Dialog Health Texting Campaign Reduces Surgery Center Same-Day Cancellations By 66%

Dialog Health Texting Campaign Reduces Surgery Center Same-Day Cancellations By 66%

East Valley Endoscopy, a Mesa, Arizona based ambulatory surgery center (ASC) specializing in gastroenterology and endoscopy, used an automated text messaging campaign to patients to substantially decrease its number of same-day cancellations.

 

The Problem

East Valley Endoscopy, an AMSURG facility, was averaging about 16 patient cancellations a month. The top reasons for same-day cancellations were non-compliance with NPO ("nothing by mouth") instructions, no-shows, and no prep or poor adherence with prep instructions. Cancellations caused delays in patients receiving colonoscopies, esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGD), and other procedures, potentially elevating health risks. Cancellations also led to gaps in East Valley's surgical schedule that could be filled and lost revenue opportunities. Poor preparation harmed productivity by contributing to downtime in the ASC's procedure rooms, decreased the effectiveness of procedures, and shortened the window for when patients would need to undergo another preventive procedure.

 

The Solution

East Valley implemented Dialog Health and executed an automated text messaging workflow campaign. The campaign included conversational, two-way texts that enabled patients to respond to messages they received with their own texts. This campaign sent a series of four text messages to the ASC's patients prior to their procedures:

-            10-day appointment confirmation

-            5-day appointment reminder

-            3-day compliance reminder

-            2-day appointment and NPO compliance reminder

 

"The text messaging campaign we executed using Dialog Health far exceeded the goal we set to reduce cancellations. Many more of our patients are now receiving the timely GI care they need. We couldn't be happier with the results and look forward to further improving our delivery of care with texting."

-Bill Egan, Administrator

 

The Results

East Valley hoped to reduce its number of same-day cancellations by 10% and conducted a quality assessment performance improvement (QAPI) study to measure the effectiveness of the automated texting campaign. For the period measured through the QAPI study, East Valley achieved a 65.9% decrease in same-day cancelations, far exceeding its goal of 10%.

 

Decreases Across the Board

For the top three factors contributing to the ASC's same-day cancellations, the improvements were as follows: Non-compliance with NPO decreased 63.2% No-shows decreased 56.3% No or poor prep decreased 88.9%

 

The Conclusion

Dialog Health's two-way texting platform helped East Valley Endoscopy drastically reduce its number of same-day cancellations. More patients received their scheduled care, while the center sharply decreased the number of gaps in its schedule and unproductive time associated with patient non-compliance. The ability to automate the campaign streamlined patient outreach, while the two-way capability enabled direct engagement that empowered East Valley to fill openings when patients indicated a need to reschedule their procedure.

66% DECREASE IN SAME-DAY CANCELLATIONS

63% DECREASE IN NPO NON-COMPLIANCE

56% DECREASE IN NO-SHOWS

90% DECREASE IN NO OR POORLY PREPPED PATIENTS


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