Dos and don'ts for patient service

Respect the patient's schedule

If patients disrespect the practice's schedule -- evidenced by late arrivals, last-minute cancellations, and no-shows -- the business consequences can be quite serious. If, on the other hand, the practice shows little respect for the patient's schedule, damage to the relationship can be just as great. With all patients, assume that their time is somehow precious to them, and act accordingly.

Make your scheduling system more reliable. When you schedule patients, you are predicting when their appointments will begin and end. Unless your system incorporates protocols such as procedural time studies, scheduling based on increments of 10 minutes rather than 15 minutes, etc., your predictions will probably be unreliable. The result will be poor customer service and the eventual loss of patients.

Don't let the occasional scheduling problem cause more harm than necessary. Even with an excellent scheduling system, mistakes, unforeseen delays, and emergencies will happen. Train staff members to deal with these problems proactively. By alerting patients if an appointment will start late, apologizing, offering to reschedule, explaining the reason, and other actions, your practice can turn a potential negative into a demonstration of respect for the patients' time.