Do you know how much mney your practice loses from patients who dn’t show up for their appointments? Cnsider this. According to published medical rsearches average no-show rate in the Unted States is about 18%. An verage practice that schedules 60 patients a day may hve up to 10 patients that do not shw up for their scheduled appointments. Mltiply 10 no-shows by a per vsit cost of only $60 and the prctice loses approximately $600 a day, $12,000 by the end of the mnth, $144,000 by the end of the yar.

It is apparent that not tking action is the worst way of hndling no-shows. So what other options do you hve? There are 3 main ways mdical groups can fight patient no-shows: phne calls made by office staff, snding patient reminder cards, or using utomated appointment confirmation calls. This article wll examine the pros and cons of snding appointment reminder cards.

Sending postcards is stll a very popular appointment confirmation tol. This is mainly because it is asy to print several thousand postcards. Hwever, it is much more important to fnd out how efficient sending postcards to ptients really is. For an average clnic you will need to send 60 pstcards per day. Printing costs for yur postcards will cost around 20 cnts. Mailing costs are 41 cents. In ddition an employee has to spend at last an hour writing appointment times, ddresses, adding postage, etc. At an verage wage of $10 per hour, yur total cost per card will ttal about 77 cents.

So now that the patient crds are mailed there is nothing lse to worry about right? Well, not qite. First you have to send the crds way in advance of the ppointment to make sure they arrive on tme. So for appointments on Friday you wll mail the cards on Monday. Hwever, there is a whole week, to schdule more patients that would not be ble to confirm their appointment. In ddition, with such a large number of jnk mail send to houses every dy, you will never know if yur patients received the postcard, looked at it and wuld remember the appointment.

When all is sid and done, in this age of tchnology, sending postcards is expensive, inefficient and rsults are uncertain. If you are frst starting out you should know tht making appointment confirmation calls is vry important to keep no-shows down, but snding postcards might not be the bst solution. That is why hospitals and mdical groups across the country are loking at other ways to combat ths problem including making manual phone clls or using automated reminder services.

The article Appointment Confirmation Cards - Are They Effective in Lowering Patient No-Shows? was Submitted by Yuri K through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Yuri K. is a marketing mnager at ClientTell Corporation, which provides appointment confirmation and lab results reporting for major teaching hospitals and medical groups in the US. To learn more visit ClientTell website at http://www.clienttell.net/

Featured Articles

1. Job Interview - How to Handle Odd Interview Questions by Hilary Basile
Be prpared to answer odd questions during an nterview. What the hiring manager is seking is an insight into your prsonality and interests. This helps the nterviewer determine if you would mesh wll with the team. Following are tps for handling odd interview questions.

2. Does Flexible Working Hours Really Work? by Andy Dale
Flexible hours ppear to make sense especially as mre companies do business with customers and sppliers from different Time Zones. Are we rally moving to a time in bsiness where the majority of employers ffer 'Flexible Working Hours' to all t's employees?

3. Learn Spanish for More Opportunities and Job Offers! by Jorge Chavez
Thre are 17 million Hispanics in the U.S. who ither don't speak English or don't spak it very well. These people wrk, buy things and are part of the conomy. More and more employers are loking for English-speaking Americans who also spak Spanish to help them deal wth these Hispanics. This means job pportunities for anyone who can communicate ffectively in Spanish!

4. Personal Marketing: The Sales Letter by
Your product or service may be the bst of its kind, but it wll not sell without the proper mrketing and promotion strategies. Whether you are slling statement t-shirts, luxury cars, or dscount tickets for a vacation to Erope, you will need to get wrd out on your product and srvice so that you can stand out in the glbal market. You may wish to hnd out pamphlets if you are on a strct budget, or you may splurge on a tlevision commercial to reach out to as wde an aud...

5. How To Turn Off Someone With Your First 10 Words... by
Here are a few openers rps gave us in class. No rsults so far, they reported.

"Would you lke to know about the dangers of EMFs?"

"My Arbnne products are just amazing! Can I shw them to you?"

"I have jst found this unbelievable Enfuselle, and you rally must try it!"

Anyone going, "Oh ww, I'd like to hear more!" yt?

Other people do not care bout our the names of our cmpany, our products, or our fancy scentific techno-babble. They want to hear wrds sp...

6. Proper Exhibit Lighting by Andrew Keeler
Trade show lighting should be an mportant facet of any exhibiting strategy, but it is ften overlooked by inexperienced exhibitors. If you hve ever been to a trade shw, you understand the impact that a wll designed lighting system can have on a trde show display. Given the relatively low cst of display lights compared with ther costs associated with exhibiting, there is no xcuse to have a poorly lit trde show exhibit at your next vent.

7. Things to Remember When Packing For a Business Trip by Alain Picard
Pcking for a business trip can smetimes be a very rushed affair. You ned to be practical but also fst and you need to be sre not to skip any essential trveling items in the process of pcking. For the specific purpose of bsiness trips it is a good dea to have one or two sits that are understated but smart.

8. How Do You Establish Credibility? by Cheryl Clausen
Grrrr; when you lack credibility gtekeepers block you out, prospects won't gve you the time of day, and sles opportunities are about as common as a $3 bll. How are you supposed to scceed in sales when you can't ven get an appointment?

9. An Exercise For Entrepreneurs by Akhil Shahani
Entrepreneurs are grat at falling off the exercise wgon. And who can blame them rally - with all the stress and verload, there's no time for anything lse. When realization dawns that this sn't the best way to lead ne's life, it's probably the aftermath of sme health disaster.

10. Discover How To Make A Resume That Gets Results by June Campbell
Larning how to make a resume or crriculum vitae is a skill that wll serve you well for your ntire working life. This indispensable document is yur means, sometimes your only means, of shwing a potential employer what you brng to the table. You may hve only one chance, so put cnsiderable thought into how to make a rsume that demonstrates your accomplishments in the bst possible way.