Patient Attendance Co
For private dental practices

Reduce no-shows by improving how appointments are handled

We review your appointment reminders, emails and reception calls to see how appointments are being booked, confirmed and cancelled. Then we recommend practical changes and measure the impact, so you can see what actually reduces missed appointments.

No new software. No guesswork. Just practical changes, measured properly.

How a practice handles appointments
  • Phone & reception calls
  • Emails from reception
  • SMS appointment reminders
  • Confirmations & cancellations
We review how appointments are handled
  • Fewer no-shows
  • Fewer late cancellations
  • More appointments confirmed
The appointment journey

We look at the whole appointment journey

Missed appointments are not always caused by the reminder itself. We look at how appointments are booked, confirmed, cancelled and followed up.

Then we recommend practical changes and measure what happens.

What missed appointments look like in practice

A few no-shows or late cancellations can leave valuable gaps in the day.

Thursday, 15 May
8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00
Mrs Emma Clarke Hygiene appointment 9:30 – 10:00
No-show 10:15 – 10:45
Mr Daniel Green Whitening consultation 11:00 – 11:30
Ms Sarah Patel Composite bonding consult 11:30 – 12:00
Lunch break 12:30 – 13:30
Cancelled late 13:30 – 14:00
Mrs Laura Bennett Hygiene appointment 14:00 – 14:30
Emergency appointment Mrs Karen Dawson 14:30 – 15:00
No-show 15:15 – 15:45
Mr Simon Leeds Routine check-up 16:00 – 16:30
Mrs Victoria Shaw Invisalign review 16:30 – 17:00
Today's summary
2

no-shows

1

late cancellation

Small changes to how appointments are handled can help reduce these gaps.

Published research

One NHS trial reduced missed appointments from 11.1% to 8.4%

Changing the wording of an appointment reminder led to fewer missed appointments in a randomised NHS trial.

11.1% Before
8.4% After
2.7 fewer

missed appointments for every 100 booked in the trial.

Hallsworth et al., PLOS ONE (2015) — 10,111 NHS outpatient appointments. View the study →

Results will vary. We use published research as a starting point, then measure what happens in your practice.

How it works

A simple four-step process

1

We review your current approach

We look at your appointment data and how bookings are currently handled.

2

We recommend changes

We identify a small number of practical improvements worth testing.

3

Your team puts them in place

Most changes use the systems and processes you already have.

4

We measure the result

We compare attendance before and after to see what worked.

Your practice

What are missed appointments costing you?

Enter three figures to get a rough idea of the annual cost of missed appointments.

Not sure of the exact figures? Rough estimates are fine.

20600
%

Missed appointments as a share of appointments booked.

£

Whatever you would normally attribute to an occupied slot.

Estimated annual impact
Missed appointments per weekMissed per week 0
Estimated cost per weekCost per week £0
Estimated annual cost of missed appointments £0
Illustrative value if attendance improved
£0
Discuss these numbers on a call

The improvement figure uses the result from the NHS trial as an illustration. It is not a forecast for your practice.

Want to see if there is an opportunity?

Send us a little information about your practice, or book a short call. If your attendance is already strong, we'll tell you.

Patient Attendance Co enquiry

No obligation, and no follow-up sequence. We’ll use your details only to reply to you. See our privacy policy.

What happens next

  1. We get in touch to arrange a time that suits you.
  2. We talk for 15 minutes about how appointments are currently handled.
  3. We give you a straight answer on whether we think there is a worthwhile opportunity.

Or reach out directly

Lancashire and the North West · remote calls nationwide