Patients not showing up for doctor appointments is a widespread phenomenon in India. This can have dire consequences, especially due to the dearth of medical practitioners to address the health concerns of a growing population.
Our Patient No-Show (PNS) policy has been put in place to ensure timely healthcare for everyone using the “A4 TeleClinics” platform. In the “A4 TeleClinics” context, Patient No-Show means a patient hasn’t turned up on time for an appointment booked through the “A4 TeleClinics” App without canceling, rescheduling, or informing the practice/doctor in advance about the same.
Capturing Patient No-show from doctors/ clinics
When a patient doesn’t show up for a confirmed appointment (without having canceled or rescheduled before appointment time), doctors using A4 TeleClinics can mark the specific appointment as PNS on their desktop Ray or the Pro app.
PNS can be marked only within 5 days following the scheduled appointment.
Verifying PNS from patients
Whenever a doctor reports a patient as PNS by contacting us at Wecare@a4clinics.com, patients are sent an SMS and email to verify this claim and understand the reason behind the missed appointment.
Patients should respond in the next 7 days after receiving the SMS/email, with the reason.
Actions are taken on repeat patient no-show
Every PNS captured on “A4 TeleClinics” is dealt with seriously based on the patient’s past behavior. This is done in order to ensure patients understand the importance of a doctor’s time and not misuse the convenience provided by “A4 TeleClinics”. Our PNS Policy aims at minimizing instances of uninformed missed appointments, thereby making most of a doctor’s valuable time.
1. Repeat PNS actions are taken ONLY for patients who schedule appointments using the ‘Book Appointment’ feature on the “A4 TeleClinics” App.
2. At the third valid instance of PNS in the last 12 months, a patient’s account will be temporarily disabled from booking further online appointments on the “A4 TeleClinics” App for the next 4 months. However, the user can continue to call the clinic via the app to get an appointment.
3. Below are the valid cases of PNS:
a. The patient does not reply to the email/SMS with the reason in the next 7 days from the date of receipt of such email/SMS communication
b. The patient responds to the email/SMS with the below reasons:
i. Forgot the appointment
ii. Chose to visit another doctor/consulted online
iii. Busy with other work
iv. Other reasons (which “A4 TeleClinics” at its discretion decides to be a reason for valid PNS)
4. Below are the invalid cases of PNS:
a. The patient says she/he got marked as PNS in spite of visiting the practice/doctor. This will be marked valid/invalid only after the “A4 TeleClinics” WeCare team validates the authenticity of the claim.
b. The patient says she/he was extremely ill to visit the doctor (This will be a one-time consideration only)
5. If a patient has a history of repeat PNS, the patient’s account can be temporarily disabled from booking further online appointments on the “A4 TeleClinics” App, even on the 2nd or 3rd instance of PNS.
6. All refunds with respect to PNS for a pre-paid appointment shall be at the discretion of the doctor and “A4 TeleClinics” has no role with respect to such refunds.
7. “A4 TeleClinics” reserves the right to make the final decision in the case of a conflict. The maximum total aggregate liability of “A4 TeleClinics” with respect to any claims made herein shall be INR 200.
8. “A4 TeleClinics” reserves the right to modify the above-mentioned terms from time to time.