How to reduce no-shows

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.

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.