Radiology

Estimated reading time: 5-6 minutes

What if every imaging patient showed up on time and prepared?

An ideal day is one in which every patient shows up on time and ready to be imaged. After all, your substantial investment in imaging equipment and a well-trained staff can’t be utilized if suddenly there is no patient there to scan.

What if you could help more patients show up on time and well prepared so that imaging exams are a positive experience for all? This article shows you how several healthcare organizations are using integrated digital communications right now to increase engagement and reduce no-shows, during COVID-19 and beyond.

At a glance

Challenge

Patients who don’t show up for their imaging appointments – or who show up late or unprepared – interrupt imaging operations, limit valuable access for others and put their own health outcomes at risk.

Solution

Philips Patient Manager

Results

The integrated digital communications of Philips Patient Manager are helping organizations like Boston Medical Center meet operational and patient care goals.

Reduce no-shows
Improve patient satisfaction
Increase total completed radiology appointments

How serious an issue are patient no-shows?

No-shows account for up to

7%
of patients for some imaging modalities¹

$ 1M
Potential loss in lost revenue $1,000,000²

A patient who’s prepared helps your team get the image right the first time

Patients who are late, ill-prepared or don’t show up at all affect the experience of your staff, your service continuity, and their own health and wellbeing. When technologists can’t get the image right the first time, it’s often because the patient hasn’t been properly prepared – or because of missing or inadequate patient information.³ Delays in diagnosis and treatment can have serious, long-term effects on not only the patient’s health, but also the ability of a service already under stress to meet workload demand. New patient engagement tools are showing there’s a better way.

Productive engagement reduces patient no-shows

Cloud-based, integrated digital communications can help patients better prepare for appointments while reducing appointment no-shows. Practical steps that guide a patient at defining moments in the journey are making a real difference in the way imaging departments are able to improve productivity and patient satisfaction.*

The virtual waiting room in action: patients check in contactless via text messages

Philips Patient Manager mobile phone screen showing steps to guide a patient, starting with pre-appointment preparation

Step 1: Pre-appointment preparation

Educate patients on access protocols.

Step 2: Patient arrival

Patients text “here” and will receive a notification informing them to stay outside the building until it’s time to be seen.

Step 3: Clinic notification

The EHR is automatically updated with the patient’s arrival status.

Step 4: Ready to be seen

Staff input a status change into the EHR indicating that the patient is ready to be seen.

Step 5: Guide the patient

Notification is delivered to the patient alerting them that they may enter the clinic.

Staying safe with our ‘virtual waiting room’ during COVID-19 and beyond

A recent issue that has affected the number of no-shows is that patients are understandably reluctant to visit indoor facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. A solution that offers contactless check-in and allows patients to avoid an indoor waiting room is helping some imaging services reassure patients about getting the imaging they need, even when worries about COVID-19 persist. Boston Medical Center, Yale New Haven Health and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center are finding that engaging with patients digitally helps ease patient anxiety and encourages them to keep their radiology appointments.

Philips Patient Manager has been extremely helpful accelerating our requests as we navigate this difficult time. Boston Medical Center has been able to quickly and successfully communicate with our patients on essential COVID-19 updates. Providing timely and updated information has been critical in our efforts to keep both our staff and patients safe during this pandemic.”

Kathleen Masters

Senior Manager of Ambulatory Analytics (former), Boston Medical Center - Boston, MA

How Boston Medical Center is driving patient engagement for better patient management

When you’re thinking about how integrated digital communications could help reduce your no-show rate, you might want to learn from the Boston Medical Center (BMC) initiative to improve patient engagement, patient and staff experience, and overall utilization. BMC deployed Philips Patient Manager across 33 ambulatory departments as part of a health system initiative to improve its operational and patient experience metrics. The results were impressive.

Results

⇣ 19%

19% reduction in no-shows

4.4/5

patient satisfaction score, as measured by patient satisfaction surveys

⇣ 14%

14% reduction in late cancellations

Read the case study (1.07MB)

Engaging patients to show up on time and well prepared is the first step in optimizing the radiology workflow

Clearly the time has come to address the issue of patient no-shows in radiology. Can integrated digital communications help you encourage more of your patients to arrive on time and well prepared for their radiology appointments? The data clearly says yes!

How Philips can support you

Philips Patient Manager

Automates patient outreach through integrated digital communications so that you can focus on caring for patients and meeting your operational goals.

Go deeper

Are you interested in learning more about how these solutions can help you address your challenges?

Brochure

Responding to COVID-19 with an end-to-end digital workflow

Download the brochure (1.69MB)

Podcast

The impact of patient no-shows (19:25)

Listen to the podcast

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At a glance

Challenge

Solution

Philips Patient Manager

Results

The integrated digital communications of Philips Patient Manager are helping organizations like Boston Medical Center meet operational and patient care goals.

Reduce no-shows
Improve patient satisfaction
Increase total completed radiology appointments

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Other radiology workflow challenges in focus

Integrating radiology workflows to accelerate precision diagnosis

Philips helps integrate radiology workflows to accelerate your path to precision diagnosis. Improve and streamline workflows. See how.

*Results presented are for illustrative purposes only and are not predictive of actual results for your business.

1. Rosenbaum JI, et al. Understanding why patients no-show: observations of 2.9 million outpatient imaging visits over 16 years. J Am Coll Radiol. 2018;15(7):944-950. doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2018.03.053

2. Mieloszyk RJ, et al. The financial burden of missed appointments: uncaptured revenue due to outpatient no-shows in radiology. Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology. 2018;47(5): 285-286. doi.org/10.1067/j.cpradiol.2018.06.001

3. Radiology Staff in Focus: A Radiology Services Impact and Satisfaction Survey of Technologists and Imaging Directors. Research Report. 2019. Philips.