A full schedule relies on patients being scheduled and then arriving for care.
A patient’s recovery relies on that as well.
As the practice owner or manager, you shouldn’t have to worry about schedule control.
But in order to let go of that worry, you must have a well-trained front office staff; one that understands what it takes to not only fill the schedule but also get patients to arrive.
Same-day cancels and no-shows wreak havoc on the schedule AND they exhaust your staff to the point where they give up trying to prevent them.
It’s common for a patient to call with what’s considered to be a‘good excuse’; one that is so ‘good’ that it literally STOPS your team in their tracks. They don’t know what to do, or how to handle it.
In theory, they know what to do; but in reality, they get stuck because “it’s a really plausible reason to cancel”. And THAT right there is what stops them.
A ‘good’ excuse is still just an excuse. And it not only hurts the patient cancelling, but it gives your front desk more work to do and it prevents them from getting other work done. Or that spot just remains empty, which causes another patient to ‘hurt’.
There are specific things that need to be in place to take control of your schedule.
Your front desk team needs to qualify patients and their commitment to care – is this patient going to schedule AND arrive for care?
They need to be confident when they speak to patients–when they sound confident and in control, people will listen and respect them.
They need a cancellation prevention program in place–it should always be about prevention, and they need a system to follow so they know exactly WHEN a cancel should be excused, and when it shouldn’t.
Cancellation prevention isn’t about threatening missed visit fees. That’s the fastest way to upset a patient, get a bad review and have your front office team give up.
Cancellation PREVENTION is exactly THAT, prevention. And it’s a key to practice success because it allows your front desk to get patients to agree to your expectations and it keeps everyone working together.
YOU can be the hero for your staff and your patients!
Use PROVEN training for your front desk so they have what they need to WIN in their position. Good staff will thank you for joining my academy. CLICK HERE to learn MORE and JOIN NOW.
You won’t regret giving good staff the time they need to learn and apply this program because you’ll begin to see happier staff and more compliant patients.
Join my Front Office Family today and give your team and your patients the best possible chance at success!
With The Front Office GURU Training Academy®, you can have the tools you need to provide consistent training to your front desk.
When you provide consistent training, your team is more successful and success in their position helps to decrease turnover.
Here are just a few of the essential topics we cover in this program:
How to have the right mindset when speaking with patients.
How to get more new patients to schedule and arrive for their evaluation appt
How to talk about the cost of care and handle patient worries about costs
How to PREVENT cancels and no-shows (and also how to handle someone to keep it from happening again)
How to fill your schedule and keep it full
Watch this video to learn more: