Tips for Efficiently Scheduling Patients on a Regular Basis

By Dr. Anand, DDS | ultralightblogs@gmail.com

By Dr. Anand, DDS

ultralightblogs@gmail.com

There is no greater success indicator for a dental practice than patient scheduling. The primary reason for this is everything in a dental office (staff, productivity, administrative services, and supplies) revolve around the success of a full schedule. An excellent schedule and routine indicates an office is maximizing their potential and productivity to bring in the most revenue and provide comprehensive patient care.

There are numerous tips offices can apply when trying to schedule dental patients on a routine basis as detailed below.

1. Schedule in consecutive blocks

Having your office schedule in block appointments will decrease empty chair time throughout the day. Scheduling appointments from noon backwards and then from noon until the end of the day will help your staff fill blocks of time that are unscheduled. It also allows your team to possibly get other administrative tasks done in the early morning or late afternoon if there are unfilled slots. Some offices will have their staff come in late or leave early if the schedule is unfilled to save on payroll costs too.

2. Patient reminders are a necessity

A reminder system is necessary to keep patients up-to-date on their appointments so there are reduced late and no-show visits. Many dental softwares offers text and communication reminders to confirm or cancel appointments. Good communication is a major component of improving scheduling and your patients will appreciate the extra reminder so they don’t miss an important visit or get charged a no-show fee.

3. Don’t let your patient leave without scheduling their next appointment

It is always wise to schedule your patient for their treatment or six-month routine visit at the time of service. Letting your patient leave without scheduling causes the common issues of patients forgetting to schedule a new appointment, patients potentially finding a new dentist, or using unnecessary administrative time to follow-up and schedule these patients.

3. Don’t let your patient leave without scheduling their next appointment

4. Double book your schedule as needed

For busy practices or offices with frequent no-shows, it may require double booking a column of patients. However, the type of appointments for double booking matter so they don’t interfere with your primary schedule and they don’t cause a sidebook patient to wait longer than needed to be seen. Emergencies, limited appointments, or procedures that are quicker are productive to schedule for double booking to ensure your schedule is constantly filled and not leaving huge gaps if there are cancellations or no-shows.

5. Use an appointment wait list to fill no-show visits or cancellations

There is always a patient that cancels last minute or has a history of no-showing their appointment. Your staff can resolve these inevitable problems by maintaining a waitlist of people who would like to schedule their dental appointment sooner. Some practices even use a mass email or text that will open a visit that recently became available to eliminate the need of calling patients one-by-one.

5. Use an appointment wait list to fill no-show visits or cancellations

It is important to take into consideration that practices of different sizes have different administrative resources and team members, but that scheduling efficiently will help boost production and motivate staff to use their time positively.

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