Scheduling patients can be a daunting task. Office staff must be efficient and organized when scheduling patients to avoid double-booking, overbooking, or leaving gaps in the schedule. Here are eight tips for scheduling patients successfully.
Establish a Clear Schedule
Before you begin scheduling patients, look at your calendar and determine if you have enough time blocked off for individual patient appointments. If your schedule is too full, you may want to consider hiring another staff member to lighten the load. If hiring another staff member isn’t an option, consider outsourcing appointment scheduling to ensure that your practice has enough time to deliver quality care.
Schedule New Patients First
When scheduling, it is best to start with new patients. This allows you to get them in for an initial visit and establishes them in your system. Once new patients are scheduled, you can move on to scheduling returning patients.
Allow for Extra Time
When scheduling appointments, avoid running behind by allowing extra time in between in case a patient needs more time than expected or an emergency arises. You can consider outsourcing appointment scheduling to help you determine how much time between appointments is appropriate.
Be Flexible With Appointment Times
While it is essential to be organized when scheduling appointments, it is also important to be flexible. Being flexible with appointment times will help to keep patients happy and reduce the number of no-shows. Answering service care in Margate FL can help you build flexibility into your patient schedule.
Double-Book Appointments
One way to avoid overbooking is to double-book appointments. Double-booking means that you schedule two patients for the same time slot. Double-booking is only advised if the provider is able to manage two patients at the same time without sacrificing quality care. If you outsource medical scheduling in Delray Beach, the company you work with can help you determine if double-booking appointments is a good idea.
Use Scheduling Software
Scheduling software will help you avoid unintentional double-booking, overbooking, and other scheduling errors. When using scheduling software, be sure to enter all of the relevant information for each patient so that you can easily access it when needed.
Keep Track of Cancellations
Cancellations are inevitable, but it is essential to track them. When keeping track of cancellations, note the reason for the cancellation so that you can avoid scheduling patients with the same issue in the future. To help with cancellation tracking, you can outsource medical scheduling in Delray Beach.
Communicate with Patients
It is essential to communicate with patients throughout the scheduling process. This includes letting them know when their appointment is, sending reminders, and following up afterward. Communicating with patients can ensure that they show up for their appointment and are satisfied with the care they receive. Answering service care in Margate FL can help with this by handling all forms of patient communication, including appointment reminders and follow-up calls.
Call 4 Health is a health care call center that can help your office avoid common scheduling problems. Our team of experts can answer your questions and help you to schedule patients successfully. Contact Call 4 Health today to learn more!
Founded after a personal, heart-wrenching incident more than 20 years ago, Call 4 Health has gone from solely offering after-hours answering services to being a top-rated, complete communications BPO for healthcare facilities throughout the country.
