Do all appointments have to be scheduled on the same day? What about return visits?
Not all appointments have to be scheduled on the same day. The aim is to avoid an enormous backlog of appointments and to provide patients, if they wish, with an appointment on the same day. You can adjust the module guidelines to fit the comfort level of your practice.
Can new patients call in for a same-day appointment?
Yes. In a same-day system, it should actually be easier for physicians to track demand to ensure that it meets supply.
What if a patient calls at 4 p.m. and we close at 4:30? How can we offer an appointment on the same day?
Every practice will need to decide what it wants to optimize. If you want to optimize patient satisfaction, then a physician might be willing to stay a little late to see the late appointment. If you want to optimize staff morale by closing exactly at 4:30 each day, then you might want to establish a policy stating that all patients who call before 2 p.m. will be offered a same-day appointment; patients who call after 2 p.m. will be offered appointments the next morning. Experiment. Do what feels most comfortable in your practice.
This information is great, but there is no way I will be able to convince the rest of the practice to do it. Do you have any tips?
If you are convinced, you will probably be able to convince at least one other person in the practice. Start small, with a pilot project of a two or three physicians. After you succeed on a small scale, getting buy-in from the rest of the practice will be easier.
What if a patient does not want an appointment on the same day he or she calls?
The current system has trained patients to call well in advance for a doctor's appointment. So, when you first implement the same-day scheduling system, many patients who call will neither expect nor want a same-day appointment. Schedule an appointment for them and explain that, in the future, they can get an appointment on the day they call. There is no need to call in advance. They will probably be delighted to hear the news.
The goal of the same-day scheduling system is to have all same-day appointments. But you also want to make sure your patients are happy. Some of them may not feel comfortable with the new system, so you may want to ease them in to it. That said, it's important to move most of your appointments to same-day as soon as possible in order to reduce the backlog, so you'll need to educate your patients. Make phone calls, send e-mails and send postcard reminders to patients who are due in for follow-up visits.
Can we still schedule well-child visits weeks in advance?
Yes. Again, not all appointments have to be scheduled on the same day. The aim is to avoid an enormous backlog of appointments and to provide patients, if they wish, with an appointment on the same day. Adjust these guidelines to fit the comfort level of your practice.
How much money will our practice save by implementing a same-day scheduling system?
This will vary from practice to practice. The cost of no-shows and cancellations can be high. A same-day scheduling system decreases no-show and cancellation rates dramatically.
