SUCCESSFUL WAY TO HANDLE CANCELLED APPOINTMENTS

I suggest the following steps as a successful method to handle patients or clients that have cancelled a scheduled treatment appointment:

1.      When someone calls to cancel they need to be reminded of the importance of the treatment plan, their specific medical health need and immediately rescheduled.

2.      If they do not reschedule, this indicates that they have some questions or concerns that have not been addressed and which need to be handled.

3.      At this point you, if they don't reschedule, the doctor needs to call them and follow up on why they are not continuing with the treatment plan. The doctor needs to ask them what happened and/or why they are not scheduling. Listen to their answer as there is something that must be handled, such as past experiences that were not good, alarming information they’ve heard about the treatment, financial concerns, etc.

4.      Get the information and handle it by providing the additional information the patient needs so what ever their concern was it has been addressed.

5.      Once they are handled, reiterate the importance of the treatment plan and get them scheduled for the next visit.

These steps have improved patients rescheduling after previously cancelling treatment appointments.