When a patient doesn’t show up for an appointment, it’s bad for everyone. The patient doesn’t get the help they needed, nor do other patients who could have used that time slot, and the provider’s time is not efficiently used. Sometimes, missed appointments are unavoidable. But many times, patients get busy and forget about their appointments or confuse the dates. In this post, we’ll talk about how you can use email reminders to prevent your patients from missing their visit.
How Email Appointment Reminders Help Patient Engagement
Emails are one part of an effective patient engagement system. Text messages are read more quickly and yield a higher response rate, which means better communication should a patient have questions. But text messages are short and cannot convey the voice of your practice or any special instructions that the patient may need to prepare for their appointment. For this reason, both are vital tools that work well together to keep your patients engaged with their appointments.
The Benefits of Using Email Appointment Reminder Services
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits your engagement, patient relationships, and business will see when you begin using an email appointment reminder service.
Build Better Relationship with Patients
Communication is important to a good relationship. This is true whether you are talking about friendships or professional relationships. When you send a reminder email, not only do you allow the personality of your practice to shine through, but you have the opportunity to provide patients with useful information that will make their visit easier and answer questions they may have. Beyond information about the appointment, communication lets your patients know that you care about their business and their health outcome.
Fewer No-Shows
Patients who don’t show up, and don’t tell you ahead of time that they aren’t showing up, are disruptive to your practice. When these no shows occur because the patient in question forgot the appointment or just didn’t think to cancel, an email appointment reminder can nip that disruption in the bud and spur patients into taking the appropriate action to manage their visit.
Saves Time & Resources
Good communication will build relationships with patients, but it will also save you time and resources. When you tell patients ahead of time what they can expect and what they should do before their visit or bring with them when they come, you are cutting down on the friction that can make a visit to the doctor take longer than it needs to.
Easy to Customize and Manage with Relatient
It wouldn’t save much time if you had to manually personalize each email to a specific patient’s needs. Thankfully, Relatient makes it easy for you to customize your emails to patients so you can rely on easy to use templates while still getting your patients information that is specific to the type of visit they will be coming in for.
Easy to Track the Cancellations
Emails should be sent close enough to the appointment that patients don’t forget about it again, but far enough out that you’ll be able to respond appropriately should the email prompt one of the patients to cancel their visit. A good email appointment reminder service will make it easy to track these cancellations and speed up your workflow.
The Legal Rules of Sending Patient Email Appointment Reminders
It’s important not to get carried away when customizing email appointment reminders for your patients. There’s a lot you can do to personalize the message to the type of visit the patient will be having, but you must be very careful not to do so in violation of HIPAA regulations. You cannot guarantee that the intended recipient will be the only one who reads the email. This means that you must speak in broad terms, without disclosing the health status of any patient, the results of any tests, or the exact nature of the visit.
13 Engaging Appointment Reminder Email Template Samples
You want to have an email template that represents the voice of your company. One that is professional and articulates your message well. But you needn’t be a world-class writer to craft the perfect email. By using one of these templates, you can leave the writing to us and focus your efforts on the health outcomes of your patients.
Detailed
Dear [PATIENT NAME], This email is to remind you that you have an appointment with [PROVIDER NAME] on [DATE] at [TIME] Please keep the following in mind when preparing for your appointment:
- New patients should arrive at least 15 minutes early to fill out the required paperwork.
- Please remember to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT].
- In order to ensure that all patients are seen promptly, your appointment may be rescheduled if you are more than 15 minutes late.
If you are unable to make your appointment, please call our office at [PHONE NUMBER] as soon as possible. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you one [DATE] at [TIME] Sincerely, [PRACTICE NAME]
Formal
Dear [PATIENT NAME], We are writing to remind you that you have an appointment with [PROVIDER NAME] on [DATE] at [TIME]. Please remember to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT] and arrive 15 minutes early. If you are unable to make your appointment, please call our office at [PHONE NUMBER] as soon as possible. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you on [DATE] at [TIME]. Sincerely,[PRACTICE NAME]
Short Formal
Dear [PATIENT NAME], This email is to remind you that you have an appointment with [PROVIDER NAME] on [DATE] at [TIME]. Please try to arrive 15 minutes early. If you won’t be able to make your appointment, please call our office at [PHONE NUMBER] as soon as possible. We look forward to seeing you on [DATE] at [TIME]Sincerely, [PRACTICE NAME]
Casual
Hey [FIRST NAME], This is a friendly reminder of your appointment on [DATE] at [TIME] with [PROVIDER NAME]. We have a few other things we’d like to remind you of as well: Please remember to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT] and arrive 15 minutes early. If you’re over 15 minutes late, your appointment may be rescheduled. If you are unable to make your appointment, please call our office at [PHONE NUMBER] as soon as possible. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you on [DATE] at [TIME] Sincerely, [PRACTICE NAME]
Short Casual
Hi [FIRST NAME], We’re just shooting you a quick email to remind you of your appointment with us. We look forward to seeing you on [DATE] at [TIME]. If you can’t make the appointment, please contact us at [PHONE NUMBER] to let us know as soon as possible. When you come, don’t forget to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT] and show up 15 minutes early, so we can see you as promptly as possible. Thanks! [PRACTICE NAME]
Fun
Hey [FIRST NAME], Everyone at [PRACTICE NAME] is excited to see you at your appointment on [DATE] at [TIME]! If you can’t make it though, don’t feel bad! Just be sure to call us at [PHONE NUMBER] and tell us, so we’ll know not to expect you. Be sure to arrive 15 minutes early and bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT]. We don’t want to keep one of our favorite patients waiting! See you then! [PRACTICE NAME]
Short Fun
Hey [FIRST NAME], We’re excited for your appointment on [DATE] at [TIME]. Everyone here wants to make your visit go as smoothly as possible. Because you’re a great customer, we know you’ll remember to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT] and show up 15 minutes early! See you soon! [PRACTICE NAME]
Caring
Hello [PATIENT NAME], We wanted to remind you of your appointment on [DATE] at [TIME] with [PROVIDER]. Your health is important to us, so we’d like to remind you of a few things to make your visit go smoothly.
- Remember to show up 15 minutes early.
- Remember to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT].
- If you are more than 15 minutes late, we may have to reschedule to avoid getting backed up.
We hope you can make your appointment, so we can make sure you are healthy, but if you can’t make it please contact us at [PHONE NUMBER] and let us know as soon as you can. Thanks, [PRACTICE NAME]
Short Caring
Hello [PATIENT NAME], We wanted to remind you of your appointment on [DATE] at [TIME] with [PROVIDER]. Your health is important to us, so please contact us at [PHONE NUMBER] with any questions or concerns you might have about your visit. We also request that you contact us as soon as possible if you’ll be unable to make your appointment. Otherwise, remember to show up 15 minutes early and bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT]. Thanks, [PRACTICE NAME]
Pediatric
Hello [PARENT NAME], This email is to remind you that your child, [CHILD NAME], has an appointment with [PROVIDER NAME] on [DATE] at [TIME]. We’d also like to remind you to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT]. If possible, we’d like you to show up 15 minutes early to keep things running smoothly. If you can’t make your child’s appointment please contact us at [PHONE NUMBER] as soon as possible to cancel. Sincerely, [PRACTICE NAME]
Pediatric Fun
Hi [PARENT NAME]! We are all excited to see [CHILD NAME] again! This is a friendly reminder that your child’s appointment is set for [DATE] at [TIME] with [PROVIDER NAME]. We don’t want to take [CHILD NAME] away from having fun for too long, so be sure to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT] and arrive 15 minutes early. See you then! [PRACTICE NAME]
Dental
Hello [PATIENT NAME], We are writing to remind you that you have an appointment with [PROVIDER NAME] on [DATE] at [TIME]. Because we care about your smile, we want your appointment to go smoothly. To help us with that, be sure to bring [IMPORTANT DOCUMENT] and arrive 15 minutes early. If you can’t make your appointment for some reason, please call us at [CONTACT NUMBER] and let us know. Sincerely, [PRACTICE NAME]
Dental Fun
Hi [FIRST NAME], Your smile brightens up a room! So we can’t wait to see it when you come for your appointment on [DATE] at [TIME] with [PROVIDER NAME]. Be sure to arrive 15 minutes early, so we can get those teeth taken care of as soon as possible. We understand that sometimes things come up and people can’t make appointments. If you can’t make yours, there’s no need to frown! But it is important that you contact us at [PHONE NUMBER] to tell us as soon as you can.Sincerely, [PRACTICE NAME]
Conclusion
Missed appointments are inconvenient and unfortunate. But they don’t have to be a common occurrence. Email appointment reminders can help reduce those missed appointments and improve your business in other ways. Relatient offers medical professionals a powerful appointment reminder service that is easy to use and effective.
