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{ 4 comments }
Overbooking seems a solution, but it has had a paradoxical effect, after becoming a not only common, but standard practice.
Extended waits leave patients with the understanding that if they miss their appointment, they are doing everyone in line, not to mention the poor, overworked, harried doctor and his staff, a favor if they decline to appear. And if they do, that is does not signify if they are a half-hor late or more for an appointment, as the “real” appointment time is likely to be that or even longer.
I don’t propose any solutions for the aggravations on both sides of the waiting room door, and overbooking may be the best solution…but only if it does not dramatically extend waiting times in a given medical practice.
Wouldn’t simply charging for missed appointments be easier as well as fairer to everyone? The doctor can choose to waive it if there is a valid reason, but the policy can still be there. It can be written in large letters on some poster in the office.
Diora, that idea might make sense in theory, with all the warnings in place, but in practice, it does not really deter no shows all than much.
Eliminating low-dollar insurance plans, HMOs and Medicaid works better.
I think you have to decide early what kind of practice you want. If you want to serve people who show up and do so on time, then you need to create a practice friendly to them and respectful of them by avoiding overbooking, not seeing people who show up late (as they make every else late all day), and charging no shows so that they will either keep the appointments or else move to a less organized practice.
If you overbook, then you train people to be late and make tentative appointments that they may not keep–and you make your practice unfriendly and inconvenient to people who value their time and yours–so it is then that later group that moves their patronage.
There is room in every community for both kinds of practices.
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