New toll-free line aims to reduce medical appointment no-shows

Last year, Nova Scotians missed or cancelled more than 22,000 diagnostic imaging appointments, half of those too late for someone else to use the time. 

Raylene McGhee, director of diagnostic imaging in Nova Scotia Health’s eastern zone, called the missed appointments a major problem.

“They’re a very big deal because they add to our wait times and waste resources,” said McGhee.

The provincial government is hoping to reduce those wasted appointments by half again, thanks to a new toll-free 1-844-473-2665 (1-844-I-REBOOK) telephone line. It has also launched a corresponding social media campaign to advertise the new service.

According to a survey of patients in the eastern zone who missed their appointments, McGhee said those no-shows were driven by two major factors: Doctors making multiple bookings for the same procedure, and patients not knowing how to cancel or rebook a procedure when those appointments conflicted with work or family obligations, or something came up unexpectedly.

McGhee is hoping a simple-to-remember phone number will make it easy all around.

Similar campaign in New Brunswick

“It’s only one number that they have to call for the whole province and [they’ll] be directed exactly to whomever they need to be directed to rebook their appointment,” said McGhee. “So we hope we’ve simplified the process, provincially.”

“Our hope is that we’ll be as successful as campaigns in other provinces.”

According to McGhee the health authority in New Brunswick, Horizon Health Network, reduced no-shows by half after a public information campaign.

Patients will be able to reschedule appointments for:

• Bone density scans.
• CT scans.
• MRIs.
• Nuclear medicine tests.
• PET scans.
• Ultrasounds.
• X-rays.