In “Best Ways to Deal with No-Shows,” Medscape Today, 07/14/09, Elizabeth Woodcock provides tactics on how to reduce no-shows and improve your practice’s bottom line:

•    Let the patient suggest the appointment time
•    Call to confirm upcoming appointments
•    Establish a priority list of patients who will come in if a last-minute opening occurs
•    Track offenders
•    Overbook
•    Charge patients who don’t call to cancel
•    Look within for the cause (Is your practice doing something to cause more no-shows?)

After flying all day from Europe, I once spent an unwanted night in snowy Denver due to overbooking. (A description of the overnight “Essentials Kit” provided by the airlines is probably fodder for another post.) That has soured me to the notion of overbooking forever. (Of course I don’t manage an airline or a medical practice either.) The rest of the tactics above, however, seem to make good sense.

The idea that no-shows can be reduced by having patients suggest their own appointment times is a new one to me, but it follows the logic that whenever someone participates in the decision making process, they have greater buy-in.

Woodcock recommends requesting that the patient call back to confirm an appointment. Reminder software can automate sending a confirmation by creating an appointment reminder call and then allowing the patient to press a number on the phone to confirm or cancel the appointment. Further, the patient can choose to leave a message or to have the call transferred and speak to someone live during business hours.

If you have additional suggestions on reducing no-shows, please share them with us by clicking here.

Elandan Gardens is located just off Highway 16 near Port Orchard, Washington.  The six-acre site that is now Elandan Gardens was once only a landfill created on the shores of the Puget Sound in the 1930’s.  In 1993, the Robinson family brought in 30,000 cubic yards of sandy fill dirt and 800 tons of boulders to begin the creation of these impressive gardens.

Owner Dan Robinson has been called, “the Picasso of Bonsai” as well as, “the Father of The American School of Bonsai”. Today Elandan Gardens provides a spectacular display of flora as well as silvery dead wood, lichen-covered stone, waterfalls, and a pond.  This setting provides the perfect backdrop for Dan’s world-renowned bonsai collection.  

During my visits, Elandan Gardens has never failed to exceed expectations:

• Each bonsai tree is a living object lesson that overcoming adverse conditions can result in stunning beauty.
• Dan is not afraid to challenge traditions in the pursuit of artistic creation.  He even introduced the use of power tools to the art of Bonsai.
• Although he clearly has a vision and plenty to do, Dan is always willing to take a moment to speak with you personally and answer your questions.

Dan has a passion for nature and the art of bonsai.  That passion had its genesis in Korea almost five decades ago when he began collecting Black Pine seeds. Elandan Gardens shows us what can result when one shares one’s passion with the world.

A 32GB flash drive arrived last week in the mail.  The cost of the flash drive was only $20.  With this in mind (and with apologies to Charles Dickens) allow me to present, “Ghosts of Memory Past, Present and Future.”

Memory Past.  Around 1972, just one megabyte of RAM for the IBM 360 mainframe retailed for $100,000.  The hardware was about the size of a small refrigerator.

Memory Present.  It should not come as a surprise to anyone that today a one terabyte (TB) hard drive has a street price of less than $100.

Memory Future.  Holographic Data Storage (HDS) holds the possibility of storing many terabytes of data in a sugar-cube-sized crystal.  This would be sufficient to store video of a person’s entire life.  Whether one would actually want that is, of course, another matter.

If you would like to share memories of technology past or thoughts on how innovations can be used in the future, please begin by clicking here.