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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
W
e weren't sure if we could
afford to hire a full-time
nurse simply to call
patients and remind them about their
upcoming endoscopies. Now we're
pretty sure we can't afford not to.
By hiring a full-time RN to call all of
our endoscopy patients about a week
before their scheduled appointments,
we expect to save about $50,000 this
year. That projection is based on a 4½-
month period during which we reduced no-shows by 51, compared
with the previous 4½ months. Granted, hiring an RN is a fairly expen-
sive intervention — versus, say, texting, using an automated phone sys-
tem or even hiring a medical assistant — but we wanted to have some-
one who was also knowledgeable enough to answer patient questions,
and screen for potential problems or red flags. We think there's value in
having a professional do the calling.
We also looked at which patients were more likely to be
no-shows, and found, for example, that patients who were referred
for screening or surveillance endoscopies, patients who were single
and Medicare patients were more likely to miss appointments.
Ryan Childers, MD
Oregon Health and Science University
Portland, Ore.
childerr@ohsu.edu
R I N G I N G S U C C E S S
Strategic Hire Lowers
Our Endoscopy No-Shows
z PAY PHONE A big reduction in
no-shows more than pays for the
nurse making the reminder calls.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
