Be sure to respond to two of your classmates and add information to their posts. 1st students discussion Time Specific Scheduling In my opinion, to run a great office, you need to have good morale in...

Time Specific Scheduling

In my opinion, to run a great office, you need to have good morale in the office space. I would try to choose a scheduling method that would help run the daily appointments smoothly for both patients and staff. I think that using the time specific stream scheduling method would be the best method especially if you have multiple providers in the office. I believe it to be more precise when it comes to scheduling. Ideally when using this method, patients know exactly when to arrive and know that they will be seen shortly after checking in as long as there are not any unforeseen emergencies. Providers would know exactly what they are seeing a patient for and how much time they would need to spend with each one. It would help maintain a steady flow and prevent an overload of patients in a certain time frame. I would try to leave specific slots open for sick, well, follow up appointments, and of course lunch break at different time frames daily. When closer to flu season I would schedule a nurse twice a week to help keep up the demand on flu shots. I think it is important to try and accommodate a patient as best as possible and having these appointments available daily would help. Depending on the number of patients seen daily I would try to keep two receptionists at the front desk and have them take turns for lunch. This way someone Is always available for any patients walking in needing information, picking up records, or needing to make an appointment. For cancellation and rescheduling, I would allow up to 24 hours prior to the appoint to notify the office. After 2 no shows in a row, we would have a letter sent out, and possibly ask the patient to seek care elsewhere after the 3rdconsecutive no show. I would hope that this scheduling method would keep patient satisfaction rate up and keep my staff organized and stress free, overall keeping everyone happy.

2nd students discussion

If I were an office manager for a new medical practice, I would first collect some data before creating a scheduling matrix. A couple of things I would need to know before building a matrix are the names of the doctors, their respective schedules (hours and days). I would also confirm if there are any types of therapies or treatments that occur in office that would also need to be included in the scheduling matrix as a modality. The scheduling method would be based on the needs of the office. To start, I would choose aTime Specific StreamScheduling method until it is determined how best to streamline appointments based on patient volume.

I would set up the weekly schedule starting from Monday through Friday with weekends closed. Clinic hours would begin at 8am, and end at 5pm. Lunch breaks will be scheduled daily beginning at 12pm and end at 1pm. The schedule would be set up with a 15 minute block at 30 minute intervals. This would allow each doctor to see 3 patients every hour with a block to catch up on notes. New patients will be scheduled for 30 minutes and return patients will be scheduled for 15 minutes. This means the last new patient should be scheduled for 11:30am before 12pm lunch and 4:30pm before clinic closes at 5pm. The cancellation policy will stipulate that a patient is required to give the office 24 hours notice of a cancellation or re-schedule. If notification is received in less than 24 hours, a $50 cancellation fee will be assessed and charged to the account.