How do patient no-shows affect the healthcare industry?
Why does this happen?
How can healthcare systems mitigate this?
So what?
Here’s a good start
The Invisible Cost When Your Patients Get Lost
Patient no-shows cost the healthcare industry billions annually, but improving transportation, navigation, and digital tools can significantly enhance the patient experience and reduce missed appointments.
Table of Contents
By: Cooper Rosner
How do patient no-shows affect the healthcare industry?
When looking at the shortcomings of the healthcare industry and areas in which it could improve, there is no doubt that patient no-shows need to be a higher priority. With patients who miss their appointments, the American health system suffers a loss of approximately $150 billion annually, and physicians about $200 per visit (2). However, this is not a unilateral issue. Studies have shown that rescheduling a visit is rare when patients fail to attend appointments. Patients’ health suffers when they don’t arrive for the care they need, and continuous health issues are the result.
Why does this happen?
According to the American Hospital Association, 3.6 million Americans(1) forego medical care yearly due to transportation issues. It becomes evident that many of the no-shows that account for $150 billion in lost revenue for the healthcare industry are most likely transportation-related issues, including traffic delays, poor wayfinding information, and shortcomings in state-by-state infrastructure. These challenges highlight the need to streamline the process for a patient. Navigation from their front door to the door of their doctor’s office should be the goal.
How can healthcare systems mitigate this?
Healthcare facilities cannot fix the infrastructure of buildings at a modest cost or rewire patients’ brains to be more prudent in making it to their appointments on time. However, they can improve the patient experience to reduce patient no-shows and limit the number of transportation-related healthcare avoidances. This has proven difficult to improve with the realization of hospital design problems leading to visitor struggles to navigate the maze of the modern medical campus. What can we conclude from this?
- Healthcare facilities need to streamline the entire patient experience by finding
user-friendly platforms that keep patients informed about their appointments. - Changes to healthcare campuses, such as construction or other things, would make it easier for patients to locate the parking area closest to their appointments.
- Prepare patients before they arrive on campus with the best way to reach their specific point of interest.
So what?
More and more hospitals utilize apps such as Epic’s MyChart to track patients’ medical records and remind them of upcoming appointments. The patient experience seems more likely to become more condensed and user-friendly. We see hospitals moving from the physical to the digital world for wayfinding, with interactive wayfinding apps to navigate from home to parking, parking to entry, and entry to their appointment on the 5th floor. Hospitals continue to find it difficult to update their resources manually, thus the vexing and lingering problem of patient no-shows. We must continue to refine the experience, making it as convenient as possible for patients to go to places they typically want to avoid in the first place. Any platform that can combine and streamline the entire process would be mutually beneficial for healthcare facilities and the well-being of their patients.
Here's a good start.
Cartogram provides a comprehensive solution, targeting every potential issue of indoor wayfinding. Our services are designed to optimize navigation experiences within complex indoor spaces, such as hospitals, campuses, airports, and commercial facilities. With a commitment to delivering user-friendly and efficient solutions, Cartogram empowers businesses to improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
You and your team can tackle four key steps in-house to improve your patient experience.
- Focus on the entire patient experience
- Home -> Parking
- Parking -> Entrance
- Entrance -> Check-In
- Check-In -> Appointment | Room
- Everything in reverse
- Make your campus and building maps as condensed and convenient as possible
- Consider incorporating MyChart or other appointment and scheduling capabilities with the logistical aspect of an appointment
- Make your campus and building maps accessible online and user-friendly.
- Keep your data updated.
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