One of the Patient Relations goals is the “fill rate,” which is simply what percentage of our schedules are filled with patient exams. There are seasons where our schedules tend to have more openings, or times where we have multiple cancellations that can negatively affect our fill rate, and its the responsibility of the PR team to spring into action to try to fill these openings on our schedules!
In this module, we will talk about a few very important tools/tasks that you can access and prioritize to make sure that as many of our exam openings are filled with patients that we can care for. We will discuss the Wait List (aka Priority List), Target Dates, Share the Care, and the Family Incentive. These are not the ONLY strategies we have in place for you to fill the schedules, as periodically there are other opportunities that may come up! But these are the most common strategies to fill our schedules that will be especially helpful if you need to fill some openings quickly.
waitlist (aka priority list)
When patients call to schedule an appointment, often they have a specific day/time/doc/location that they were hoping to schedule their appointment for. They will often ask for these specifics, but as our practice is always hopping and our schedules are often full, the specifics the patient is looking for is not always available. If you remember from the appointment scheduling module, when this happens, you always want to offer those patients the Priority List (called Wait List in Eyecare, but Priority List is a way better way to explain it to a patient, because who wants to wait? But who wants to be a priority? Feels better to say, am I right?).
The Priority List (aka Wait List) is a feature in the Eyecare schedules where you can add a patient and what their preferred appointment date/time/doc/location was that we didn’t have available at the time of scheduling. The list keeps that info listed, so that when there are openings that may meet the criteria the patient preferred, we can call and offer them that specific appointment.
So first, let’s talk about how to add patients to the waitlist:
Click the appointment icon to open the appointment scheduling window. You will see an icon for the waitlist in the blue bar across the top of the window. When you click on this icon, it gives you the option to either “move appointment to waitlist” (which will simply move whatever appointment that is currently highlighted on the schedule to the waitlist, keeping all notes and information the same–this is one is the easy one, as it's just moving an appointment that already exists. This is helpful for patients who need to reschedule, but we don't have any available appointments meeting all of their criteria available at that time), or “view waitlist” (this is generally what we want to do, which is what we will go more in-depth about).Upon clicking “view waitlist,” a new window will open with the waitlist.
In the top left corner, you will find and click the plus sign icon that says “add” (make sure you are in the screen for the patient you are adding to the waitlist in eyecare). This will pull up a new window. In this new window, you will find patient name and primary phone number auto-populated, and then a set of drop downs menus for selecting Location, Plan (insurance), Login (provider/doctor), Reason (type of appointment), and Department (ALWAYS select “no department”). The most important information to put in is appointment type, preferred location, and preferred doctor.
After filling in the appropriate information from the drop down menus, there will be a section for “comments”. The comments section is a box for you to put any relevant information that will help the person checking the waitlist schedule the patient. For example: If the patient has a specific day of the week and/or time of day that they need to schedule for, this is where we put that information. Another typical notation used for this section is if the patient is has a preferred doctor or location, but have a secondary doctor/location that they would be willing to go to/see, we want to document that! Simply save and that patient has been added to the Waitlist! Remember to still schedule the patient for their appointment at another time that was their second or third choice if possible, and simply let the patient know that we will contact them if their preferred time becomes available, but we have reserved an alternate time just in case, so they don’t have to wait even longer for their care! Very important!
now, let’s talk about how to use the waitlist to fill our schedules
Every single day, you should be looking at “today’s” schedule, tomorrow’s schedule when pulling next day benefits, and next week’s schedule when pulling one week benefits. As you look at these schedules for other tasks, look to see if there are any openings! If there are any openings or cancellations, this is the PERFECT time to pull up the Waitlist and see if there are any patients who would LOVE to schedule in that available time.
Simply go to the schedules and pull up the Wait List. Scan through the patients who are on the wait list and read the notes for each patient-if there is a patient who preferred to schedule an appointment in a time that you found is now available, you will want to immediately contact the patient and offer them this exciting time that they wanted! Give the patient a call or email/text them with a really positive “good news” vibe and let them know that we are thrilled to share that their preferred date/time/doc/location for their upcoming appointment is now available, and to contact you to claim that new appointment!
When contacting someone who is on the waitlist, we ALWAYS document the date the patient was contacted, what appointment was offered, and patient's response if they do not schedule offered appointment or if we left a voicemail (we document this to make sure that we are not calling the same patients repeatedly and/or offering the same appointments). If you have found a good appointment that works for that patient, then you will schedule them and remove them from the waitlist. Voila! You have mastered the waitlist! But before we move on to the next strategy to fill schedules, take a look at the video below and see the Wait List in action!
target dates
What are target dates? Target dates are simply doctor schedules in the next two weeks that have 3 or more exam openings available. We call them “target dates” because these are the days that we want all staff (especially PR) to target as they offer appointments to our patients. This is a HUGE opportunity to fill our schedules, but paying close attention to which days need the most scheduling attention.
Each week, one of your fellow PR team members who is in charge of Target Dates will send an email to ALL staff about the upcoming target dates. They will list which doctor’s schedules and which locations have 3 or more exam openings available. When this email comes out each week, I recommend that you print it off, and place it right next to your computer for easy reference.
Then, as patients call to schedule their appointments, you can offer these special target dates FIRST to patients, and see if it will meet their needs for their appointment. Be sure not to tell the patient that this is a “target date,” rather phrase it as “I have some ideal openings on this day/location/doc.” Focusing on these target dates will help our fill rate soar!
share the care
Share the Care is an AMAZING word of mouth incentive that we offer all of our patients (and employees). What is it and how does it work?
It’s super simple.
Share the Care is this: If patient’s refer new patients to us, we will give them a $15 credit to use towards their next purchase at PVC! Our patients win, because they get free money to use towards those awesome glasses that they were eyeballing, and PVC wins because we get a little help in filling our schedules-which WE ABSOLUTELY NEED!!!
A HUGE way that you can impact our fill rate and fill those openings on our schedule is by TALKING about Share the Care with every patient you talk to! But how? Easy peasy lemon squeezy. When you have a happy patient, simply say the statement below and hand them one of the Share the Care cards that will be at every front desk, exam room, and optician desk/area-or if you are on the phones, simply say the spiel below:
“Hey it was really great to see you (talk to you) today, and if you have any family or friends that you think would enjoy our care here at Professional VisionCare, please let them know about us! You will receive $15 for every new patient you send our way!”
Sooooo quick and simple---but it’s a huge way that you can impact filling our schedules while also giving our patients an awesome opportunity to earn some PVC money!
family incentive
The last tool that you can implement every day to help fill any openings on the schedule is what we call our “Family Incentive.” Patients call, text, and email to schedule their exams all the time, but they don’t always think about when their family members may be due for an appt. So as another strategy to fill our schedules and ensure our patients are getting their regular care, we are asking you to offer to schedule patient’s family members when they call you.
Here’s how you can do this:
When someone calls to schedule-take a look at their listed family members on their account-if their last date of service was over a year ago, simply suggest: “Oh hey, I see that Vivian is also due for her exam, let’s go ahead and schedule her real quick and save you a phone call!” Or “I see that you have a couple of kiddos that also need an exam scheduled, let’s reserve appointments for them real quick as our schedules are filling more and more each day!”
If there are NO family members on the account, simply suggest: “Thanks so much for calling to schedule, and while I have you on the phone, can I assist you in scheduling any of your family members for an appointment?”
It doesn’t have to be weird or awkward-just conversational and caring, and here’s the kicker:
FOR EVERY ADDITIONAL APPOINTMENT YOU SCHEDULE IN A SINGLE PHONE CALL, YOU WILL GET 5 HUB POINTS! Simply write the additional family members that you scheduled on a piece of paper, and submit that list to your manager each week, and she will add those points to your Hub account! It’s an awesome way to help families stay compliant with their care, and an amazing way to keep our schedules nice and full! Make a habit of talking about scheduling family members, and you just might earn TONS of Hub points!