Decreasing No-shows
Reducing waste by decreasing appointment no-show rates
Senior Product Designer · Oscar Health
Our appointment slots were fully booked, but patients weren’t always showing up.
Around 18% of the time, patients weren’t showing up for their visit. Doctors’ time was being wasted, precious appointment slots were being wasted, and patients weren’t getting the care they needed.
Goal
Decrease
no-shows
As measured by the percentage of visits where the patient doesn’t show up
Data analysis and user research helped us understand which patients were no-showing and why.
My product manager and I worked together to uncover four key insights around patients’ no-show behavior, which led to four mini-projects.
Data + Research
↓
Four insights
↓
Four projects
First, we found that patients who booked closer to the appointment were less likely to no-show.
If more patients were able to book even closer to the time of their visit, we hypothesized, no-shows would decrease. We decided to test out same-day appointment booking.
Second, we saw that new patients were more likely to no-show.
We knew from user interviews that many patients did not initially understand that their appointment, though virtual, was a “real” doctor’s appointment. If we could help them see that a real doctor would be waiting for them at their visit, we hypothesized, we might be able to increase their likelihood of showing up.
Third, patients weren’t seeing their upcoming visits upon logging in.
We were missing a major opportunity to remind patients of their upcoming visit and let them cancel or reschedule if needed. We hypothesized that adding an upcoming visits to the homepage would mitigate this problem.
And fourth, patients who didn’t log in a few days before their visit were twice as likely to no-show.
To reach the folks who weren’t logging in, we hypothesized that enhancing our outbound communications might help. We were already sending email and push notifications, but hadn’t yet experimented with text messages.
A/B Test Results
We implemented four mini-projects that collectively reduced no-shows dramatically.
80%
Relative decrease in no-shows
As measured by the percentage of visits where the patient doesn’t show up
240
Additional patients per month
Based on the reduced rate of wasted appointment slots
Solution
Now, patients are able to book appointments for the same day.
A friendly welcome message kickstarts a personal connection with the doctor.
The homepage instantly shows any upcoming visits.
And text messages provide a quick appointment reminder with no login required.
Our results showed that small, data-driven changes can add up to a big impact.
Together, these updates reduced the number of no-shows significantly. The outcome was a win for patients, medical staff, and Oscar as a business: less time wasted, more time spent giving patients the care they need.
Team
Sarah Mitrano
Senior Product Designer
Jason Li
Product Manager
Enrique Espaillat
Engineering Lead
Sujan Patel
Engineer
Nick Trentacoste
Engineer