The eClinicalWorks no-show report: finding and rebooking no-shows

Where no-shows live in eClinicalWorks

The no-show report starts with how staff mark the visit. In eClinicalWorks, each appointment carries a visit status. One published eClinicalWorks staff training guide describes the steps: open the Resource Schedule, double-click the patient's appointment to open the appointment details window, and set the Visit Status field to N/S (No-Show). The same guide uses CANC for cancelled visits and R/S for rescheduled ones, with a reason field such as patient cancelled or provider cancelled. It also notes that no-show visits appear in red with a count under Encounters on the Patient Hub.

Two cautions. First, status codes are configurable, so your office may use different labels. Check your visit status list before you build a report on it. Second, the report is only as good as the marking. If some staff leave a missed visit in its original status, or mark it cancelled to be kind, your no-show list will be short and your no-show rate will look better than it is. Agree on one rule: if the patient didn't arrive and didn't tell you in advance, it's N/S.

Getting the no-shows into a report

There isn't one menu path that works in every eClinicalWorks office. Configurations differ, and much of eClinicalWorks' step-by-step documentation is in client-only help resources. In practice, offices usually get a no-show list in one of two ways:

• An appointment report filtered by visit status. Run appointments for a date range and filter, or sort, on the no-show status. Ask your administrator which appointment report your office uses and whether it exports to Excel or CSV.
• eBO, if your practice has it. eClinicalWorks markets eBO (eClinicalWorks Business Optimizer) as its reporting suite, with canned and custom reports. A saved report filtered on no-show status can run the same way every day.

The columns that matter

A no-show report that only lists names and dates isn't enough to work from. Ask for these columns, one appointment per row:

1. Appointment date and time of the missed visit.
2. Provider and facility, so you offer the patient their own provider at the right location.
3. Visit type at the category level, such as new patient, follow-up or annual visit. Leave out free-text reasons, which can contain clinical details.
4. Patient account number and mobile phone.
5. Next scheduled appointment, if any. This is the most important column. A patient who no-showed but is already booked next week is a lower priority than one with nothing on the calendar.
6. Prior no-shows in the last 12 months, if your report can include it, to apply your no-show policy consistently.

Working the list every day

Speed matters. The longer you wait, the more likely the patient books somewhere else or simply lets the visit go. Our guide to rebooking no-shows the same week explains why. If you want the no-shows and cancellations as part of a broader daily appointment file, see exporting your schedule from eClinicalWorks.

eClinicalWorks has also published case studies on its healow No-Show Prediction model, describing a no-show probability shown in the eClinicalWorks V12 schedule. If your office has it, it can help you choose who gets an extra reminder before a visit. The report in this guide covers what happens after a miss.

Run the report each morning for the previous business day, then work it in this order:

1. No future appointment, ongoing care. Patients due for chronic-condition follow-ups or post-visit checks who now have nothing booked.
2. New patients. A new patient who no-showed may never have committed to your office. Reach them the same day.
3. No future appointment, routine. Annual and preventive visits.
4. Already rebooked. Confirm the next visit and move on.

Rebooking scripts

Keep the tone warm. The patient may have had a real problem, and the goal is a booked visit, not an apology.

Phone: "Hi, this is [Practice Name]. We missed you at your appointment yesterday and wanted to make sure you still get in to see [Dr. Last Name]. I have Thursday at 10:20 or Monday at 3:40. Would one of those work?"

Voicemail, minimum necessary: "Hi, this is [Practice Name] calling with a scheduling question. Please call us back at [number], or reply to our text." Don't mention the visit type, the reason or the fact that the visit was missed. Someone else may hear the message.

Text, minimum necessary: "[Practice Name]: we'd like to find you a new appointment time. Reply 1 for Thu 10:20 AM, 2 for Mon 3:40 PM, 3 for other times. STOP to opt out."

If the patient tells you why they missed, write the reason down. Transportation, work schedules and forgotten reminders each have a different fix.

Measuring the routine

Your no-show rate tells you how big the problem is. Our guide to calculating your no-show rate shows the formula. To see whether the daily routine works, add two more numbers: the rebook rate (no-shows rebooked within 14 days, divided by all no-shows) and days to rebook.

Illustrative math: a four-provider office records 85 no-shows in a month. Before the routine, staff rebook 30 of them, a 35% rebook rate. After a month of working the report daily, they rebook 55, about 65%. At an illustrative $125 per visit, the extra 25 rebooked visits are worth about $3,125 a month, and many of those patients are back in ongoing care instead of lost to follow-up.