Patient ‘no-shows’ costly to 72nd MDG Published Jan. 8, 2014 72nd Medical Group TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The 72nd Medical Group is committed to the highest quality patient care. Med Group officials track key indicators regarding customer satisfaction and listen to patients every day. One aspect they continually look at is "Access to Care." The 72nd MDG staff wants to be able to provide service when the patients need it. To that end, they have implemented several processes that aid in meeting patients' needs such as changing the phone tree, appointment clerk job redesign and nurse triage, not to mention the overarching Patient-Centered Medical Home concept throughout the clinical areas. On a monthly basis the 72nd MDG staff reviews their "Access to Care" and modifies their appointment mix to best meet seasonal demands, such as adding more acute appointments during influenza season. They realize it takes a team effort to successfully meet the needs of patient population. This is where they need your help. It's something only you have control over, and that is the impact of what they call "no-shows." These are appointments that go unused because patients do not cancel appointments they no longer need and the Med Group does not have the chance to allow another patient to have the appointment. As an example, from November 2012 until January 2013, patients enrolled in the 72nd Medical Group "no-showed" a total of 1,942 times, or an average of 647 appointments per month. One of those appointments could have been one the 72nd MDG may have been able to book for you, but instead they offered you a referral to an urgent care center off base. Or maybe your Preventive Health Assessment was delayed because someone failed to cancel their appointment that they couldn't use. Because of this, "no shows" are also tied to readiness. Delays in care and care sent to downtown providers impacts the Med Group's ability to clear someone for deployment, or profile them appropriately. In addition, there is a huge cost tied to "no-shows" in dollars. These "no-shows," when tied to the TRICARE Maximum Allowable Charge for a standard office visit alone totaled $157,613. No-shows impact those who can't get an appointment at the 72nd Medical Group when needed. This results in a network referral to be seen off base, which includes authorization review, care coordination, result retrieval, fragmentation of medical care and patient inconvenience. Because of this additional workload, cost of these "no shows" adds up to more than $235,000 in this example. The 72nd Medical Group will accept any cancellation up until the hour before an appointment. There may be an acutely sick patient who can be put into that slot. So the 72nd MDG staff asks patients to please cancel appointments if they can't keep them. Make that appointment available for someone who can truly use it, and remember, someday that someone may be you. Call the appointment line at 734-2778 to cancel appointments. The staff prefers cancellations 24 hours in advance so they have more time to reschedule that slot, but will accept any cancellation up until one hour prior to the scheduled appointment time. In this time of fiscal challenges, the 72nd MDG is asking for your help to improve the "no-show" rates and their ability to see all enrolled patients. Improving services to better accommodate your medical needs is a team effort and they need your help.