To the Editor:

Thank you for “Same-Day Appointments: Exploding the Access Paradigm” [September 2000].

In the article I wrote for your February 1998 issue [“Solo Practice: The Way of the Future”], I noted that in our office “if you need an appointment today, you get an appointment today” and “every problem is handled before we go home, and we go home on time.” I think this kind of efficiency explains why our office can care for 4,000 patients without a backlog.

Dr. Murray and Ms. Tantau have proven what I did not know and would have doubted: Bad habits in an inefficient office can be changed (although not without pain).