Keep patients waiting not in my office

Keep Patients Waiting? Not in My Office

Question 1

What features of the appointment scheduling system were crucial in capturing “many Grateful Patients”?

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock the pain and agony of waiting. Waiting is the biggest pain anyone can ever endure no matter what it maybe, for example the supermarket. Walmart in particular is known to have the longest lines with little to no help. With such long wait times at Walmart this requires a shopper to wait a long period of time to check-out their groceries. Another example of pain and agony of waiting would be The Dade County Youth Fair, or shall I say any theme park. The lines at these parks are outrageous; there is at least a 30 to 45 mins wait in line to get on a two minute ride. Let’s not also forget the amount of time it takes our professors to post our test grades in which they know how eager we are to know the results of our test. These are just a few of the wait times we may have experienced at one point in time. On the other hand, there are some wait times that are beyond the worst in which I consider to be just straight disrespectful, for example a scheduled appointment at a salon or even the doctor’s office. Schedule appointment are meant to help keep up with our daily tasks during the week. By not honoring my scheduled appointment I find it be very rude and just straight disrespectful. This tells me that you are inconsiderate and have no regards for my personal time.

The Salon and my dad’s doctor office are the two worst places I despite having to go to. The salon I have a bit more control over and that would be, not to go, and do my hair myself. However, the doctor’s office we really don’t have much of a choice, if, you want a long healthy life. My dad has the worst doctor ever, the wait time makes you want to strangle the nurse and the doctor after you have seen him. My dad would have an appointment at 9am and we will not leave the office until about noon, after, I have been fussing with the nurses about the length of time we have been waiting. This particular doctor office is the true meaning of inconsiderate and no regards to my or any of their patient’s personal time.

Many doctors lose patients due to the long length of wait time a patient has to endure. According to Dr. Schafer lateness, no matter who’s responsible can cause problems within the practice, however the average patient tolerates about 20 minutes over their schedule appointment time which to me is still unreasonable. Dr. Schafer who is a Pediatrics doctor finds being punctual is very important to him as well as his patients. In the article “Keep Patients Waiting? Not in My Office” Dr. Schafer provides some great pointers on how his appointment scheduling system were crucial to capturing many Grateful Patients at his office.

“Keeping Patients Waiting? Not in My Office” states that Good Doctor-patient relations begin with both parties, doctor and patient, being punctual for all scheduled appointment, which is a crucial feature of Grateful Patients. We cannot always blame the doctor for being late, sometimes it’s just as much our fault as it is the doctor’s fault. Being on time allows the nurses and doctors to provide each patient with all the attention they require based on the service required. Dr. Schafer says he sees his patients exactly at the appointed hour more than 99 times out of 100.

Another crucial feature in capturing Grateful Patients is Organized and Time Schedule. According to Dr. Schafer there are a total of 5 examining rooms, 3 of the examining rooms are used on a daily basis. The fourth room is reserved for teenagers and the fifth room is reserved for emergencies. With 5 rooms it eliminates the wait time for Dr. Schafer as well as for the patients sitting in the reception area. This technique also helps keep sick kids away from kids that are not sick in the reception area in which parents are grateful for.

Flexible Appointment Scheduling is another crucial feature in capturing Grateful Patients, this feature allows Dr. Schafer office fit in emergency patients, latecomers, walk-ins as well as answering calls.

The last crucial feature in capturing Grateful Patients is the Respect and Convenience for both physician and the patients. Dr. Schafer Appointment Scheduling system creates a respectful relationship between patient and patient as well as patient and physician. Convenience allows patients to make appointment based on their schedule instead of the physician schedule. This article can help many doctors such as my dad’s doctor’s office, improve the wait time and creating more Grateful Patients.

What procedures were followed to keep the appointment system flexible enough to accomodate the emergency cases, and yet be able to keep up with other patients’ appointments?

Dr. Schafer’s office has five different examining rooms which helps to reduce waiting times. Three are used routinely, one is reserved for teenagers, and the last is kept open for emergencies. His assistants are instructed to keep several slots open throughout the day for patients suffering with acute illnesses. This allows time for walk ins as well as for emergencies. Initial visits are scheduled on the hour or half hour which also allows time for emergencies should they finish early. In the event of real emergencies at the hospital like fractures or a caesarean section, all other appointments could be dropped and rescheduled; however in case of small issues, the doctor is expected to come back on track as early as possible and give the patient a choice to wait or reschedule the appointment. Most emergency interruptions take no more than 10 to 20 minutes so patients usually choose to wait.

How were the special cases such as latecomers and no-shows handled?

Latecomers, if they are 10 minutes late or less will be seen right away, but they are reminded what their appointment time was. If they are late 10 minutes or more, they will not be seen right away, and they will be squeezed in the next available spot. A note will also be made in the patient's chart in order to track the amount of times they are late. With no-shows, a receptionist will try to contact them and reschedule for a later date. A note will also be written in the patient’s chart. If it happens a second time the same procedure is followed. The third time however, the patient will receive a letter informing them that they failed to keep three appointments and that if it happens again they will be billed for the wasted time.

At the core of maintaining of a doctor’s office moving smoothly is having an effective operational management approach. Patient scheduling and appointment management is crucial to running an office in a timely manner and ensuring every appointment is taken care of on time. Some hospital are putting patients with minor illnesses into “fast tract” units, while others are using sophisticated computer systems to give receptionists and other staff a complete minute-to-minute status report on every patient. In other areas, medical identification cards are being scanned to pull up a patient’s profile and speed up patient registrations. Other changes needed to slash waiting time require reengineering billing, records, and laboratory operations. A doctor’s office such as Dr. Schafer’s uses a finite loading approach to scheduling, since the system determines exactly what will be done during each appointment slot at every moment of the working day. If a patient, or operation, is delayed due to tardiness, or an emergency, the order, or patient, will sit in the waiting room or be called to reschedule their appointment time.

In the case of Dr. Schafer’s office, he has done an excellent job in standardizing his patient’s expectations. Every patient is aware they must be on time, just as he will be. Workflow management in this case, is streamlining the day-to-day tasks of a medical practice. These tasks can include scheduling, registration, billing and other repetitive tasks. This case study tackles patient flow management as well by tackling issues such as communicating with patients and enforcing the “be on time” rule. By writing a note into the system every time the patient is late and charging patients for “wasted time,” it is another way to keep track of tardies and ensure patients are all aware of standard procedures expected to be followed.

Prepare a schedule starting at 9 a.m. for the following patients of Dr. Schafer:

· Johnny Appleseed, a splinter on his left thumb

· Mark Borino, a new patient

· Joyce Chang, a new patient

· Amar Gavhane, 102.5 degree (F) fever

· Sarah Goodsmith, an immunization

· Tonya Johnston, well-baby checkup

· JJ Lopez, a new patient

· Angel Ramirez, well-baby checkup

· Bobby Toolright, recheck on a sprained ankle

· Rebecca White, a new patient

In question four I will be preparing the schedule for Dr. Schafer for his five patients. Throughout the article Dr. Schafer demonstrates how he runs his clinic in a successful and effective way. Dr. Schafer takes into consideration every patients appointment wisely. Dr. Schafer does not like to waste time and does not tolerate patients to arrive late because this will cause other patients who arrive on time to be delayed. He has a ten minutes period for the patient to arrive if not he/she will have to wait or reschedule. Due to his image and the following schedule will be coordinated in the following manner; Dr. Schafer will see his first patient at 9:00am. He will be seen for a splinter on his left thumb. Dr. Schafer does not take more than 10 minutes to see patients with minor injuries. If patient arrives on time he will be out of the office by 9:10am if not Johnny’s appointment will end at 9:20am. Second patient will be seen by 9:20am Borino, Mark is a new patient and Dr. Schafer usually takes 30 minutes with new patients. Taking into consideration the paperwork that needs to be sign Mark will leave the office by 10am. Dr. Schafer takes a coffee break for 15 minutes. By 10:30 am his third patient of the day Chang, Joyce will come in. He is also a new patient and will leave the office by 11:10am. Fourth patient is seen as an emergency patient with an urgent circumstance. High fever of 102.5-degree Fahrenheit. Dr. Schafer will spend 15 minutes and Amar will leave the office by 11:25am. His fifth patient Goodsmith, Sarah will be seen at 11:30am for immunization. Doctor visit will end by 11:40. Or if she/he arrives 10 minutes late the appointment will end by 11:50am. Dr. Schafer does not like to misuse his time. He follows a stick and adequate routine. For compelling and designing a timing frame for each patient has allowed him to be known not to have any patients waiting in his office. Due to this procedure it has worked effectively.