How to reduce your practice DNA rate
Cubiko's Quality Improvement cabinets provide a tool for your practice team to use to participate and complete Quality Improvement activities that are specific to your practice. Our Quality Improvement cabinets will allow you to review areas in your practice that may need improvement.
The Quality Improvement: DNA rate cabinet provides you with selected Cubiko metrics to help identify any issue with your did not attend rate, highlight potential improvements, and track progress through a PDSA cycle.
To navigate to this metric, go to Quality Improvement > DNA rate
TOP TIP! Quality Improvement activities assist practices with their Accreditation and PIP QI requirements. You can access Cubiko's PDSA cycle template here.
The sections included in this article relating to the Quality Improvement: DNA rate cabinet are:
- What is the problem we want to solve?
- How Cubiko can help
- How to use our QI DNA page
- Other ideas to help reduce your DNA rate
What is the problem we want to solve?
Trend of DNA rate
Reducing your DNA rate is vital for practices as it will ultimately help improve your patients' access to your healthcare services.
The potential value of impacted billings from your DNA patients can also be quite significant and impact both your cash flow and the profitability of the practice.
This metric shows key measures relating to your DNA rate over an extended historical period. This can be used to determine whether this QI activity would suit your practice and to track progress through a PDSA cycle.
In this metric you can view your average DNA rate over the time period selected (default view is the Last 365 days), the total number of DNAs over the time period selected, and the potential value of impacted billings based on your average billings per appointment.
You can also see the number of frequent DNA patients who attended your practice for the time period selected. For a patient to be considered a frequent DNAer they must have a DNA rate of 33% and at least 3 DNAs in the past 12 months or have a minimum of 5 DNAs in the past 12 months.
TOP TIP! You can view the trend of your DNA rate and number of DNAs over different time periods by using the date filter at the top of the page. You can also view your data in the graph by day, week or month by using the 'Group by' drop-down filter on the top right-hand side in the metric.
How Cubiko can help
This section will show you the Cubiko metrics you can use to help reduce your practice DNA rate. They include:
- Unconfirmed appts today
- List of unconfirmed appts today
- Frequent DNAers with an appt booked
- List of frequent DNAers with an appointment booked
Unconfirmed appointments today
One way to reduce the number of patients that do not attend is to confirm their appointments. This metric shows you the number of patients that are booked for an appointment today that are yet to confirm their appointment.
View the list of unconfirmed appointments today to see a list of patients to review. These are appointments for today that have not been confirmed using the built-in Best Practice appointment confirmation tool. The list is sorted by highest DNA rate to help your team focus on confirming patient appointments in priority order.
TOP TIP! Provide access to this cabinet in Viewer Settings for your reception team members who will be actioning this list each morning.
Frequent DNA patients with an appointment booked
Create new policies or procedures to handle patients that have a high DNA history. Patients who have a tendency to repeatedly DNA to their appointments are your frequent DNAers.
This metric shows the number of patients who frequently do not attend their appointments and have an upcoming appointment booked.
For a patient to be considered a frequent DNAer they must have either:
- a DNA rate of 33% and at least 3 DNAs in the past 12 months; or
- have 5 DNAs in the past 12 months regardless of DNA rate.
The list below shows the details of patients with an upcoming appointment booked who have frequently missed their appointments over the past 12 months. Use this list to ensure your frequent DNA patients are handled as per your agreed-to practice policy.
TOP TIP! An example of a policy you could put in place for your frequent DNA patients is to only allow them to be double-booked, freeing up the appointment book for your regular patients, while still ensuring they can be seen by their Practitioner.
How to use our Quality Improvement: DNA page
Follow the steps below to get started with your Quality Improvement activity to reduce your practice DNA rate.
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Review your current DNA rate and number of DNAs over the selected time period (default view is the Last 365 days).
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Choose the target DNA rate you want to achieve in a certain time period (e.g. 3 months).
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Use the List of unconfirmed appts today, to view and sort your patients by those with the highest DNA rate.
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Print this list for your reception team to action each morning, by contacting those patients with a DNA history, to attempt to confirm their unconfirmed appointment.
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Also use your list of frequent DNA patients with an appointment booked, to review any high DNA risk patients that have an upcoming appointment.
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Review your DNA rate periodically to assess if the steps you have taken have been effective in reducing your overall DNA rate.
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Record in your PDSA cycle template the steps you have taken, what you have achieved, and what you will change for the next cycle.
TOP TIP! Remember to review your PDSA cycle results with your team, so they can provide feedback and input for the next cycle.
Other ideas to help reduce your DNA rate
Below is a list of other ideas to assist in your Quality Improvement activities to reduce your practice DNA rate:
- Allow for easy appointment amendments or cancellations
- Send out appointment reminders
- Set policies for your frequent patients who DNA
- Record patient attendance
- Confirm appointments with patients who have a DNA history
TOP TIP! You can read more about how to use these ideas in your practice in our Blog Post Five ways to reduce your DNA rate