At Professional VisionCare, our patient’s visual health is our top priority, and one of the key ways that we help our patient’s stay compliant with their visual health needs is by doing “Recall.” Recall is simply scheduling the patient for their exam next year on the day they come in for their exam this year, ensuring that their vision is checked annually. This is done by the opticians during their interaction with patients who have come in for an exam. For example, if Bob comes in today for an exam, the optician should schedule his exam for next year.
Recall is also incredibly important to fill our schedules for next year. Because patients often forget or disregard reminders to schedule their appointments, scheduling their appointments in advance improves their compliance. It also improves our schedule fill rate, which is vital for business! Opticians do have a recall goal to schedule at least 80% of all exam patients for their annual exam next year. This is a stat that is regularly reported so that you know exactly where your team stands in relation to the goal. The good news is that historically, opticians are able to achieve between 75-95% recall compliance, so that goal is regularly met!
Here is how it works:
When the patient gets checked in at the front desk, the Patient Relations team member working at the front desk will give the patient a Recall Postcard for the patient to self-address. This postcard is simply an appointment reminder postcard of their annual exam, with space to put the information of their appointment. We have the patient self-address the postcard as studies show that people are more inclined to read a piece of mail that has their handwriting on it-sounds crazy, but it works!
As the optician works with the patient to fulfill the doctor’s treatment plan, pick out eyewear, and collect funds, they will also discuss recall (scheduling next year’s exam) with the patient. Using carefully curated verbiage, they will schedule next year’s exam for the patient and with the patient’s consent. [These exams will be scheduled as Annual Exams.]
Sometimes a patient will not be in the office for an exam appointment, but the doctor wants you to schedule an annual exam within a certain amount of time. For example, there may be a patient who comes in for an emergency appointment, but is overdue for an exam. The doctor will ask you to schedule their annual exam when you check them out. [These will be scheduled as an EP Exam or NP Exam.]
Using the correct verbiage when discussing recall with a patient is vital for patient compliance. It is important to pose the question as “what day would work for you” vs. “do you want to schedule” as the latter is often easily dismissed by the patient. See the example below, and create a variation of your own to use that still touches on all points!
Alright Bob, let’s go ahead and schedule your annual exam for next year. Would you like to stick with Dr. Johnson? Do Tuesdays work best for you, typically?
If the patient provides any pushback or declines to schedule, a simple response such as:
I completely understand that it is tough to know your schedule that far in advance. Typically, our patients find it is easiest to get something scheduled now so that you have something booked and our system will send you the reminder for your appointment about a month ahead of time. Then, when you get your reminder you have plenty of time to reschedule if you end up needing to!
If the patient still isn’t interested, we won’t push it past one thought out response.
The most challenging part of the recall conversation is just remembering to talk about it with the patient. So we ask that every optician make it a priority to discuss recall with EVERY exam patient.