Insights

UC Health Access Team Successfully Decreased No-Show Appointments by 42%

Jul. 11, 2019

Members of UC Health’s access team were selected to share their successful outcomes for reducing no-show appointments.


UC Health Access Team: Reducing No-Show Appointments

Vizient, a leading healthcare performance improvement company, selected UC Health’s access team to present at its spring 2019 Academic Clinical Leaders Forum in Chicago in June to share successful outcomes and best practices to decrease the number of times patients miss appointments following hospital discharge. 

These missed appointments are referred to as “no-shows.”

UC Health’s presenters included:

  • Jennifer Forrester, MD, associate professor, Department of Internal Medicine and associate chief medical officer 

  • Michael Townsend, access director

  • Kalie Roberts, program manager

During the presentation, the UC Health access team leaders shared information about their new “discharge concierge scheduling/bedside scheduling” service, which resulted in decreasing the number of times patients missed appointments at the UC Health Infectious Disease Center following hospital discharge by 42%.

UC Health’s success in this endeavor resulted from examining and evaluating no-show rates and details between 2017 and 2019 in an attempt to discover why 56% of patients scheduled for their hospital follow-up appointments in the Infectious Disease Center during this time weren’t showing up for their appointments. The team worked together to uncover a myriad of reasons that contributed to the “no-show” appointments, including:

  • Financial reasons.

  • Transportation issues.

  • Lack of reminders.

Once the team understood the primary reasons for the missed appointments, they were able to implement a more rigorous follow-up program for post-hospital discharge appointments (including use of My UC Health/MyChart). As a result, UC Health’s new discharge concierge scheduling/bedside scheduling program was established. The program has greatly reduced the number of no-show appointments at the UC Health Infectious Disease Center and allows patients to play a more active role in their healthcare.

During the program development, patients shared positive feedback. The following is a direct quote from an actual patient: “Thank you for letting me be more involved in my care.”