Who’s In Charge?

“Can the doctor see me at 1:15 tomorrow?” “Sure!” So you have a patient scheduled in during the time that you are usually taking lunch. Why? “We scheduled her then because that was when she wanted to come in.” This is the answer that I usually get when I ask why they scheduled a patient during non-patient time. My next question is always: “who is in charge?” Learning to take control of your appointment book is the first step in managing the all important patient flow. Often when a practice is new, or in need of growing, the doctor is willing to see the patients when they are available, and there is little method to the scheduling procedures. This is not a practical way to run your practice.

Look at your appointment book; do you have staff meetings scheduled? What about marketing time? Do you have SCHEDULED paperwork time for both your staff and doctors? When a patient calls and asks “what are your hours” what do you answer? These are some critical points to consider when setting up your front office procedures. The practical way to handle your appointment book is to first establish the difference between office hours and patient hours, within your practice. While a practice may be open or “manned” from say, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., this does not mean that you could or should see patients during any and all of those hours. For a practice to run effectively and for staff and doctor to properly handle all of the supportive tasks that come from running a practice properly you need to have clearly defined patient time, as well as time for all of the responsibilities that must be done. Scheduling is one of the most important systems in a chiropractic office! If you would like a step-by-step module for setting up your practice schedule, then click here: http://practicalpracticing.com/default_files/coursecatalog.htm