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ROI Analysis for Implementing a Resource Scheduling Software

Scheduling

With a typical manual appointment book system, your employees invest much time in maintaining the book. Appointment rules are not built in the appointment book. Instead, your appointments may be based on the person speaking with your patient. If you are no longer using the book but instead using an appointment book software system, your appointment scheduling software may not maintain all appointment rules. Both of these types of systems hinders your ability to successfully manage all employees time (appointment scheduler, caregiver, front desk personnel) and provide quality patient care.

Lets take a look at a real world scenario. Patient A phones your office to schedule a follow-up to a wound care visit. Using book scheduling (either manual or software) your appointment scheduler must remember the rules for this type of visit. Unfortunately, Patient A is scheduled for a 15 minute appointment, but in reality the appointment includes time not only with the caregiver but also with a wound care personnel. Patient As appointment lasts 30 minutes. By the time Patient G is seen (assuming alphabetical patients) all appointments are 30-45 minutes behind schedule.

How much does this cost your practice? Lets assume Patient G has time constraints and was assured at time of scheduling he would be out of the office within 45 minutes. Patient G is now 45 minutes past his schedule time, and hasnt even seen the caregiver. Patient G may either leave your office (unseen) or complain loud enough in your waiting room for patients behind him to leave. If Patient Gs visit charge would have been $100, that revenue has just left your door. Let alone if other patients behind him leave as well.

If this is happens in your office, it does not happen only once. So, you must multiply that number by 3, 5, 10, times as often as this scenario happens within your practice.

Result A single patient leaving your office due improper appointment scheduling 3 times a month can cost your practice $3600 ($300 x 12 = $3600) per year. This cost is in addition to the employee labor costs involved to maintain your book schedule.

If you feel these projections are not accurate, you are probably correct. The costs are probably higher. The average charge is probably higher than $100. And, the frequency can be realistically higher than 36 lost appointments per year.

Investing in Resource Scheduling Software

With Resource Scheduling, appointment, caregiver, equipment, modality rules will be set up for your practice. The system should manage the rules, and appointment slots should be provided based on these rules. Ongoing labor costs will be minimized, as your employees are not learning the rules for each appointment type.

Most ASP medical scheduling software costs are less than $1,000 to install. With the above scenario, your organization should experience a return on your investment within 3 months.

Lost Appointment Costs - $300 per month (3 patients @ $100 charge per patient)

Labor Costs Lets assume an average of 1 hour per patient @ $25 per hour (appointment scheduler, caregiver, front desk personnel)

Estimated Lost Appointment Cost Total - $375 per month

With this analysis, you can see how investing in Resource Scheduling will provide a quick return on investment for your practice.

http://www.pdmsoftware.com

posted by fdwvsmr92018 @ 2:04 PM