The impact of predicting and reducing absenteeism to medical appointments on the management of health centers

Photo: Ben White

One of the major problems that the healthcare system has around the globe currently is patient absenteeism. Being able to predict but also reduce absenteeism to medical appointments is crucial for faster and more efficient healthcare. How exactly does predicting and reducing patient absenteeism impact the management of health centers will be the main topic of this article. So, let's take a closer look.

The problem of absenteeism

No-shows in healthcare are a universal problem in healthcare systems today. Some of the major problems that absenteeism creates are long waiting times, problems with scheduling, fewer patients, and decreased efficiency of the healthcare clinic. Besides patients missing their appointments, there are also a lot of cases of patients not being able to cancel or reschedule their appointments on time. A huge waste of health resources occurs when patient absenteeism increases. In addition to this, the lack of communication obstructs the rescheduling or even inserting another patient in the open schedule. However, low attendance numbers have been associated with poor healthcare efficiency and performance and therefore, this is something that health clinics definitely need to work on.

How to tackle the issue of absenteeism in medical appointments?

Finding new means and solutions to fix the existing problem is one way of handling absenteeism. However, what kind of new technology can help reduce it exactly? Well, we have seen over the course of the last couple of years, a large step was taken by the healthcare industry toward further digitalization. With new tech evolving constantly, it is no wonder many of these issues in healthcare can be addressed by implementing innovative solutions such as natural language processing and machine-learning AI. Our team at Eniax knows and understands the importance of lowering absenteeism in order to improve the overall healthcare journey of patients and the efficiency of health clinics.

Our solution is Patricia, a natural language processing AI that can perform many crucial administrative tasks as well as communicate with patients in an effort to establish constant, rapid communication that is both accurate and timely. We work together with health clinics around the world to deliver innovative solutions that will positively impact their efficiency and actively reduce patient absenteeism during medical appointments.

We achieve this goal by utilizing the full potential of our natural language processing engine Patricia, by first properly implementing this AI and then establishing a multitude of healthcare-related services that aim to proactively help patients engage with their clinics and reach the needed information and services quickly and on time. Services such as follow-up of absent patients can actively help reduce patient absenteeism. Namely, this service aims to reschedule the appointment not attended and educate the patient who does not attend (notify in advance for a next opportunity). The process consists of automatically sending a message to the patient when he does not attend his medical appointment or scheduled event. The message contains a text (previously defined by the medical center) that refers to a notification for your absenteeism and the possibility of being able to reschedule.

In addition to this, reducing waiting times by improving communication with patients, allowing confirmation of hours through digital, and online services, forming preventive campaigns, and other services provided by Patricia all work hand in hand to create a better and faster healthcare service delivery with reduced patient absenteeism.

What is the impact of reduced patient absenteeism on the management of health centers

So, as we can see, there are many problems that occur with patient absenteeism. Since the main goal of each clinic should be efficient and accurate service delivery as well as maximum patient satisfaction, absenteeism is an issue that needs to be tackled constantly. The impact of reduced patient absenteeism can free up many resources and medical personnel in health centers. With the use of digital and innovative new services and AI such as Patricia, health centers can increase their outreach and enable patients to experience a stress-free medical journey. Moreover, health clinics can free up schedules, make changes quickly a reschedule happens, communicate with patients effectively, and overall become a lot more cost-effective.