Share

10 Ways to Effectively Schedule Patients

You might have thought scheduling patients takes only a matter of minutes and seems less significant than patient treatment. However, this is so only if you schedule patient appointments effectively; otherwise, your schedule could turn into a mess and negatively affect your productivity. Ineffective scheduling can make you feel stressed, overworked, and disorganized. 

In this blog post, we provide you with some tips on how to organize your schedule, schedule patients, and make the best use of your time.

 #1 Implement patient self-scheduling

Allowing patients to schedule appointments on their own relieves you and your front desk of the burden of juggling patients’ scheduling requests.

Advanced technology can give your patients control over scheduling, leaving you more time for other tasks. ExpertBox clinic management software supports 24/7 online self-scheduling, which improves patient experience and lessens your medical staff’s workload. 

ExpertBox scheduling

How does ExpertBox’s automated scheduler work? You can:

  • set up your regular working schedule and your availability for specific dates
  • organize a list of services with specific prices and group them into relevant categories to make it easier for patients to find and book services
  • add a customizable booking page on any digital channel (social media account or website)
  • have patients schedule appointments by simply clicking the booking button on the booking page and choosing an available empty slot
  • allow patients to pay for services in advance
  • send patients required intake forms to fill out and allow them to sign consent forms or any other required documents

Online self-scheduling can help you automate the entire scheduling and booking process, reduce no-shows, and keep your daily schedule organized.

#2 Master your time management 

To effectively schedule patients, you need to prioritize your time. You can try “the working from noon” strategy, which boils down to two principles: scheduling patient appointments from noon forward and noon backward.

You can plan your morning appointments from noon backward and your afternoon visits from noon until you finish work.

Doing this allows you to more effectively manage your time throughout the day.

Scheduling patient appointments

Check out this guide to learn about the most helpful time management techniques for healthcare specialists.

#3 Keep track of cancellations 

According to research, patient no-show rates can reach 80% in some areas. People can miss appointments because of many factors (commuting, psychological barriers, or simply forgetfulness). 

Missed appointments can cost you or your organization a lot of money, not to mention the gaps they leave in your schedule.

ExpertBox refund policy

A great way to protect your healthcare practice from appointment cancellation issues is to create clear no-show and cancellation policies. 

Before taking on a new patient, set your cancellation policy and outline rules ( how far in advance a patient can reschedule a visit) for when a patient shows up late or misses an appointment. This will encourage patients to arrive on time or cancel their visit in advance so you can take care of another patient instead.

Pro tip: We also recommend integrating a prepayment option to be sure that you’ll still get paid even if a patient cancels late.

#4 Prioritize appointments

Appointments can be of differing urgency. For example, a generally healthy patient’s annual check-up is a lower priority than a patient with severe pain. 

First, define which patients on your schedule don’t need urgent care and just want to:

  • get a quick consultation
  • clarify some questions (not critical)
  • get a check-up 

These appointment types are also essential, but urgent cases should be prioritized.

Secondly, help your medical team (administrators and front desk support) understand which patient appointments are most important by creating a checklist of high-priority health symptoms and the average duration for such visits. With the help of this checklist, your personnel will understand how to schedule patients’ appointments .

#5 Set a buffer time between appointments

Adding buffer time between appointments can help you unwind, take notes, or prepare for the next patient without hassle. Breaks will allow you to work at your own comfortable rhythm and be more productive. 

ExpertBox scheduling features

Using ExpertBox, you can specify what amount of time you want to add before and after an appointment to have enough spare time between patient visits.

#6 Offer telemedicine 

According to the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Study, a growing majority of customers now say they prefer telehealth over in-person visits for a wide range of routine care needs, including prescription refills, reviews of medication options, and discussing medical results. Additionally, almost 94% of telehealth users say they would use the technology to receive medical services in the future.

Virtual appointments can reduce patient wait times and late arrivals by eliminating the need for patients to travel long distances to see physicians.

Types of patient appointments that are a great fit for telehealth

Check out what tangible benefits telemedicine solutions provide to healthcare providers, patients, and hospitals.

In addition to improved patient care quality and accessibility, adopting telehealth technology can help you:

  • adjust your schedule and your availability to your preferences and needs
  • eliminate paperwork and manual appointment scheduling
  • automate billing 
  • set canceling and rescheduling rules for each specific healthcare service 
  • create a refund policy to always get paid
  • control your team’s availability

#7 Implement automated reminders 

Appointment cancellations could be harmful not only to the patient’s health and well-being (a missed appointment could be a missed chance to take immediate action and prevent a potential disease) but also lead to monetary losses due to unoccupied time slots and excessive clinic expenses. Technology that sends automated reminders to both patients and healthcare providers can reduce cancellation and no-show issues and revenue loss. A study conducted in a pediatric dental clinic demonstrated a 62% reduction in broken appointments (appointments that are canceled without notice) among patients who received a confirmation call.

ExpertBox automated reminders

ExpertBox, for example, sends physicians and patients three appointment reminders set for specific times via email, SMS, or app.

Additionally, you can inform your patients of your cancellation policy rules in the appointment reminder. In this case, patients will see by what time they have to reschedule or cancel an appointment and what fees are charged for not rescheduling on time. 

#8 Create waiting lists

When a cancellation happens, the best way to avoid losing revenue is to fill the available time slot on your schedule. However, calling other patients to see if they would come earlier takes significant time and effort. 

With technology, you can lighten the burden on your front desk and automate the creation of a patient waiting list. Once a patient cancels an appointment, you just need to press a button and a message about the free slot will automatically be sent to the next patient on the waitlist. 

Patients can quickly confirm their new arrival date and time, and you get all your available slots booked. 

#9 Automate common responses

There are many routine patient queries that other medical staff or your assistant can address without you. Using advanced practice management software, you can set automatic responses to the most common patient questions (such as clarifying appointment rescheduling rules), which can then be automatically sent to patients once a request appears in the system. By using automated replies, you ensure that no patient question is overlooked and patients are always up-to-date on their appointment details.

#10 Use advanced reporting

Real-time healthcare data analytics can help you identify problem areas in your clinic and provide insight into how to improve clinic operations and effectively schedule patients.

With the right clinic management software that includes in-depth reporting, you can get a 360° view of each patient’s personal, financial, and medical data and use this information to analyze the frequency of canceled or missed appointments and possible causes.

Wrapping up

You need comprehensive technology and good time-management skills to effectively schedule patient appointments and get your schedule fully booked and well-organized. Using these ten tips will help you establish a smooth appointment scheduling and booking flow and increase patient satisfaction. 

Stop wasting your time on back-and-forth communication and endless phone calls. Try ExpertBox online appointment scheduling software to improve your performance and let patients schedule appointments on their own.

FAQ
  • Ineffective scheduling can make you feel stressed, overworked, and disorganized. Look at these tips on how to organize your schedule and make the best use of your time:

    1. Implement patient self-scheduling
    2. Master your time management 
    3. Keep track of cancellations 
    4. Prioritize appointments
    5. Set a buffer time between appointments
    6. Offer telemedicine 
    7. Implement automated reminders 
    8. Create waiting lists
    9. Automate common responses
    10. Use advanced reporting
  • A key step towards effective patient scheduling is properly prioritizing your time. You can try “the working from noon” strategy, which boils down to two principles: scheduling patient appointments from noon forward and from noon backward.

    You can plan your morning appointments from noon backward and your afternoon visits from noon until you finish work.

    Doing this allows you to manage your time more effectively throughout the day.

  • Allowing patients to schedule appointments on their own relieves you and your front desk of the burden of juggling patients’ scheduling requests. Advanced technology can give your patients control over scheduling, leaving you more time for other tasks.

    ExpertBox clinic management software supports 24/7 online self-scheduling, which increases patient satisfaction and lessens your medical staff’s workload.

Share Share this article
Comments 0
to leave a comment
Share Share this article

Subscribe via email and know it all first!

Recommended articles

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

Learn more