According to a 2017 study, missed appointments cost the U.S. healthcare system $150 billion per year. Individual physicians, meanwhile, lose $200 for every unused time slot.

Why Patients Miss Doctor Appointments

Some of the most common reasons patients miss their appointments are:

Work obligations

Despite workplaces taking work-life balance more seriously, plenty of people are choosing to miss their doctor’s appointments instead of miss work.

Bad previous experience

Misdiagnosis, rude staff, and miscommunications during previous doctor’s visits can result in a person not wanting to go back to a medical facility.

Patients forget about the appointment

It can be easy to forget about medical appointments, especially if patients schedule them months in advance and do not receive a reminder.

Patients dread long waits

The average wait times in hospitals, particularly the emergency department, is down to 37.5 minutes in 2017 from 58 minutes in 2007, but millions still wait more than two hours.

All of these problems can be addressed if your medical practice has a virtual receptionist.

What is a Virtual Receptionist?

A virtual receptionist is responsible for handling calls, taking messages, and managing appointments for a medical practice. All these tasks are done remotely. Using scheduling software, a virtual receptionist can handle your patients and ensure that they’re properly scheduled.

The Benefits of a Virtual Receptionist for a Medical Practice

1. Reduce Admin Workload

Running a medical practice involves plenty of repetitive tasks and paperwork that take up the time of your staff. Instead of simply answering calls and booking patients, they have to organize patient files and manually follow up on upcoming appointments.

With a virtual receptionist, your in-house staff can do less menial work and concentrate on more pressing tasks.

2. Provide Higher Levels of Customer Care

Patients with bad experiences leave to find care from another provider. As such, you need to provide the best care not just in terms of your actual medical services, but also in customer care.

This can be difficult to achieve if your staff is inundated with calls and you have an inefficient scheduling system. But hiring a virtual receptionist addresses these problems.

A virtual receptionist ensures patient satisfaction from booking to actual appointments by providing a smooth scheduling process. Then, they show care to patients by sending automated reminders about their appointments days prior.

With an easy appointment setting and follow-up, patients already feel cared for, thus improving their patient experience.

3. Reduce Missed Appointments

As mentioned, medical facilities lose a lot of money due to missed patient appointments. Apart from the financial loss, though, missed appointments can also cause scheduling conflicts, especially if you accommodate walk-in patients.

With a virtual receptionist, you can reduce cases of missed appointments through automated reminders. If patients cancel ahead of time because of these reminders, you can open up the slot and put another patient through.

This way, you have a structured scheduling system that’s not disrupted by unexpected no-shows or unexpected walk-ins.

Save Money & Time with Fewer Missed Appointments

These advantages and more show just how valuable virtual receptionists can be, especially to medical practices. They benefit both your staff and your patients, improving your services and increasing patient satisfaction.

The Benefits of Virtual Receptionists for Medical Facilities