, receptionists can come across as tired and bored. Automated reminders send pre-recorded voice messages that are consistently pleasant and professional. The automated service sounds as good on the first call as it does on the last call.

Customizable
Every reminder can be customized to the specific patient with his or her name and the date and time of the appointment. Automated messaging systems may also offer other types of customization to meet the needs of each practice, including, for example, adding special instructions to arrive 15 minutes before the appointment and bring proof of insurance.

Content
Automated notification services can be incredibly versatile. While the most popular script is appointment reminders, many practices use automated patient messaging to send out account balance due notifications, lab results, vaccine reminders and more.

Clarity
While calls from humans may suffer from background noise and interruptions, automated notifications systems use pre-recorded voice messages. These messages may be recorded in a recording studio using professional voice talent. The message quality of a recorded message is often higher than a call from an operator or staff member. Recipients can replay the message as often as they want, so it's highly likely that the message will be received and understood as intended.

Channels
Similarly, automated reminder messages don't have to be restricted to the telephone calls alone. They can accommodate patient communication preferences by sending email notifications.

Confirmation
One of the most important C's, automated appointment reminders are interactive. They make it easy for patients to confirm or cancel the upcoming appointment.

Conclusive
After the day's calls and emails go out to patients, an automated notification system generates a detailed report. A call report may show how many people picked up, how many messages were left on answering machines, and more. Practices will know which patients confirmed or cancelled appointments.

For additional information on automated reminder messages, please visit Webley.

Automating your appointment reminders is as easy as 1-2-3

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 by Webley MD

The typical medical practice is extremely inefficient when it comes to reminding patients of upcoming appointments. Using the front office staff to make reminder calls is expensive and not the most effective way to make reminder calls. Calls are limited to office hours and many times the staff member reaches an answering machine. There will be days when the reminder calls are overlooked or the staff simply doesn't have time to make the calls.

Using an automated appointment reminders system is a powerful way to improve the performance and efficiency of appointment reminders. While a list of appointment reminder calls would take your receptionist hours to complete, telephone dialer software calls the list in minutes.

It's difficult for a practice to understand the impact of automated reminders without signing up for an appointment reminders service. It's also difficult for practices to judge which automated appointment reminder services are easy to learn and use.

We'll use Webley MD's automated appointment reminders service as an example of how easy an automated appointment reminder system can be to use.

Step 1: Configuration

Some phone dialer vendors require you to install software on your office computers and possibly buy equipment. Webley MD Reminders is a software on demand service and it's accessible by any computer that is connected to the Internet. There is no software installation step. However, the service is customizable to the practice's needs, so step 1 involves determining the needs of the practice and configuring the service to meet those needs. Some options include capturing appointment confirmations, sending email and voice reminders, and offering reminders in other languages. The only technical know-how needed is the know-how every practice already possesses.

Step 2: Send Appointment Information

Practices don't have to adjust a wide range of settings in order for appointment reminders to go out. All that's needed is the patient appointment information. Once the appointment information is received, the service automatically generates personalized appointment reminders.

Step 3: Make calls

It will take just a few minutes for the automated appointment reminder service to make all the appointment reminder calls and send out email reminders. The system is able to track the outcome of each attempt to reach a patient and it records the outcome. Practices can easily monitor the results of each day's campaigns by viewing detailed reports.

Steps 2 and 3 are repeated every day. It's as easy as that.