Problem with patient's showing up

[Some1]

Do people have problem with having their patients not showing up to their appointments? Lately, I've had a lot of my patients canceling or rescheduling their appointments even after I confirm their appointments a day before. Oct and Nov were the worst months for me as far as patients not showing up.
Is patient compliance a major problem everywhere?

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[Hopin']

I've been wondering this as well. Seems like that makes 2 of us!

 

[danhook]

I have never had a problem with patients showing up here at UF- if anything my schedule is too full. Try some self recruiting- I have a couple pts. I recruited to come in and have at least 3 more because of what they told their friends. Our professors here tell us our education is in our hands, if you want good patients, then bring in good patients.

 

[armorshell]

I bless every patient that cancels in the next few weeks, because each time that means a get 3 or more hours extra to study for boards.

 

[USUaggie]

I bless every patient that cancels in the next few weeks, because each time that means a get 3 or more hours extra to study for boards.

Ha ha that's exactly how I've been feeling lately!

To the O.P. - Does your school have a missed appointment policy? At mine they get kicked out of the patient pool after three missed/canceled appointments and each time it happens to me I strongly emphasize this rule. Sometimes it's tough trying to weed through the flakes, though.

 

[DrJeff]

Missed appointments is something you'll be dealing with on and off your ENTIRE career And after you've been doing this for a few years, there aren't too many excuses that you won't have heard

 

[DrReo]

Missed appointments is something you'll be dealing with on and off your ENTIRE career And after you've been doing this for a few years, there aren't too many excuses that you won't have heard

What's the best one thus far?

 

[DrJeff]

What's the best one thus far?

Absolutely 100% verbatim here, no ad-libbing or exaggerating by me at all: "I couldn't get my pet pig petunia out of the front seat of my car"

 

[Thaxil]

Do people have problem with having their patients not showing up to their appointments? Lately, I've had a lot of my patients canceling or rescheduling their appointments even after I confirm their appointments a day before. Oct and Nov were the worst months for me as far as patients not showing up.
Is patient compliance a major problem everywhere?

What I have done in D-School was kept a list of patients that can show on very short notice. I have fit in many denture patients this way. The thing with dental school patient is that many of them are always avalible. If you suspect a patient is not going to show, call them half hour before appointment, if they cancel, go to short list and call in the quick fills. If they both show, do them both. Another thing is DONT DO ANYONE FAVORS. If they no show follow your school policy and boot them ASAP. Even if they do have endo or fix, boot them. You will never get your requirements by letting people walk over you.

I have recently change my policy. For now on, after the 1st broken appointment, patient will have to prepay for next vist up to $150. If the no show I keep the money as a appointment reservation fee.

 

[tinker bell]

What I have done in D-School was kept a list of patients that can show on very short notice. I have fit in many denture patients this way. The thing with dental school patient is that many of them are always avalible. If you suspect a patient is not going to show, call them half hour before appointment, if they cancel, go to short list and call in the quick fills. If they both show, do them both. Another thing is DONT DO ANYONE FAVORS. If they no show follow your school policy and boot them ASAP. Even if they do have endo or fix, boot them. You will never get your requirements by letting people walk over you.

I have recently change my policy. For now on, after the 1st broken appointment, patient will have to prepay for next vist up to $150. If the no show I keep the money as a appointment reservation fee.

I concur that. I did the same thing. It was easy for me because I had a handful of patients who work in the med science building next door. I just page them & they walk over in 10min. I do the same thing now in private practice.

 

[DrJeff]

I concur that. I did the same thing. It was easy for me because I had a handful of patients who work in the med science building next door. I just page them & they walk over in 10min. I do the same thing now in private practice.

Nowadays, in private practice, my practice management software has a short call/readily availability feature on it, where if I'm trying to get a patient in(more often than not I'm trying to get someone in earlier than a scheduled appointment for various reasons), the software when it sees that a scheduled appointment has just been cancelled will see if there's anyone on that short call list that can potentially make that newly available time slot and that persons name/contact phone # pops up on the screen for my front desk staff to call ASAP and try and fill that time slot.

I think that it's a safe assumption to make that before too long, they'll be a fully automated system to do all this, thus allowing us to decrease our overhead and have less employees

 

[Spin]

My dentist has a system where if you keep your originally scheduled appointment, you a small gift card. I'm not sure whether he has a deal worked out with the places the gift cards are for or whether he just pays for them out of the practice's pocket, but I think it's a pretty effective incentive for patients with non-chaotic schedules.