Scheduling appointments. This just might be the NUMBER ONE and MOST IMPORTANT task that you do most often as a Patient Relations team member-so understandably, we want to provide A LOT of training for you so that you can become a scheduling MASTER! In this super packed module full of amazing training, you will review the different types of appointments we offer here at Professional VisionCare, how much time and where to schedule these appointments, as well as detailed training on HOW to schedule appointments! Don’t skip anything in this module, even if it feels like you are reviewing some of the same info more than once—this is on purpose so that you know this information inside and out! Remember-scheduling appointments correctly is one of your tracked goals for your review!
Ready to dive into scheduling appointments correctly land? Start with LEVEL ONE: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT APPOINTMENTS WE OFFER and work your way on down through the module!
Those slideshows pretty much nailed all of the information you need to know about the basics of scheduling appointments-but there is still a lot more to learn! This next section spells out some more specific information that will help you become more familiar with scheduling appointments correctly, as well as some insight on a few tricky exceptions that you need to know! Read through this important training, and then there will be two videos that will show you the scheduling in action on Eyecare!
Special Notes Regarding Scheduling Appointments
The different type of appointment slots on the schedule (EX, IN, DL, ME, CL, VT, NO etc) are on the schedule for a reason—every slot has been purposefully placed on the schedule due to consideration of a number of factors. So it’s very important to follow the “Type of Slot of Schedule” column when scheduling appointments.
For example, you should never schedule an exam in two intermediate slots, because doing so will cause double booking of the pretest room, delay in staff/doc lunches, or eyewear selections after we are closing, causing staff to stay extra late.
You also shouldn’t schedule appointments like contact lens checks or follow ups in exam slots. The exam slots are specifically counted and added so that we can reach certain goal, so taking up these slots with appointments OTHER than exams can drastically cripple our fill rate, our collections, and our ability to get other patients in for exams. There are exceptions to this rule, however:
The following appointments are ALLOWED in an exam slot, but you should look for 2 intermediates FIRST: Post Op, CRT Fit, and NP Emergencies
If we have any SAME DAY or SAME WEEK exam slots open, those can be offered as well.
But if you are scheduling any appointment OTHER THAN AN EXAM for a couple weeks out (meaning not urgent or shouldn’t be seen right away), you should ONLY schedule in intermediate slots. If you run into issues finding availability, please let your manager know, or ask a doctor for permission (AND ADD NOTES) to schedule in an exam slot.
When an existing patient calls in to either schedule or reschedule their annual exam, it should always be labeled as “EP Exam,” even if it originally was scheduled as an “annual.” There are recall steps that occur based on the “annual” labels, and cancelling the previously scheduled “annual” appt will trigger that the postcard needs to be changed.
With several appointment types, you will note that only specific doctors see pts for certain things. For example, ONLY Dr Johnson, Dr McClure, Dr Windham and Dr Bill can have OCTs, Gonios, or CRT related appointments on their schedules. Scheduling an appointment for a patient with a doctor who doesn’t do that service will require you to call the pt back and reschedule with an approved doctor, and that is both embarrassing and inconvenient to the patient.
Notes Required: ALWAYS go the extra mile in adding notes to the appointments that you schedule. You don’t need to write a book, but the more information you relay in the notes section of the appt, the better the patient’s and your team member’s experiences will be when they come in for their appt. Here are the following appt types that REQUIRE NOTES:
ANY EXAM: no matter which exam you schedule, from EP Exam to MDCR Exam to Special Needs Exam, you MUST ask the pt if they are a current contact lens wearer, and add NOTES regarding their answer! If they do wear contacts, please quote the patient the fees for the CL Eval and add this in your notes (i.e. pt is CL wearer, quoted $59+/ram). If they do not wear contacts, simply note “not a cl wearer/ram” in the appt notes.
ANY EMERGENCY: whether new patient or existing patient, all emergencies should have a triage made, and notes in the appt indicating this (i.e. “see triage in doc bag”).
ANY CONTACT LENS CHECK: if a patient is being scheduled (or rescheduled) for a contact lens check, make notes as to WHY. Are they scheduling because they can’t see as well out of their right contact? Put that in your notes. Are you just rescheduling a 6 month check? Put that in your notes.
ALL POST OPS: indicate in the notes what kind of surgery/procedure was performed on the patient (i.e. “post for right eye cataracts removal”)
ALL RX CHECKS: if a patient is wanting in to schedule an RXCHECK for their new eyewear that doesn’t seem to be working well, the first thing to ask is if they have had a chance to come in and meet with one of our optician experts in the BTQ. Educate them that 9 out of 10 times, the issue is not in the rx but in the adjustment, and the expert optician can pinpoint the problem in the glasses themselves, and fix it! No appointment with the doctor necessary to schedule. (If the patient agrees to this and comes in to see the optician, an “RX TRIAGE” should be created by the optician in the doctor bag). If the patient calls in and they already met with an optician and are still having problems, look for the rx triage in the doctor bag, and when you schedule that rx check for the patient, make notes of whether there is an rx triage made or not. If NOT, please make notes of what the problem is with the eyewear/rx, so that the docs/OAs know where to start.
FOR ALL FOLLOW UPS: Follow ups need AS MANY NOTES AS POSSIBLE. If you are rescheduling a follow up, check the original appt for notes. If there are no notes and the patient didn’t know why they needed to schedule a follow up, check the PLAN and ROUTING tab in the patient’s doctor bag from their most recent visit. You will probably see notes of why the doc wanted the patient to come back in these sections. But if there are NO NOTES anywhere and the patient has no idea, simply write in the appt notes that “pt did not know reason doc asked for follow up, no notes listed in Plan or Routing tab.” Lastly, if a doctor asks you to schedule a follow up but gives you no info as to why, and there is no info in the Plan or Routing tab indicating why, simply put “scheduled follow up per doc’s initials.”
Again, the more notes the better as it helps the flow of the appointment move smoothly and without the patient having to tell their problem several times, the OA fumbling to know where to begin with their pretesting, or the doctor having no clue why the patient is back to see them!
Cataract post ops should be scheduled 1 week after surgery and with ANY DOCTOR that has availability! The patient may not be able to see the doctor they usually see, but just stress the importance of them being seen by a professional optometrist at the 1 week time frame, and that all of our doctors are professional EXPERTS and they will be in good hands! For all CRB patients, please schedule them with any doctor, but send her a todo so she can follow up with them.
YOU SHOULD NEVER SCHEDULE SPECIAL TESTING or SPECIALTY CONTACT LENS APPTS ON SATURDAYS!!! Also, you should NEVER take a SATURDAY EXAM for anything other than an exam appt! The reason for this is that Saturdays are a hot commodity for our patients, and we want to have as many exams to offer them as possible! Only exception: doctor specifically asks you to schedule on a Saturday, and NOTES SHOULD BE ADDED!
If you are scheduling multiple intermediate appts, such as a Gonio/IOP/photos/dfe, you should choose the heftiest service as the appt reason (GONIO in this example), and make sure that ALL the services are listed in the remarks and notes!!! This is vital so that the OA knows what parts they should start with, and to ensure that all the services are completed by the OA/Doc.
Can’t find an appointment with the time/date/doc the patient requested? ANYTIME THIS HAPPENS, please do the following:
Let the patient know that we can put them on our Priority List so that they can be notified if their preferred appt becomes available-would they like us to call, text, or email them?
Add the patient and their preferred appt details to the Wait List, along with the preferred method of communication.
Let the patient know that you had added them to our Priority List, so we will contact them at their preferred contact method if that appt opens up, but that we want to reserve an alternate appt for them in case their preferred time doesn’t open up.
Then schedule the patient for the next appt that works for them.
SAME THING GOES FOR THRESHOLDS!!!
Lastly, DO NOT put doc initials in an appointment UNLESS THEY TRULY APPROVED IT! One approval for an appointment doesn’t cover approval for all future appts of that type. Every individual appt that needs doc approval should be approved by doc.
The Components of a correctly scheduled appointment
There are SEVERAL factors that make your appointment correctly scheduled. Many think its just the appointment on the schedule, but there are several things that should happen during the patient interaction that all contribute to the accuracy of the appointment on the schedule. To begin this section, watch the video on how to schedule, cancel, and reschedule appointments. Then, read through the written training that goes into further details and adds some specifics to certain patient requests. Lastly, this module will finish with a video demonstrating how to create a new patient account in Eyecare, and the differences you will need to know in scheduling a new patient exam. Happy learning!
When a patient wants to schedule an appointment:
Hopefully when you greeted them, you already thanked them for wanting/emailing/texting/coming in and letting them know that you are happy to assist them!
Then you want to assure them that you can absolutely schedule them the appointment that they need, but first you need to verify/collect some information from them!
If it’s a new patient, you will create a new demographic with all the info, including address, email address, phone number, full social security number, DOB, account responsible info, and vision plan benefit information (name, DOB, gender, and ID #)
If it’s an existing patient, you need to verify address, email address, phone number, and this year’s vision plan benefits.
REMINDER: if the patient doesn’t want to give you their email address, please click the “Declined Email” box on their demographic screen.
REMINDER: if the patient only has a cell phone number and no “home” number, please list the cell phone number in the HOME and CELL fields. This will help that phone number pull correctly for texting, appt remarks, confirmation calls, etc.
REMINDER: boldly ask for the patient’s FULL social security number when either filling out a new patient demographic or when updating vision plan benefits. Just getting the last 4 digits may prevent us from acquiring a vision plan benefit authorization, and require additional phone calls and frustration. The phrase that commonly works for this is: “And for your records we need your social security number so that we can utilize your vision benefits, if I can get that from you now?” If you do get a protest, explain that we completely understand their concern, but, just like most health care providers, in order for us to use their health benefits for their billing, we do need this information. If they would prefer not to disclose their social security number, we would be happy to try to pull an authorization with just the last 4 digits, but if that isn’t sufficient for their particular plan, we will be unable to bill and will have to bill them as a self pay patient.
REMINDER: if the existing patient has both medical and a vision plan listed, the VISION PLAN SHOULD ALWAYS BE a “1” and the MEDICAL PLANS a “P.” This is vital for billing purposes.
REMINDER: make sure the “Plan” section on the patient’s demographic shows the correct vision plan benefit, or if the pt doesn’t have a vision plan, updated to the pts medical insurance.
REMINDER: if it’s a new patient or an existing patient with a new vision plan, YOU MUST CREATE A NEW INSURANCE ENTRY for the patient, that includes ACCT RESP NAME, DOB, GENDER, RELATION TO PT, and ID # (OR SOCIAL OF ACCT RESP if they don’t have a unique ID). Make note of medical insurance in the appt notes if there is no vision plan benefits or the appt is not an exam or cl related appt.
REMINDER: This verification should happen with EVERY APPT YOU SCHEDULE, not just exams!!!
Once all of that information is update/verified, determine what kind of appointment the patient needs to schedule!
By this time, you may already know what kind of appt you are scheduling for the patient. But remember to check when the patient last had an exam. If it has been OVER a year, you MUST schedule them for an exam regardless of what they asked for, UNLESS ITS AN EMERGENCY.
If they are wanting to reschedule an appt that is already scheduled, make sure you copy/paste the original appt notes into the new appt that you are scheduling for them, but always make sure the remarks are correct and with your initials on the new appt.
If they are wanting to schedule a POST OP, ask them or check their dr bag for what kind of surgery they had.
If they are wanting to schedule a follow up, check the dr bag’s plan or routing page for what the follow up is for, and add notes.
If they are wanting for a CL CK, ask them if they are having any challenges with their contacts. If their challenges sound like the health of their eyes are in trouble, do an emer triage! If it sounds like their contact lens rx or brand need changed, or if they just need a 6 month check, schedule as a check!
If they are wanting for an rx check for their new eyewear that doesn’t seem to be working well, the first thing to ask is if they have had a chance to come in and meet with one of our optician experts in the BTQ. Educate them that 9 out of 10 times, the issue is not in the rx but in the adjustment, and the expert optician can pinpoint the problem in the glasses themselves, and fix it! No appointment with the doctor necessary to schedule. (If the patient agrees to this and comes in to see the optician, an “RX TRIAGE” should be created by the optician in the doctor bag). If the patient calls in and they already met with an optician and are still having problems, look for the rx triage in the doctor bag, and when you schedule that rx check for the patient, make notes of whether there is an rx triage made or not. If NOT, please make notes of what the problem is with the eyewear/rx, so that the docs/OAs know where to start.
Once you have ascertained what kind of appt they need, and BEFORE YOU ASK THEM WHEN THEY WOULD LIKE TO SCHEDULE, check if this appt is something that can be scheduled in one of your SAME DAY openings at any of the offices. If it is, offer the same day appointment that is open FIRST!
If its an exam, make sure it has been a full year since their last exam before offering same day openings.
If it’s a follow up, make sure the patient is due today before offering same day openings (for example, if it’s a 6 month IOP check, make sure its been 6 months.
If the same day openings do not apply to the patient, and ONLY if its appropriate, here’s your chance to offer the patient the opportunity to schedule their appointment at our newest location, Lewis Center! Here are just a few of the perks of our new location to share with the patient when offering LC appointments:
A modern and stylish office with a huge showroom
Patients get to choose their own music to listen to during their exam
Brand new “kids zone” with movies, toys, and fun!
Minimal (if any) wait time for appointment
Quieter, less crowded office
Eco friendly office with no paper!
Newest innovations in eyewear displayed and available to try
Complimentary water and chocolate for all patients
If the same day openings and LC do not interest or apply to the patient, ask the patient if they have a preferred day, time, or doctor that they would like you to check.
Remember to use the search function as often as you can, especially with doctors who are out of the office and other doctors are filling in!
If you are scheduling an exam, search “Ep Exam.”
If you are scheduling anything other than an exam, use “SEARCH IN” to find intermediate slots. Need two intermediates slots back to back, keep searching until you find two back to back to offer-don’t immediately resort to an exam slot!
Once you have found an appointment time that meets both the patient and our practice’s parameters, schedule the appointment, celebrating with the patient that we found something that worked for them!
Make sure the correct patient name is on the appointment.
Change the appointment reason to the best description of the appt.
In the notes section, you must include the following elements EVERY TIME:
Appt Abbreviation (list as many as you can)
Insurance/Vision Plan Abbreviation
Vision plan abbreviation if its an exam/cl related,
Medical Ins abbreviation if its any other type of appt or if pt has no vision plan benefit
“Self Pay” if the patient has no insurance or benefits
Your Initials
EXCEPTION: If the patient has to come in early to their appt for testing or per the doc, you must list the arrival time for the pt in the remarks!!!
Add NOTES!!!! As much info as you think could be helpful to the PR team, OA, Docs, and Opticians. Make sure to include the required notes for Exams, CL Checks, Follow Ups, Emergencies, Rx Checks, and Post Ops.
Save the appointment and REPEAT the now scheduled appt with the patient: “Awesome-I now have you scheduled to see Dr Bill for a 6 month pressure check on Friday, August 12th at 4pm! That appointment is scheduled at our Westerville office, and we look forward to seeing you then!”
If it’s a new patient or you scheduled the patient at a location they have not been to before, offer them the address and/or directions! Additionally, refer them to our website if they would like to learn a little more about our practice: www.professionalvisioncareinc.com!
Can’t find an appointment with the time/date/doc the patient requested? ANYTIME THIS HAPPENS, please do the following:
Let the patient know that we can put them on our Priority List so that they can be notified if their preferred appt becomes available-would they like us to call, text, or email them?
Add the patient and their preferred appt details to the Wait List, along with the preferred method of communication.
Let the patient know that you had added them to our Priority List, so we will contact them at their preferred contact method if that appt opens up, but that we want to reserve an alternate appt for them in case their preferred time doesn’t open up.
Then schedule the patient for the next appt that works for them.
Now that the appointment has been scheduled-this is your chance to talk about Share the Care!
Ask the patient if they have heard about our Share the Care program (our referral program where patients receive a $15 credit on their account for EVERY new patient they refer to our practice)?
If they have, ask them if there is any family or friends they would like to schedule to receive that $15 thank you?
If they have not, explain what Share the Care is, and if they would like to schedule any family or friends to receive that $15 thank you?
Last step: Ask the patient if there is anything else that you can help them with today? If not, THANK THEM for wanting/emailing/texting, and end with accolades!
Phewwwwwww! So much goes into correctly scheduling appointments, but as many of you know, it doesn’t actually take that long to complete all the parts listed above—it just feels like extra because all of the variances that you may experience when scheduling for a patient!
Each and every part has a specific reason behind it-most reasons were casually explained above, but if you have any questions, please let your manager or Raquel know, and we would be happy to go into more detail!