Improve Outcomes with the Missed Visit Prediction Indicator

If you could see the future, what information would be most useful in helping you optimize efficiency and revenue at your outpatient rehab therapy clinic?

Certainly, the ability to foresee significant changes in the healthcare market, or even predict major disruptors like the recent pandemic, could help in long-term planning. But what predictive knowledge, if you had it today, could pay immediate dividends in improving your bottom line as well as patient outcomes?

For a lot of physical, occupational and speech therapists, the answer to this would be obvious. They would want the ability to anticipate patient no-shows and last-minute cancellations.

The fact is, an average of 27% of all healthcare appointments are missed in the U.S.¹ And, each time a patient cancels an appointment or simply doesn’t show up, it costs practitioners between $165 and $200.²

For patients, the downside of no-shows and cancellations are also considerable.

Following just a single missed appointment, a patient is two times more likely to stop treatments altogether.³ This not only means they fail to achieve their functional or performance goals; it could lead to worsening conditions that, down the road, may require more invasive and expensive treatments.

Plus, unused rehab therapy timeslots represent missed opportunities for others who need access to rehab therapy treatments.

Needless to say, missed appointments simply do no one any favors. Yet, they play a disproportionate role in the daily lives of outpatient rehab therapists.

But, they no longer have to be.

We at Net Health® recently unveiled our Missed Visit Prediction Indicator, a predictive analytics tool designed to alert hospital outpatient rehab therapists to the potential for patients to miss upcoming appointments.

How Does the Net Health Missed Visit Prediction Indicator Work?

The Missed Visit Prediction indicator is a predictive analytics tool designed by Net Health to reduce the costs associated with missed hospital outpatient rehab therapy visits.

A powerful feature within the Net Health Therapy for Hospitals – Outpatient EHR solution, the tool analyzes several relevant patient-specific factors (i.e., demographics, timing, history, etc.) to objectively determine the likelihood each one will make or miss their next appointments.

Once determinations are made, the Missed Visit Prediction Indicator flags patients with medium-to-high potential for missing their appointments. These predictive insights enable clinics to take necessary steps toward ensuring compliance while preventing future no-shows and cancellations.

Such steps may include:

• Offering alternative days and times for the appointment
• Adjusting appointment reminder intensity (i.e., more reminder calls, texts and/or emails)
• Booking appointments more tightly, or overbooking
• Maintain a waitlist of patients for short-notice appointments
• Expand patient discusses on the clinical consequences and impact of missing appointments
• Identify and problem-solve around obstacles that may lead to missed appointments
• Tighten policies around no-shows and cancellations
• Implement patient engagement solutions

Benefits of Using Missed Visit Predictive Analytics

From a business perspective, the most immediate benefit of utilizing our Missed Visit Prediction Indicator will be increased revenue. After all, the annual cost of no-shows to the U.S. healthcare market is estimated to be around $150 billion per year.⁴

Besides chipping away your cut of this revenue potential, the tool will also help clinics maximize the productivity of their rehab therapy teams by increasing patient volume. By knowing who’s at risk of missing their next appointments, clinics can take proactive steps to ensure schedules remain full.

From a patient outcomes perspective, the use of the Missed Visit Prediction Indicator can serve as a reminder of the power of engagement, ensuring all patients remain educated and motivated about completing their plans of care.

It can also serve as a starting point for discussions about why it may be difficult for some patients to make their next appointments. Whether it’s an issue with travel, work, childcare or financial limitations, such discussions can enable clinicians to accommodate or help patients overcome these barriers.

To learn more about the Net Health Missed Visit Prediction Indicator and how it can achieve a five-fold ROI for your hospital outpatient rehab therapy team, contact us today to schedule a demo!

REFERENCES:
¹ National Library of Medicine, “Data Analytics and Modeling for Appointment No-Show in Community Health Centers,” Nov. 17, 2018
^{2 3 4} Healthcare Innovation, “Missed Appointments Cost the U.S. Healthcare System $150B Each Year,” April 26, 2017