Best practices in health care. How can facilities prevent missed appointments?

During the summer, patients are more likely to change plans, go away, postpone obligations. Under such circumstances, it's easy to forget about a scheduled doctor's appointment. The problem arises when the patient does not inform the facility of his absence. Uncancelled appointments are a real hardship for the health care system - neither the patient who cancels the appointment, nor another patient who could have benefited at that time, benefits from the appointment.

The scale of the phenomenon of non-cancellation of appointments means that systemic solutions are needed. Medical facilities should not only encourage patients to inform about appointment cancellation, but also provide them with the right tools to do so.

With this in mind, the Patient Ombudsman has prepared a "Guide to Appointment Cancellation Tools," which compiles proven solutions and recommendations to make it easier for health care facilities to manage their appointment calendars and contact patients. The document was created as part of the #cancel #notblock social campaign.

What can medical facilities do?

To reduce the number of missed appointments, medical facilities should:

• provide patients with a variety of convenient contact channels - phone, SMS, online form, mobile app or dedicated email box,
• Inform patients about cancellation options and policies - at registration, in reminder messages and on the facility's website,
• process cancellation requests in real time so that the released appointments can be passed on to the next patients,
• Monitor and eliminate communication barriers that may make it difficult for patients to cancel their appointments.

A facility that supports patients in using the health care system responsibly contributes to improving its efficiency and shortening queues.

Guide and Charters of Good Practices

Developed by the Patient Ombudsman, the guide also includes Good Practice Charters intended:

• for healthcare providers - including tips on how to improve the efficiency of the cancellation process,
• for patients - helping them remember their upcoming appointment and reminding them of their obligation to inform the facility of their cancellation.

The materials are available on the Patient Ombudsman's website under the "Best Practices" tab. Medical facilities are encouraged to download them and implement them in their daily operations.

Responsibility on both sides

Both patients and providers have a stake in how the health care system works. Canceling an appointment is a simple but important gesture that increases the availability of services to others in need.

Source: MPC