How to properly schedule patients is a topic that most chiropractors have discussed with their staff on more than one occasion. After all, the flow of your day at your chiropractic clinic is essentially determined by the schedule controlled by your staff who book your appointments. Therefore, in general, they have their life in their hands.
Many practitioners suggest that group booking patients on time is the secret to good office flow and I would have to agree 100%. Group booking is easily one of the most critical skills your staff must possess and by not putting the right amount of training and role play effort into creating programmers it is nothing less than practicing sabotage.
Grouping patients on the schedule simply means that you have patients set up one after the other or several over a time slot, rather than putting them into “gaps” in the schedule, resulting in one at 9, one at 9:20, the next one at 9:40 and so on.
Cluster reservation is one of the maximum capacity protocols which allows for faster and easier clinical growth for many reasons, including the following.
1. you will do more things. Booking patients in groups or consecutive visits will naturally create gaps in the schedule for other activities for staff and providers. If you had four patients between 8 and 11, and those four patients are spread evenly throughout that time period, the problem is that by the time you and the staff are done processing and seeing that patient, the next one comes in about 15 or 20 minutes.
That really doesn’t give you a lot of time to really focus on setting up your next promotion, or give staff time to focus on billing or doing recalls on patients who have fallen off schedule.
Booking patients into groups helps you have ‘free’ time naturally. And hey, if your practice is so busy that you don’t need to bundle the book because there’s no time in between anyway, more power to you.
2. You will provide social proof. By booking as a group, you ensure that patients will see patients in your office, which increases your credibility as a sought after doctor.
If you have a patient at 8am, 9am, 9:30am, and 10:30am, there’s a good chance they won’t even see each other walking in or out of your office. Your goal is to get that patient together from 8, 9, 9:30 and that one from 10:30 to 9, 9:10, 9:20 and 9:30 (or all in the same time slot depending on your flow and efficiency level) , if your patients are scheduled 10 minutes apart, for example.
By making sure patients see other patients, everyone now knows that many others find their practice desirable. Everyone likes a little confirmation that they made the right decision.
3. It generates good energy.. A busy office has good energy and is also a place other people want to go. Even if your office is not currently at the level of daily patient volume you want it to be, scheduling patients together helps give you, your staff, and your patients an idea of how fun and positive the clinic environment is when there is commotion of activity and healing energy in the air.
Positive energy is a powerful force that everyone loves to have in their lives, but very few have it during their daily routine in today’s high-stress, deadline-driven society. Your clinic should be your patients’ escape from the harsh and often negative reality of life outside of your practice. You are his sanctuary.
And besides… the good energy in your practice makes the day go faster for you and the staff and creates a better environment for your patients.
Assuming you are a capable and efficient adjuster, grouping patients one after the other or even several within the same time interval should in no way create a scenario where you or your patients feel that the treatment was less than perfect. In reality, the opposite will occur because as you move from patient to patient, you have present time awareness that will ensure a deeper and more focused connection with the patient.
The key to creating a bundled schedule and ensuring you experience all of its benefits is to ‘control’ the hours you offer patients so you can get them where you want them. Just as you don’t allow patients to dictate their own treatment plans, you also need to manage your scheduling habits and do everything you can to avoid gaps between patients that are really just wasted space in your now inefficient and less productive day.
You will grow significantly not only as a doctor, but as a competent chiropractic business man or woman and enjoy your practice day more as you manage your patients’ time on the schedule to ensure a smooth day filled with patient groups.