That's the most requested time frame that patients ask for. Scheduling appointments should be the easiest part of a receptionist's day, but there's not a crystal ball that can predict the day's outcome. As much as you think that we don't care about your schedule, we really do. The happier you are, the happier we are. Let's take a look at a few things that could be holding you up so long in the waiting room.
9:00 A.M. First patient is running 15 minutes late
9:05 A.M. Second patient of the day arrives. Surprise! He's adding his wife to his appointment.
9:10 A.M. A patient got their appointment dates wrong and shows up, but only has today off and will wait to be seen.
9:15 A.M. Third patient has arrived, but has new insurance which requires a 30 minute phone call to the insurance provider.
9:20 A.M. A specialist office calls and needs to speak with the doctor directly (interrupting a visit).
9:30 A.M. First patient has now arrived 30 minutes late and are asking how long they need to wait.
9:38 A.M. The doctor arrives at the office, precisely late, as usual.
9:45 A.M. After the visit with the second patient and his wife is complete the wife remembers that their son needs a checkup as well and tries to work him into the schedule.
Done with the first visit.
9:50 A.M. Third patient is complaining about their insurance benefits and refuses to pay their copay.
10:00 A.M. A patient that hasn't been to the doctor in 3 years walks in to be seen the same day.
10:15 A.M. Chatty Cathy decides that after sitting in the waiting room for 50 minutes was very long decides to go into detail with the doctor about her vacation to Aruba and how fun it was. By the way, Julie is graduating next month, remember when she was first going to preschool? That's best saved for a lighter day.
Done with 2 visits by now.
10:30 A.M. Someone calls to see if they can be seen for a nosebleed before 12:00 P.M. today. The rest of the afternoon looks light and a few patients didn't show up so there should be some room.
10:45 A.M. Oh look, the patients who were supposed to be here an hour ago are walking in, and they brought a new patient that wasn't scheduled as well.
That's 3 appointment taken care of now.
11:00 A.M. Nosebleed arrives and sees that there is a wait and gets upset after he was told there wasn't a wait.
11:15 A.M. New patient walks in with lots of paperwork for the doctor to review.
11:30 A.M. A patient calls and needs to see the doctor no later than 2:00 P.M. There are no appointments until after 4:00 P.M. The patient will walk in now and wait.
Now the 4th appointment is done.
There are many reasons why the schedule is behind, and we want things to go as smoothly as possible, but each day has different circumstances. Each situation is unique in it's own way and we deal with them daily. We know that you don't want to wait, we don't want you to wait either. However scheduling an appointment when it's least busy is like trying to light a candle in a hurricane, we can try but we make no promises. Yes we are managing the schedule the best we can, however things come up that we weren't expecting, and we are trying to work around the patient's requests. We know who you will blame if the wait is long, but just keep in mind that we aren't trying to make you mad. Our goal is to get you in and out. You're not the only one who complains about the wait, everyone does and we hear you. We just can't see into the future. Please wait until we acquire this ability and we will be more than happy to schedule you at a precise time.
