Scenario: (Based on a True Story!)
You have a busy day ahead with patients scheduled back to back all day. Your 9AM goes fine, your 10AM walks in and it’s one of your favorite long term patients, let’s call her Cathy… you guessed it, Chatty Cathy!
Cathy arrives, you welcome her and she starts to tell you about little Johnny’s first day of school, it’s a great story but by the time she’s done sharing it, it’s already 10:15!
You start to ask questions about her symptoms / health issue and you listen intently and take notes as she proceeds to tell you about her headaches, hot flashes, low energy etc. and how “just last week at the store… blah, blah, blah”, and it’s now 10:30 and you haven’t even started sharing her lab test results yet.
By the time you cover the lab results and discuss her care plan and describe the right supplements for her to take, it’s 11:05 and your next patient is waiting since 11:00AM. Just as Cathy is about to leave, she says, “Oh I meant to ask you, could you take a quick look at my ear, I think I may have an ear infection?” You love Cathy, she’s been a patient for years and you want to help her, and you agree as it will only take you a minute.
10 Minutes later Cathy leaves happy!
But now your 11:00 o’clock patient has been waiting for 15 minutes and your schedule is off for the rest of the day trying to catch up. By the end of the day, you are exhausted, you spent most of the day starting your appointments with “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting…”, no charting is done yet, you skipped lunch and you need to go home!
Sound familiar?
What can you do to keep your patients on track and on schedule?
Three solutions:
- Plan and prepare your appointment conversation.
- Take Control by Setting an Agenda.
- The 10 Minute Wrap Up
Plan & Prepare Your Conversation:
Know your answers before you ever get the questions! Sometimes when I share this information people think it sounds impersonal, and scripted. It’s not! It is professional and shows you care because you are prepared.
Take the time to plan out how you will manage your appointments. How you will greet the patient, what you will say, how you will manage your time, what you will say to avoid Chatty Cathy’s lengthy stories without offending her, how you will discuss the health issue and care plan, how you will wrap up the appointment, how you will handle the last minute “Oh just one more thing…” requests.
Click here to download my Free 7 page pdf guide “10 Powerful Phrases to Keep Your Patients on Track” that every ND should have on their tool belt.
Set an Agenda:
Having a simple agenda for your appointments and sharing it with every patient every time they come in is usually enough to keep most patients on track. I don’t mean a written agenda, but instead a simply conversation that you use after the initial welcome chat and it goes something like:
We have about 50 minutes left together for our appointment today. We have a lot of important issues to discuss, and I do have another patient at (time) so how about I set an agenda so we can get the most out of our time together? They always agree!
- First I want to ask you some questions about how you’ve been doing
- Next I want to discuss your (Test results/ Diet/ Nutrition/ Progress ???)
- I also want to chat about/review your health goals
- And lastly I’ll share/update your care plan so you know exactly the steps to take to get/stay healthy
- Does that make sense?
- Is there anything else you want to discuss during our time together today?
- Great let’s get started … tell me about your…
For most patients, that simple agenda will prepare them to be efficient and on task with their conversations and their stories.
The 10 Minute Wrap Up
If you appointment was from 10 to 11, don’t wait until 11 to end your conversations. Most patients will have last minute questions or need 5 – 10 minutes to “gather themselves” and prepare to leave.
Be aware of the time and start wrapping up the appointment at 10:50 by summarizing what you did together in the appointment today and making sure they are clear on the next steps for them, what supplements or vitamins you recommend (and how to buy them from you) and lastly asking if they have any “last minute” questions.
I recommend you always have a clock in the treatment room, I know some doctors don’t like that, but often they are the ones who go over time in their appointments. In fact I recommend that you have a “bar clock” in your room! Most bars have their clocks set 15 or even 30 minutes fast so the patrons finish their drinks early and leave at or before closing time. While I’m not suggesting you have yours set at 15 or 30 minutes early, a clock in the room set 5 -10 minutes fast helps keep patient appointments on schedule. (It also lets you glance at the clock discreetly to keep you on track!)
Folks, if keeping your appointments on schedule is a challenge you face in your practice, I hope you embrace these three tips … they will get you back on track.
Click here to download my Free 7 page pdf guide “10 Powerful Phrases to Keep Patients On Track”
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