Scenarios & Examples: 6
Telling patients we are completely booked on that day
Example: Patient called to schedule an appointment for her husband Jason. She asked if the following Thursday was available. The person who answered said “I am completely booked on that day, are there any other days that work?” The patient mentioned Tues and Wed would work and again she said “We are completely booked on those days. We normally book out a week ahead of time…” The wife mentioned it was the only week Jason had off so he was hoping to get in. She ended up scheduling him for a late appt in August. Please do not tell patients we are “booked”. We ask that you avoid the negative and tell them what we CAN do for them. We want patients to know we are here for them and care about their needs and their schedule. Instead, you can say, “well let me see what I can do” after the patient mentioned he had the week off. Or, if you knew there were no moving things around, instead of just saying we are booked on Thur and asking if any other days work, you can skip it altogether and say, “It looks like my next available appointment for Jason would be _________” If nothing else worked then tell the patient, “Let’s go ahead and get him scheduled for a different week and if something should open up next Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, I will put him on our ASAP list and give him a call; does that work for you?”
