How Hospitals Reduce Repeat Calls About Appointments, Reports and Instructions

Hospitals receive many calls that do not require a lengthy conversation. Patients want to confirm an appointment, check whether a diagnostic report is ready or clarify what they need to do before a procedure.

Each question may be simple, but together they take up staff time and make it harder for patients to get timely answers.

The solution is not simply to send more messages or introduce a chatbot. Hospitals need to make important information easy to access, share updates at the right time and give patients a clear next step when something needs their attention.

Why do patients keep calling hospitals for the same information?

Repeat calls often point to an information gap.

A patient may have received an appointment confirmation but still be unsure about the time or location. Someone waiting for a report may not know whether it is ready or whether a doctor has reviewed it. Another patient may have received preparation instructions but need clarification before a procedure.

These are different situations, but they share a common problem: the patient cannot easily find or understand the information they need.

A study published in BMJ Quality Improvement Reports, examining calls to a rheumatology clinic, found that 29% of incoming calls involved confirming or discussing appointments. It was a one-week audit of 296 calls at a Toronto clinic, published in 2017. This finding comes from one clinic, so it should not be treated as a benchmark for every hospital. However, it illustrates how appointment-related questions can contribute to call volume.

Source: BMJ Quality Improvement Reports

Hospitals can start by identifying which questions recur most often, then making the answers easier to find before patients need to call.

1. Make appointment updates clear and actionable

Appointment reminders can do more than tell patients when to arrive. They can help patients confirm attendance, understand the next step and find the details they need without contacting the hospital.

A useful reminder should clearly communicate:

• Appointment date, time and location
• Relevant instructions approved by the hospital
• How to confirm, cancel or request a change, where those options are available
• How to contact the hospital if the patient needs assistance

Timing matters, too. A reminder sent too early may be forgotten, while one sent too late may leave little time to make changes.

A 2024 study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research reported a 42.8% reduction in missed appointments associated with a text messaging system in a general practice setting. It was a single UK surgery compared before and after, with no control group. This is evidence about missed appointments, not proof that the same intervention reduces repeat calls by an equivalent amount. Results will depend on the setting and how the system is implemented.

Source: Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2024

The practical lesson is to make appointment communication useful and measurable, rather than counting the number of reminders sent.

2. Give patients a clear way to check report status

When patients are waiting for diagnostic reports, uncertainty can lead to repeated calls to reception, diagnostic centres or other hospital departments.

Hospitals can reduce some of this uncertainty by explaining how patients can access reports, how they will be notified when a report is available and whom they should contact if they need help.

Depending on the hospital's systems and policies, this may involve:

• Providing access through an established patient portal or other secure channel
• Sending a notification when a report becomes available
• Explaining whether the report is available for viewing or has also been reviewed by a clinician
• Giving patients a clear route to ask questions about the next step

It is important to distinguish between a report being available and a clinician having reviewed it. A notification should not imply that a diagnosis has been made or that no further consultation is needed.

Digital access may make report status easier to check, but it should not be assumed to reduce calls in every setting. Hospitals should measure whether report-related enquiries actually decline after changes are introduced.

3. Make preparation instructions easy to revisit

Procedure preparation is another area where unclear information can create avoidable calls.

Patients may need to check fasting instructions, arrival time, documents to bring or other steps before a procedure. If instructions are difficult to find, too long or shared well before they are needed, patients may contact staff to confirm what they should do.

Hospitals can improve this experience by making approved instructions easy to access and sending them at an appropriate time.

Useful practices include:

• Keeping instructions specific to the procedure
• Presenting the essential steps in a clear, readable format
• Making the information available again after the initial message
• Providing a contact route for questions or exceptions

Clinical instructions must come from the hospital's approved guidance. Automated messages should not improvise advice about fasting, medication changes or individual medical circumstances.

Research also shows why hospitals should avoid assuming that digital communication automatically reduces every type of contact. A 2019 study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research examining a mobile health intervention for prostate biopsy found fewer cancellations and rescheduling, but pre-procedure calls increased slightly, from 0.6 to 0.8 per patient. The programme was a text-message service, and overall cancelled or rescheduled appointments fell from 33.8% to 21.2%.

Source: Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2019

The finding highlights an important distinction: a digital intervention may improve one part of the patient journey without reducing every related enquiry.

How can hospitals tell whether repeat calls are actually decreasing?

Sending more reminders or introducing a digital channel does not, by itself, demonstrate improvement. Hospitals need to understand which enquiries are changing and whether patients can still reach staff when they need help.

Useful measures include:

• Appointment enquiries: Calls made to confirm appointment details or request changes
• Report-status enquiries: Calls asking whether a report is ready or where to access it
• Preparation-related calls: Questions about instructions before a procedure
• Appointment outcomes: Missed appointments, cancellations and rescheduling
• Digital access: Whether patients can successfully reach the information shared with them
• Escalations: Cases where patients still need assistance from hospital staff

Hospitals should compare results before and after a change and account for other factors that may affect call volume. A fall in calls is not necessarily a positive outcome if patients are struggling to reach the hospital or cannot get the help they need.

Digital communication should also be accessible to people who have limited internet access, need language support or prefer speaking to someone. The goal is to remove unnecessary uncertainty, not to make human assistance harder to reach.

Tracking call reasons and patient outcomes? The CPaaS KPI Handbook covers 50+ WhatsApp, SMS and RCS metrics, with formulas and worked examples.

Where can omnichannel engagement help?

Hospitals may use several channels to communicate with patients, including SMS, WhatsApp, email and patient portals. When updates are difficult to coordinate across these channels, patients may miss information or contact staff to clarify what they have received.

An omnichannel engagement platform such as Helo.ai may support patient-facing reminders, notifications and follow-ups through supported channels and configured workflows. Where the relevant integrations are available, Helo Clarity may help teams gain a clearer view of engagement journeys. Helo Clarity unifies customer behaviour data into a single profile and sends event-triggered messages across channels.

The exact capabilities depend on the hospital's systems, integrations and approved workflows. These tools should complement existing hospital systems, not replace clinical records, determine whether a report is medically ready or provide unapproved medical advice.

The priority is to make communication clearer at each step: confirm the appointment, explain how to access a report and make preparation instructions easy to revisit.

Planning patient communication for your hospital? Talk to the Helo.ai team about SMS, WhatsApp and voice reminders.

The takeaway

Hospitals can start reducing avoidable repeat calls by addressing the questions patients ask most often. Appointment details should be easy to confirm, report-status updates should explain what happens next, and procedure instructions should be clear and accessible when patients need them.

Digital communication can help, but its impact needs to be measured. Hospitals should track the reasons for repeat calls, check whether patients can access the information provided and preserve a clear route to human assistance.

The objective is not to eliminate patient calls. It is to ensure that patients can find routine information easily and receive the right help when a conversation is genuinely needed.

Frequently asked questions

How can hospitals reduce calls about appointments?

Send clear reminders with the date, time, location and a way to confirm, cancel or ask for help. Then measure appointment enquiries before and after, because reminders alone do not guarantee fewer calls.

How can patients check diagnostic reports online?

Through the hospital's patient portal or another secure channel, where available. A notification should say whether the report is available or has also been reviewed by a clinician.

How should hospitals measure the impact of digital patient communication?

Compare appointment, report-status and preparation-related calls before and after a change. Also track missed appointments, cancellations, digital access and escalations to staff.