How Meridian Health reduced booking abandonment by 61%

Research findings

We observed 18 patients booking an appointment. Fourteen stopped at the same screen, which asked for an insurance member number. Very few people have that number available on a phone in a car park.

The screen was not defective. It was third in a flow of six, and it required the one piece of information the patient had to leave and find. Some of those patients returned later. Many did not.

Restructuring the flow

We moved every question a patient can answer from memory to the start of the flow, and every question requiring a document to the end. Insurance details are now collected after the appointment slot is held, and the hold lasts twenty minutes.

• Ask first for what the patient already knows: who, what, and when.
• Hold the slot before requesting anything that needs a card or a letter.
• Allow the booking to be completed on another device, from a link, without restarting.

Accessibility

Meridian's patient population skews older, and a meaningful proportion rely on a screen reader or keyboard navigation. We built every control to WCAG 2.2 AA from the first component rather than auditing at the end, because the elements that fail an audit are usually the hardest to replace.

Outcome

Abandonment fell 61% in the first quarter. The external audit returned a clean result at AA. The flow now handles approximately 4,000 bookings a week.