Patient No-Show Policy

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 ARK-Healthcare platform. In the ARK-Healthcare context, Patient No-Show means a patient hasn’t turned up on time for an appointment booked through ARK-Healthcare.in or ARK-Healthcare 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 ARK-Healthcare 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 ARK-Healthcare. 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 ARK-Healthcare.
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 ARK-Healthcare.in for next 4 months. However, the user can continue to call the clinic via ARK-Healthcare application 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 ARK-Healthcare 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 ARK-Healthcare 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 ARK-Healthcare.in, 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 ARK-Healthcare has no role with respect to such refunds.
7. ARK-Healthcare reserves the right to make the final decision in the case of a conflict. The total aggregate liability of ARK-Healthcare with respect to any claims made herein shall be INR 200.
8. ARK-Healthcare reserve the right to modify the above mentioned terms from time to time.