Cancellations

Hey Guys

i think i owe you a couple of posts...
When i was on my musculoskeletal clinic, one of the things that frustrated me the most was cancellations by patients, except most of the time they wouldnt even make the effort to cancel they would just not show up. This frustrated me quite a bit as i would always have prepared for my patients, and if it was a new patient this meant 1.5 hrs of my time wasted not being able to do anything, or see any other patients. Especially when they don't ring as you spend 20mins waitng for them and then cant go in and watch someone elses treatment which i also find you learn from. Also it does not allow you to fill the space with another client.

The thing i have learnt from this experience is that, if i were to work in private practice in the future where this would cost you money as apposed to the public system, i would put a reminder system in place where everyone gets a reminder the day before there appointment, wither by phone call, email or SMS. This way if something else had cropped up, they would be more likely to ring up, and give an opportunity for someone else to fill the space. On days when 3 or so patients would cancel i think you also have to consider using a cancellation fee, especially if people do not have a reasonible explanation, or ring so late. For clients that are frequent cancellers than i would also not consider booking them in ahead, and instead tell them to ring when they wanted another appointment. I know this may lose you an app. or two but i really hated when i spent an hour or so looking at different treatment optiona and planning my goals for them.