RE: appointment scheduling

[Guest guest]

Umm. Can you tell us more?What's the trouble?

 

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Umm. Can you tell us more?What's the trouble?

 

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD

ph fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

I am a firm believer in empowering your staff so I would first start with a staff meeting to problem solve. Always consider if you are the problem and not the staff. We have totally simplified our schedule and make no distinction between "miscellaneous things and truly sick patients". All our appointments are the same length. I figure that some patients will be quick and some will be longer and it will average out. It is often impossible to know from a phone call how much time a person will take. A "check up" can be a ppd placement or a major illness. I don't want my staff asking anyone why they are coming in but rather when they want to come in. You can block certain times for same day appointments that open up the night before to help you with same day appointments. On Mondays more than half our appointments are blocked until Friday night. If you can't see every patient the same day they call on more than 1 day a week then you probably have too many patients for your situation

Larry Lindeman MDRoscoe Village Family Medicine2255 W. RoscoeChicago, Illinois 60618www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD

ph fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Our scheduling system allows us to

designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each

day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent

care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the

afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s

schedules, so we can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit

the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If

your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent

care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy

to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front,

the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized”

to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can

also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like

Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days

when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits yesterday,

one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise

(schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is

that you will have days that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the

reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking

really busy, and they say (for example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks,

well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so

we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those

days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula”

for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical

or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2

follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care”

visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2

urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2

follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care”

visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2

follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for

about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to

be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to

get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2

half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for

E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we can

help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with

a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so

that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your

patients. I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning,

and they have reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re:

appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our

patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies

but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous

things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick

patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to

get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how

to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to

be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and

that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your

chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the

matter is more urgent .

MD

115 Mt Blue

Circle

Farmington

ME 04938

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Our scheduling system allows us to

designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each

day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent

care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the

afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s

schedules, so we can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit

the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If

your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent

care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy

to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front,

the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized”

to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can

also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like

Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days

when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits yesterday,

one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise

(schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is

that you will have days that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the

reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking

really busy, and they say (for example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks,

well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so

we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those

days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula”

for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical

or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2

follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care”

visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2

urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2

follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care”

visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2

follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for

about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to

be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to

get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2

half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for

E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we can

help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with

a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so

that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your

patients. I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning,

and they have reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re:

appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our

patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies

but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous

things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick

patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to

get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how

to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to

be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and

that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your

chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the

matter is more urgent .

MD

115 Mt Blue

Circle

Farmington

ME 04938

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

I think Larry  summarizes really well  I was thinking that staff may feel pressured  and the day gets overloaded becasue  there  were maybe too many patients in the panel for the available slots, and the front  desk is  pressured  by   people calling wanting to  get in?

 What i s it like for the front desk staff  I wonder? Another thing might be whether the message to  the staff is clear? when you say you want them to understand how to make things flow- is it clear to them what you want?

I found it really hard to have staff schedule!!  But it is  so much easier to do it myslef, so,  failing that-  could  you automate much of it? Appointment  quest is very popular One of the  IMPS told me that when  she lost her receptionist and patients started to  schedule themselves  they gave themselves the right amount of time  very  appropriately.

Also- the  rules about making all the appointments the same length is very helpful.If there is only one scheduler or the office is small, that helps?  it seems to me  that the scheduling is abit of an a art- you have to really be in to  thinking about it, becasue then a good front desk  learns to give appointments only at the end of  a session becasue he talks alot or often no shows. Fine tuning like that comes from goo d staff.

 or --that the front desk pre books more people on Wednesdays becasue less people are likely to call in for acutes then, than they do on Mondays.There is some rule-and it does not work in my practice at all but a rule is that you should expect that   just under 1% of the paitents  will call on a given a day to be seen.  Here it is much less so I  pre book more.

 But if you worked form that assumption then if you have 2,000 patients you would need to leave 18-20 slots free until  the day of.Let us know if any of this helps.If the panel size is too big  though then   that's a bottle neck til people leave by attrition or you drop a payor or add more  clinical timeYou could though increase time between appointmetn s or do some by e-vist to take aload off.

But if  patients    e-schedule,also, that eases up the load on the front desk.anyway let us know If Larry can help further:)Jean

 

I am a firm believer in empowering your staff so I would first start with a staff meeting to problem solve. Always consider if you are the problem and not the staff. We have totally simplified our schedule and make no distinction between " miscellaneous things and truly sick patients " . All our appointments are the same length. I figure that some patients will be quick and some will be longer and it will average out. It is often impossible to know from a phone call how much time a person will take. A " check up " can be a ppd placement or a major illness. I don't want my staff asking anyone why they are coming in but rather when they want to come in.

 You can block certain times for same day appointments that open up the night before to help you with same day appointments. On Mondays more than half our appointments are blocked until Friday night. If you can't see every patient the same day they call on more than 1 day a week then you probably have too many patients for your situation

Larry Lindeman MDRoscoe Village Family Medicine2255 W. RoscoeChicago, Illinois 60618www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

 

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

 

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

I think Larry  summarizes really well  I was thinking that staff may feel pressured  and the day gets overloaded becasue  there  were maybe too many patients in the panel for the available slots, and the front  desk is  pressured  by   people calling wanting to  get in?

 What i s it like for the front desk staff  I wonder? Another thing might be whether the message to  the staff is clear? when you say you want them to understand how to make things flow- is it clear to them what you want?

I found it really hard to have staff schedule!!  But it is  so much easier to do it myslef, so,  failing that-  could  you automate much of it? Appointment  quest is very popular One of the  IMPS told me that when  she lost her receptionist and patients started to  schedule themselves  they gave themselves the right amount of time  very  appropriately.

Also- the  rules about making all the appointments the same length is very helpful.If there is only one scheduler or the office is small, that helps?  it seems to me  that the scheduling is abit of an a art- you have to really be in to  thinking about it, becasue then a good front desk  learns to give appointments only at the end of  a session becasue he talks alot or often no shows. Fine tuning like that comes from goo d staff.

 or --that the front desk pre books more people on Wednesdays becasue less people are likely to call in for acutes then, than they do on Mondays.There is some rule-and it does not work in my practice at all but a rule is that you should expect that   just under 1% of the paitents  will call on a given a day to be seen.  Here it is much less so I  pre book more.

 But if you worked form that assumption then if you have 2,000 patients you would need to leave 18-20 slots free until  the day of.Let us know if any of this helps.If the panel size is too big  though then   that's a bottle neck til people leave by attrition or you drop a payor or add more  clinical timeYou could though increase time between appointmetn s or do some by e-vist to take aload off.

But if  patients    e-schedule,also, that eases up the load on the front desk.anyway let us know If Larry can help further:)Jean

 

I am a firm believer in empowering your staff so I would first start with a staff meeting to problem solve. Always consider if you are the problem and not the staff. We have totally simplified our schedule and make no distinction between " miscellaneous things and truly sick patients " . All our appointments are the same length. I figure that some patients will be quick and some will be longer and it will average out. It is often impossible to know from a phone call how much time a person will take. A " check up " can be a ppd placement or a major illness. I don't want my staff asking anyone why they are coming in but rather when they want to come in.

 You can block certain times for same day appointments that open up the night before to help you with same day appointments. On Mondays more than half our appointments are blocked until Friday night. If you can't see every patient the same day they call on more than 1 day a week then you probably have too many patients for your situation

Larry Lindeman MDRoscoe Village Family Medicine2255 W. RoscoeChicago, Illinois 60618www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

 

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

 

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue,

we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation.

Over 40 years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From: [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons.

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule

will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits

yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only

had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if

we can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve

seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of

george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how

to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue,

we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation.

Over 40 years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From: [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons.

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule

will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits

yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only

had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if

we can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve

seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of

george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how

to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

If you can't see all the patients who call in the same day more than once a week then you probably have too many patients for your situation.

Great advice and very concrete. Thanks. Myria

To: Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 2:23:35 PMSubject: Re: appointment scheduling

I am a firm believer in empowering your staff so I would first start with a staff meeting to problem solve. Always consider if you are the problem and not the staff. We have totally simplified our schedule and make no distinction between "miscellaneous things and truly sick patients". All our appointments are the same length. I figure that some patients will be quick and some will be longer and it will average out. It is often impossible to know from a phone call how much time a person will take. A "check up" can be a ppd placement or a major illness. I don't want my staff asking anyone why they are coming in but rather when they want to come in.

You can block certain times for same day appointments that open up the night before to help you with same day appointments. On Mondays more than half our appointments are blocked until Friday night. If you can't see every patient the same day they call on more than 1 day a week then you probably have too many patients for your situation

Larry Lindeman MD

Roscoe Village Family Medicine

2255 W. Roscoe

Chicago, Illinois 60618

www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD ph fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

If you can't see all the patients who call in the same day more than once a week then you probably have too many patients for your situation.

Great advice and very concrete. Thanks. Myria

To: Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 2:23:35 PMSubject: Re: appointment scheduling

I am a firm believer in empowering your staff so I would first start with a staff meeting to problem solve. Always consider if you are the problem and not the staff. We have totally simplified our schedule and make no distinction between "miscellaneous things and truly sick patients". All our appointments are the same length. I figure that some patients will be quick and some will be longer and it will average out. It is often impossible to know from a phone call how much time a person will take. A "check up" can be a ppd placement or a major illness. I don't want my staff asking anyone why they are coming in but rather when they want to come in.

You can block certain times for same day appointments that open up the night before to help you with same day appointments. On Mondays more than half our appointments are blocked until Friday night. If you can't see every patient the same day they call on more than 1 day a week then you probably have too many patients for your situation

Larry Lindeman MD

Roscoe Village Family Medicine

2255 W. Roscoe

Chicago, Illinois 60618

www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD ph fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

The problem with not letting people schedule until the same day is that many people need to make arrangements for a specific time. Some of my patients only can be seen after 4 pm, some people need to get a babysitter so knowing in advance that their appointment is going to be first thing in the morning vs. at the end of the day is really important. We have about 50% of the patients make their appointments the same day and 50% make theirs in advance.

I used to sit at at the front desk next to MA when I did my charting. Over time I had a much better idea of what she had to do. If she had questions as she was learning I was right there to answer them. I still frequently answer the phone while my medical assistant is doing something else.I think that for all of your office systems, you want to make it very difficult for your staff or you to make a mistake. That's why our system is almost foolproof. If something occurs on the schedule that I think is wrong I always ask the staff why they did it before I make any judgement. The staff usually had a very good reason for doing what they did.We also have a morning huddle every day and review the schedule. If it is going to be busy we plan ahead where to squeeze people in, such as shortening our lunch hour. I have blocked phone call and charting time that disappears on busy days so that we can see more patients. Even though my target patient load is 14-15 patients per day we have the ability to open the schedule to 20 patients on the busiest days although that means I am charting and doing phone calls at the end of the day. Larry Lindeman MDRoscoe Village Family Medicine2255 W. RoscoeChicago, Illinois 60618www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue,

we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation.

Over 40 years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From: [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons.

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule

will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits

yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand). The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t busy enough… We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy). We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups10:00 – research patient10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits11:40 – 1 follow-up visit12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits4:00 – 1 follow-up visit4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only

had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if

we can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm. You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve

seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly well for them. Good luck!

PrattOffice ManagerOak Tree Internal Medicine P.Cwww.prattmd.info

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of

george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how

to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

The problem with not letting people schedule until the same day is that many people need to make arrangements for a specific time. Some of my patients only can be seen after 4 pm, some people need to get a babysitter so knowing in advance that their appointment is going to be first thing in the morning vs. at the end of the day is really important. We have about 50% of the patients make their appointments the same day and 50% make theirs in advance.

I used to sit at at the front desk next to MA when I did my charting. Over time I had a much better idea of what she had to do. If she had questions as she was learning I was right there to answer them. I still frequently answer the phone while my medical assistant is doing something else.I think that for all of your office systems, you want to make it very difficult for your staff or you to make a mistake. That's why our system is almost foolproof. If something occurs on the schedule that I think is wrong I always ask the staff why they did it before I make any judgement. The staff usually had a very good reason for doing what they did.We also have a morning huddle every day and review the schedule. If it is going to be busy we plan ahead where to squeeze people in, such as shortening our lunch hour. I have blocked phone call and charting time that disappears on busy days so that we can see more patients. Even though my target patient load is 14-15 patients per day we have the ability to open the schedule to 20 patients on the busiest days although that means I am charting and doing phone calls at the end of the day. Larry Lindeman MDRoscoe Village Family Medicine2255 W. RoscoeChicago, Illinois 60618www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue,

we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation.

Over 40 years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From: [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons.

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule

will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits

yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand). The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t busy enough… We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy). We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups10:00 – research patient10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits11:40 – 1 follow-up visit12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits4:00 – 1 follow-up visit4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only

had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if

we can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm. You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve

seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly well for them. Good luck!

PrattOffice ManagerOak Tree Internal Medicine P.Cwww.prattmd.info

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of

george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how

to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Jim,

How do you track if your patients are

coming in for their follow-ups?

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Kennedy, Jim

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

2:07 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

The other way to do this is to use same

day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots

are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since

we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue, we can see anybody

everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working

front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy

patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule

is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40 years I have used every system and

the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From:

[ ]

On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day

appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons.

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type

visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon

between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we

can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit the schedule so

that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your

scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent

care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy

to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up

front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are

“authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that

problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on

days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8

urgent care visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we

couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had

fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days

that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when

scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually

too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment

tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right

at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are

days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or

2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen

same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week

to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and

physicals on those days (if we can help it) and we follow the same morning

schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care

only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual

walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients.

I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have

reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re:

appointment scheduling

We are a family

practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I

have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to

the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I

do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things

should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important

scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office.

Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and

that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your

chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the

matter is more urgent .

MD

115 Mt Blue

Circle

Farmington

ME 04938

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Jim,

How do you track if your patients are

coming in for their follow-ups?

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Kennedy, Jim

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

2:07 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

The other way to do this is to use same

day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots

are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since

we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue, we can see anybody

everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working

front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy

patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule

is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40 years I have used every system and

the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From:

[ ]

On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day

appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons.

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type

visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon

between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we

can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit the schedule so

that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your

scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent

care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy

to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up

front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are

“authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that

problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on

days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8

urgent care visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we

couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had

fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days

that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when

scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually

too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment

tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right

at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are

days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or

2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen

same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week

to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and

physicals on those days (if we can help it) and we follow the same morning

schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care

only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual

walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients.

I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have

reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re:

appointment scheduling

We are a family

practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I

have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to

the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I

do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things

should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important

scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office.

Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and

that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your

chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the

matter is more urgent .

MD

115 Mt Blue

Circle

Farmington

ME 04938

ph fax

impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Schedule return/chronics on the hour and half hour.

Leave 1/4 hour and 3/4 hour for acutes and try to limit to 3 pts per hour.

Use an appointments system online like Appointmentquest.com so you can see your schedule; about $22/month.

Matt in Western Pa

Re: appointment scheduling

The problem with not letting people schedule until the same day is that many people need to make arrangements for a specific time. Some of my patients only can be seen after 4 pm, some people need to get a babysitter so knowing in advance that their appointment is going to be first thing in the morning vs. at the end of the day is really important. We have about 50% of the patients make their appointments the same day and 50% make theirs in advance.

I used to sit at at the front desk next to MA when I did my charting. Over time I had a much better idea of what she had to do. If she had questions as she was learning I was right there to answer them. I still frequently answer the phone while my medical assistant is doing something else.

I think that for all of your office systems, you want to make it very difficult for your staff or you to make a mistake. That's why our system is almost foolproof. If something occurs on the schedule that I think is wrong I always ask the staff why they did it before I make any judgement. The staff usually had a very good reason for doing what they did.

We also have a morning huddle every day and review the schedule. If it is going to be busy we plan ahead where to squeeze people in, such as shortening our lunch hour. I have blocked phone call and charting time that disappears on busy days so that we can see more patients. Even though my target patient load is 14-15 patients per day we have the ability to open the schedule to 20 patients on the busiest days although that means I am charting and doing phone calls at the end of the day.

Larry Lindeman MD

Roscoe Village Family Medicine

2255 W. Roscoe

Chicago, Illinois 60618

www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue, we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40 years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From: [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PMTo: Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george coteSent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AMTo: Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD ph fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Schedule return/chronics on the hour and half hour.

Leave 1/4 hour and 3/4 hour for acutes and try to limit to 3 pts per hour.

Use an appointments system online like Appointmentquest.com so you can see your schedule; about $22/month.

Matt in Western Pa

Re: appointment scheduling

The problem with not letting people schedule until the same day is that many people need to make arrangements for a specific time. Some of my patients only can be seen after 4 pm, some people need to get a babysitter so knowing in advance that their appointment is going to be first thing in the morning vs. at the end of the day is really important. We have about 50% of the patients make their appointments the same day and 50% make theirs in advance.

I used to sit at at the front desk next to MA when I did my charting. Over time I had a much better idea of what she had to do. If she had questions as she was learning I was right there to answer them. I still frequently answer the phone while my medical assistant is doing something else.

I think that for all of your office systems, you want to make it very difficult for your staff or you to make a mistake. That's why our system is almost foolproof. If something occurs on the schedule that I think is wrong I always ask the staff why they did it before I make any judgement. The staff usually had a very good reason for doing what they did.

We also have a morning huddle every day and review the schedule. If it is going to be busy we plan ahead where to squeeze people in, such as shortening our lunch hour. I have blocked phone call and charting time that disappears on busy days so that we can see more patients. Even though my target patient load is 14-15 patients per day we have the ability to open the schedule to 20 patients on the busiest days although that means I am charting and doing phone calls at the end of the day.

Larry Lindeman MD

Roscoe Village Family Medicine

2255 W. Roscoe

Chicago, Illinois 60618

www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue, we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40 years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

From: [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PMTo: Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments. We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times. You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george coteSent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AMTo: Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

-- PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what you say!)Email is best used for appointment making and brief questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is more urgent . MD ph fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

I do open access  also couple of answers:1 they run out of meds They have to come back This is not punishment  Patients find it easy and helpful When they leave the office they have everything they need set up for them until it is time to comeback-- which is  always discussed and negotiated. Out of meds? Time to call to come in I see you that day

2  a good tickler system must be part of the office  set up this works best for say someone who comes in when they should but say were to  go get a BMP and did not or did not returnr the FOBT cards. -tickler set up at the time of visit

is it all alot of work? yes Is it compensatedno does it work to  keep them out of the hospital out of the er and  well and engaged in their own care- yep. that useful?(I am not as cool as Lindemann though  and  I have  no Mac book air:(   )

 

Jim,

How do you track if your patients are

coming in for their follow-ups?

 

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Kennedy, Jim

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

2:07 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

 

 

The other way to do this is to use same

day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots

are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since

we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue, we can see anybody

everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working

front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy

patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule

is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40 years I have used every system and

the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

 

From:

[ ]

On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

 

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day

appointments.  We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. 

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type

visits.  We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon

between 3-4.  Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we

can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit the schedule so

that there are still same-day appointments for that day.  If your

scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent

care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk.  We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy

to know who did what.  When I have 2 other part time people working up

front, the schedule always got more messed up.  The fewer people who are

“authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that

problem.  You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on

days, like Mondays, for follow-ups.  It is tricky, though.  You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in.  We added on 8

urgent care visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we

couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had

fractured his hand).

 

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days

that aren’t busy enough…

 

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when

scheduling.  If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually

too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment

tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less  busy).

 

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right

at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

 

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are

days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or

2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen

same-day who needed to.  We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week

to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and

physicals on those days (if we can help it) and we follow the same morning

schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care

only from 1-2 pm.

 

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual

walk-in times.  You would need to advertise that to your patients. 

I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have

reported that it works fairly well for them.

 

Good luck!

 

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re:

appointment scheduling

 

 

We are a family

practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I

have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to

the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I

do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things

should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important

scheduling is?

 

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office.

Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and

that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your 

chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the 

matter is more urgent .

     MD

     115 Mt Blue

Circle

     Farmington

ME 04938

ph    fax

impcenter.org

 

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

I do open access  also couple of answers:1 they run out of meds They have to come back This is not punishment  Patients find it easy and helpful When they leave the office they have everything they need set up for them until it is time to comeback-- which is  always discussed and negotiated. Out of meds? Time to call to come in I see you that day

2  a good tickler system must be part of the office  set up this works best for say someone who comes in when they should but say were to  go get a BMP and did not or did not returnr the FOBT cards. -tickler set up at the time of visit

is it all alot of work? yes Is it compensatedno does it work to  keep them out of the hospital out of the er and  well and engaged in their own care- yep. that useful?(I am not as cool as Lindemann though  and  I have  no Mac book air:(   )

 

Jim,

How do you track if your patients are

coming in for their follow-ups?

 

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Kennedy, Jim

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

2:07 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

 

 

The other way to do this is to use same

day scheduling, or advanced access. We don't schedule ahead so all of our slots

are open. We may have one or two scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since

we do all the scheduling, we never run into this issue, we can see anybody

everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working

front desk in a primary care office. Always stuck in the middle of unhappy

patients and providers. They can never do it right no matter how the schedule

is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40 years I have used every system and

the open access is the only one that works, in my opinon.

 

From:

[ ]

On Behalf Of Pratt [karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

12:34 PM

To:

Subject: RE:

appointment scheduling

 

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day

appointments.  We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. 

Those slots are not to be used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type

visits.  We block slots in the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon

between 3-4.  Sometimes we need to accommodate patient’s schedules, so we

can still override those urgent care slots, but we always edit the schedule so

that there are still same-day appointments for that day.  If your

scheduling system will allow you to audit who is scheduling over your “urgent

care” slots, then you can really narrow down the problem at your front

desk.  We only have our nurse and me who do the scheduling, so it’s easy

to know who did what.  When I have 2 other part time people working up

front, the schedule always got more messed up.  The fewer people who are

“authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat alleviate that

problem.  You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy” add-on

days, like Mondays, for follow-ups.  It is tricky, though.  You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in.  We added on 8

urgent care visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we

couldn’t get him in otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had

fractured his hand).

 

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days

that aren’t busy enough…

 

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when

scheduling.  If the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for

example) that they have had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually

too urgent that they get in today….so we will tend to offer an appointment

tomorrow or the next day first (if those days are less  busy).

 

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right

at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

 

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are

days when we are slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or

2 days that we haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen

same-day who needed to.  We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week

to accommodate Steve’s work for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and

physicals on those days (if we can help it) and we follow the same morning

schedule as the rest of the week, with a one hour lunch break and urgent care

only from 1-2 pm.

 

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual

walk-in times.  You would need to advertise that to your patients. 

I’ve seen some on the list do it first thing in the morning, and they have

reported that it works fairly well for them.

 

Good luck!

 

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010

10:16 AM

To:

Subject: Re:

appointment scheduling

 

 

We are a family

practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to go smoothly. I

have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up with too many

appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches, depression ect.. to

the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded afternoon schedule. I

do not seem to be able to get the front office to understand how things

should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just how important

scheduling is?

 

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office.

Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and

that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your 

chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the 

matter is more urgent .

     MD

     115 Mt Blue

Circle

     Farmington

ME 04938

ph    fax

impcenter.org

 

-- PATIENTS-please remember  that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email is part of the medical  record and is placed into your  chart ( be careful what you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and  brief  questionsEmail replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL  if the  matter is more urgent .     MD    

     ph    fax impcenter.org

[Guest guest]

Our computer system has a tickler built in. We use it for mammos, colonoscopies,

etc. We can get it all done at any appointment.

, we don't track followups exactly, personally I feel it is their health

and responsibility and we have few that fall through the cracks. We do track it

by refills also.. not the best way but many of our patients want to come more

often than they need to. We only have 1800 patients, and we see HTN about 6

months and DM about 3-4 months and they all show up. This is kind of old school,

but for our group it works. If I am really worried or they fail, I send myself a

task, with chart attached and it stays in my list, then I call them and tell

them to come in.

________________________________________

From:

[ ] On Behalf Of

[jnantonucci@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:44 PM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

I do open access also

couple of answers:

1 they run out of meds They have to come back This is not punishment Patients

find it easy and helpful When they leave the office they have everything they

need set up for them until it is time to comeback-- which is always discussed

and negotiated. Out of meds? Time to call to come in I see you that day

2 a good tickler system must be part of the office set up

this works best for say someone who comes in when they should but say were to

go get a BMP and did not or did not returnr the FOBT cards. -tickler set up at

the time of visit

is it all alot of work? yes

Is it compensated

no

does it work to keep them out of the hospital out of the er and well and

engaged in their own care- yep.

that useful?(I am not as cool as Lindemann though and I have no Mac book

air:( )

On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 6:46 PM, Pratt

> wrote:

Jim,

How do you track if your patients are coming in for their follow-ups?

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info<http://www.prattmd.info>

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

>

[mailto: <mailto:@yahoogr\

oups.com>] On Behalf Of Kennedy, Jim

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 2:07 PM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We

don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two

scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never

run into this issue, we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office.

Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do

it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40

years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works,

in my opinon.

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

>

[ <mailto:@...\

m>] On Behalf Of Pratt

[karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments.

We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be

used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in

the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to

accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day

appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit

who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down

the problem at your front desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the

scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time

people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer

people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat

alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy”

add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care

visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in

otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t

busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If

the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for example) that they have

had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in

today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first

(if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are

slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we

haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed

to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work

for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we

can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week,

with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times.

You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve seen some on the list

do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly

well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info<http://www.prattmd.info>

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

>

[mailto: <mailto:@yahoogr\

oups.com>] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to

go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up

with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches,

depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded

afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to

understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just

how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email

is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what

you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is

more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org<http://impcenter.org>

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email

is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what

you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is

more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org<http://impcenter.org>

[Guest guest]

Our computer system has a tickler built in. We use it for mammos, colonoscopies,

etc. We can get it all done at any appointment.

, we don't track followups exactly, personally I feel it is their health

and responsibility and we have few that fall through the cracks. We do track it

by refills also.. not the best way but many of our patients want to come more

often than they need to. We only have 1800 patients, and we see HTN about 6

months and DM about 3-4 months and they all show up. This is kind of old school,

but for our group it works. If I am really worried or they fail, I send myself a

task, with chart attached and it stays in my list, then I call them and tell

them to come in.

________________________________________

From:

[ ] On Behalf Of

[jnantonucci@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 9:44 PM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

I do open access also

couple of answers:

1 they run out of meds They have to come back This is not punishment Patients

find it easy and helpful When they leave the office they have everything they

need set up for them until it is time to comeback-- which is always discussed

and negotiated. Out of meds? Time to call to come in I see you that day

2 a good tickler system must be part of the office set up

this works best for say someone who comes in when they should but say were to

go get a BMP and did not or did not returnr the FOBT cards. -tickler set up at

the time of visit

is it all alot of work? yes

Is it compensated

no

does it work to keep them out of the hospital out of the er and well and

engaged in their own care- yep.

that useful?(I am not as cool as Lindemann though and I have no Mac book

air:( )

On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 6:46 PM, Pratt

> wrote:

Jim,

How do you track if your patients are coming in for their follow-ups?

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info<http://www.prattmd.info>

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

>

[mailto: <mailto:@yahoogr\

oups.com>] On Behalf Of Kennedy, Jim

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 2:07 PM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We

don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two

scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never

run into this issue, we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office.

Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do

it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40

years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works,

in my opinon.

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

>

[ <mailto:@...\

m>] On Behalf Of Pratt

[karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments.

We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be

used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in

the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to

accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day

appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit

who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down

the problem at your front desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the

scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time

people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer

people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat

alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy”

add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care

visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in

otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t

busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If

the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for example) that they have

had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in

today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first

(if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are

slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we

haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed

to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work

for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we

can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week,

with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times.

You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve seen some on the list

do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly

well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info<http://www.prattmd.info>

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

>

[mailto: <mailto:@yahoogr\

oups.com>] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to

go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up

with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches,

depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded

afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to

understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just

how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email

is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what

you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is

more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org<http://impcenter.org>

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email

is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what

you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is

more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org<http://impcenter.org>

[Guest guest]

I did not say that I would not schedule ahead, we do. Most patients offered the

choice of an appointment in 3 months or to call, prefer to call when they know

their schedule. When people schedule 3 months out, they often call to change due

to some other issue, and that ties up the phone for useless calls that never

were needed in the first place. Since they call in 3 months we can give them

same or next day times, but the schedule is still wide open and usually we can

fine a mutual time in 30 seconds.

________________________________________

From:

[ ] On Behalf Of Larry Lindeman

[llindeman@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 4:39 PM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

The problem with not letting people schedule until the same day is that many

people need to make arrangements for a specific time. Some of my patients only

can be seen after 4 pm, some people need to get a babysitter so knowing in

advance that their appointment is going to be first thing in the morning vs. at

the end of the day is really important. We have about 50% of the patients make

their appointments the same day and 50% make theirs in advance.

I used to sit at at the front desk next to MA when I did my charting. Over time

I had a much better idea of what she had to do. If she had questions as she was

learning I was right there to answer them. I still frequently answer the phone

while my medical assistant is doing something else.

I think that for all of your office systems, you want to make it very difficult

for your staff or you to make a mistake. That's why our system is almost

foolproof. If something occurs on the schedule that I think is wrong I always

ask the staff why they did it before I make any judgement. The staff usually had

a very good reason for doing what they did.

We also have a morning huddle every day and review the schedule. If it is going

to be busy we plan ahead where to squeeze people in, such as shortening our

lunch hour. I have blocked phone call and charting time that disappears on busy

days so that we can see more patients. Even though my target patient load is

14-15 patients per day we have the ability to open the schedule to 20 patients

on the busiest days although that means I am charting and doing phone calls at

the end of the day.

Larry Lindeman MD

Roscoe Village Family Medicine

2255 W. Roscoe

Chicago, Illinois 60618

www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com<http://www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com>

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We

don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two

scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never

run into this issue, we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office.

Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do

it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40

years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works,

in my opinon.

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

> [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt

[karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments.

We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be

used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in

the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to

accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day

appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit

who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down

the problem at your front desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the

scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time

people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer

people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat

alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy”

add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care

visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in

otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t

busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If

the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for example) that they have

had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in

today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first

(if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are

slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we

haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed

to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work

for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we

can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week,

with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times.

You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve seen some on the list

do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly

well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info<http://www.prattmd.info/>

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

> [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to

go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up

with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches,

depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded

afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to

understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just

how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email

is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what

you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is

more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org<http://impcenter.org/>

[Guest guest]

I did not say that I would not schedule ahead, we do. Most patients offered the

choice of an appointment in 3 months or to call, prefer to call when they know

their schedule. When people schedule 3 months out, they often call to change due

to some other issue, and that ties up the phone for useless calls that never

were needed in the first place. Since they call in 3 months we can give them

same or next day times, but the schedule is still wide open and usually we can

fine a mutual time in 30 seconds.

________________________________________

From:

[ ] On Behalf Of Larry Lindeman

[llindeman@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 4:39 PM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

The problem with not letting people schedule until the same day is that many

people need to make arrangements for a specific time. Some of my patients only

can be seen after 4 pm, some people need to get a babysitter so knowing in

advance that their appointment is going to be first thing in the morning vs. at

the end of the day is really important. We have about 50% of the patients make

their appointments the same day and 50% make theirs in advance.

I used to sit at at the front desk next to MA when I did my charting. Over time

I had a much better idea of what she had to do. If she had questions as she was

learning I was right there to answer them. I still frequently answer the phone

while my medical assistant is doing something else.

I think that for all of your office systems, you want to make it very difficult

for your staff or you to make a mistake. That's why our system is almost

foolproof. If something occurs on the schedule that I think is wrong I always

ask the staff why they did it before I make any judgement. The staff usually had

a very good reason for doing what they did.

We also have a morning huddle every day and review the schedule. If it is going

to be busy we plan ahead where to squeeze people in, such as shortening our

lunch hour. I have blocked phone call and charting time that disappears on busy

days so that we can see more patients. Even though my target patient load is

14-15 patients per day we have the ability to open the schedule to 20 patients

on the busiest days although that means I am charting and doing phone calls at

the end of the day.

Larry Lindeman MD

Roscoe Village Family Medicine

2255 W. Roscoe

Chicago, Illinois 60618

www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com<http://www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com>

The other way to do this is to use same day scheduling, or advanced access. We

don't schedule ahead so all of our slots are open. We may have one or two

scheduled prior, and occasionally more. Since we do all the scheduling, we never

run into this issue, we can see anybody everyday for anything.

The worst job in the world is working front desk in a primary care office.

Always stuck in the middle of unhappy patients and providers. They can never do

it right no matter how the schedule is set up, loose loose situation. Over 40

years I have used every system and the open access is the only one that works,

in my opinon.

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

> [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt

[karen.oaktree@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 12:34 PM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: RE: appointment scheduling

Our scheduling system allows us to designate slots for same-day appointments.

We keep about 5-6 appointments each day for add-ons. Those slots are not to be

used except within 24 hours for “urgent care” type visits. We block slots in

the am between 11-12 and in the afternoon between 3-4. Sometimes we need to

accommodate patient’s schedules, so we can still override those urgent care

slots, but we always edit the schedule so that there are still same-day

appointments for that day. If your scheduling system will allow you to audit

who is scheduling over your “urgent care” slots, then you can really narrow down

the problem at your front desk. We only have our nurse and me who do the

scheduling, so it’s easy to know who did what. When I have 2 other part time

people working up front, the schedule always got more messed up. The fewer

people who are “authorized” to put patients on the schedule will somewhat

alleviate that problem. You can also try to have your scheduler avoid “busy”

add-on days, like Mondays, for follow-ups. It is tricky, though. You will

still have some days when you cannot get everyone in. We added on 8 urgent care

visits yesterday, one of which we did after hours because we couldn’t get him in

otherwise (schedule was full and he thought he had fractured his hand).

The downside to blocking too many slots is that you will have days that aren’t

busy enough…

We also tend to ask “What is the reason for your visit?” when scheduling. If

the schedule is looking really busy, and they say (for example) that they have

had a cough for 6 weeks, well then, it’s not usually too urgent that they get in

today….so we will tend to offer an appointment tomorrow or the next day first

(if those days are less busy).

We tend to follow this “formula” for scheduling appointments:

9:00 am – 1 follow-up visit

9:20-10:00 – 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

10:00 – research patient

10:20-11:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

11:00-11:40 – 2 “urgent care” visits

11:40 – 1 follow-up visit

12-2 lunch (sometimes we will add 1 or 2 urgent care visits right at 12 noon)

2:00 pm – 1 follow-up visit

2:20-3:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

3:00-4:00 – 3 “urgent care” visits

4:00 – 1 follow-up visit

4:20-5:00 - 1 new patient/physical or 2 follow-ups

We’ve been using this formula for about 18 months and there are days when we are

slower than we’d like to be, but I think we have only had 1 or 2 days that we

haven’t been able to get in everyone who wanted to be seen same-day who needed

to. We do work 2 half days (Wed & Fri) each week to accommodate Steve’s work

for E.H.R., and we try to avoid new patients and physicals on those days (if we

can help it) and we follow the same morning schedule as the rest of the week,

with a one hour lunch break and urgent care only from 1-2 pm.

You could also try to alter your hours so that you have actual walk-in times.

You would need to advertise that to your patients. I’ve seen some on the list

do it first thing in the morning, and they have reported that it works fairly

well for them.

Good luck!

Pratt

Office Manager

Oak Tree Internal Medicine P.C

www.prattmd.info<http://www.prattmd.info/>

________________________________

From:

<mailto: \

> [mailto: ] On Behalf Of george cote

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 10:16 AM

To:

<mailto: \

>

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to

go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up

with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches,

depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded

afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to

understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just

how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email

is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what

you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is

more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org<http://impcenter.org/>

[Guest guest]

If you run a " patient centered practice " you should always be able to get

patients in the day they want to be seen.

________________________________________

From:

[ ] On Behalf Of Myria [myriaemeny@...]

Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 4:22 PM

To:

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

If you can't see all the patients who call in the same day more than once a week

then you probably have too many patients for your situation.

Great advice and very concrete. Thanks. Myria

________________________________

To:

Sent: Tue, December 21, 2010 2:23:35 PM

Subject: Re: appointment scheduling

I am a firm believer in empowering your staff so I would first start with a

staff meeting to problem solve. Always consider if you are the problem and not

the staff.

We have totally simplified our schedule and make no distinction between

" miscellaneous things and truly sick patients " . All our appointments are the

same length. I figure that some patients will be quick and some will be longer

and it will average out. It is often impossible to know from a phone call how

much time a person will take. A " check up " can be a ppd placement or a major

illness. I don't want my staff asking anyone why they are coming in but rather

when they want to come in.

You can block certain times for same day appointments that open up the night

before to help you with same day appointments. On Mondays more than half our

appointments are blocked until Friday night. If you can't see every patient the

same day they call on more than 1 day a week then you probably have too many

patients for your situation

Larry Lindeman MD

Roscoe Village Family Medicine

2255 W. Roscoe

Chicago, Illinois 60618

www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com<http://www.roscoevillagefamilymedicine.com/>

We are a family practice with one provider and our patient flow never seems to

go smoothly. I have tried different strategies but it seems we always end up

with too many appointments for miscellanous things, such as back aches,

depression ect.. to the exclusion of truly sick patients and an overloaded

afternoon schedule. I do not seem to be able to get the front office to

understand how things should flow. Any ideas on how to make them understand just

how important scheduling is?

Scheduling continues to be a problem for our office. Any suggestions?

--

PATIENTS-please remember that email may not be entirely secure, and that Email

is part of the medical record and is placed into your chart ( be careful what

you say!)

Email is best used for appointment making and brief questions

Email replies can be expected within 24 hours-Please CALL if the matter is

more urgent .

MD

ph fax

impcenter.org<http://impcenter.org/>