Time = Patient Satisfaction

One of the biggest sources of patient dissatisfaction is when a provider is significantly late for their scheduled office visit. No matter what healthcare specialty you are in one of the most important things you can do for your patients is to be on time.

Use your own office policies as the rules to govern your own practice. If you give patients a 15 minute buffer to be late before you have to reschedule their appoint then why is it ok for you as the provider to have a patient wait in an exam room for an hour before you see them? This policy needs to work both ways and if it does you will have an efficiently run clinic and patients who are very happy with how promptly they were seen.

Patients have options and if they are consistently made to wait for routine office visits then it is only a matter of time until they seek care elsewhere. Again, today’s climate with lower reimbursement rates often force practices to double or potentially even triple book patients but you must do so in a way that is manage for the staff and for you to stay on track. Keeping your clinic on schedule is not only important for your patients but also for your staff.