Patients not showing up for doctor appointments is a widespread phenomenon in India. This can have dire consequences, especially due to the dearth of medical practitioners to address the health concerns of a growing population.

Our Patient No-Show policy has been put in place to ensure timely healthcare for everyone using the Practo platform. In the Practo context, Patient No-Show means a patient hasn’t turned up on time for an appointment booked through Practo.com or Practo App without cancelling, rescheduling, or informing the practice/doctor in advance about the same.

Capturing patient-no-show from doctors/ clinics

When a patient doesn’t show up for a confirmed appointment (without having cancelled or rescheduled before appointment time), doctors using Ray software can mark the specific appointment as PNS on their desktop Ray or the Pro app.

PNS can be marked only within 5 days following the scheduled appointment.

Verifying PNS from patients

Whenever a doctor/clinic marks PNS, patients are sent an SMS and email to verify this claim and understand the reason behind the missed appointment.

Patients should respond in next 7 days after receiving the SMS/email, with the reason.

Actions taken on repeat patient no-show

Every PNS captured on Practo is dealt with seriousness based on past patient behaviour. This is done in order to ensure patients understand the importance of a doctor’s time and not misuse the convenience provided by Practo. Our PNS Policy aims at minimising instances of uninformed missed appointments, thereby making most of a doctor’s valuable time.

• 1.Repeat PNS actions are taken ONLY for patients who schedule appointments using ‘Book Appointment’ feature on Practo.
• 2.At the third valid instance of PNS in last 12 months, patient’s account will be temporarily disabled from booking further online appointments on Practo.com for next 4 months. However, the user can continue to call the clinic via Practo.com to get an appointment.
• 3.Below are the valid cases of PNS:
  • a.Patient does not reply to the email/SMS with the reason in next 7 days from the date of receipt of such email/SMS communication
  • b.Patient responds to the email/SMS with below reasons:
    • i.Forgot the appointment
    • ii.Chose to visit another doctor/consulted online
    • iii.Busy with other work
    • iv.Other reasons (which Practo at its discretion decides to be a reason for valid PNS)
• 4.Below are the invalid cases of PNS:
  • a.Patient says she/he got marked as PNS in spite of visiting the practice/doctor. This will be marked valid/invalid only after Practo support team validates the authenticity of the claim.
  • b.Patient says she/he was extremely ill to visit the doctor (This will be a one-time consideration only)
• 5. If a patient has a history of repeat PNS, patient’s account can be temporarily disabled from booking further online appointments on Practo.com, even on 1st or 2nd instance of PNS.
• 6. All refunds with respect to PNS for a pre-paid appointment shall be at the discretion of the doctor and Practo has no role with respect to such refunds.
• 7. Practo reserves the right to make the final decision in the case of a conflict. The total aggregate liability of Practo with respect to any claims made herein shall be INR 200.
• 8. Practo reserve the right to modify the above mentioned terms from time to time.