OMG....he booked more than one appointment!

Booking the appointments

Do you currently write down for the patient exactly what the problem is and what you are going to do about it? Yes/No

Does the patient sign a commitment to this treatment programme? Yes/No

Does your patient sign consent? Yes/No

Do you book all the treatment sessions in the diary after the consultation? Yes/No

Write down all the benefits to the patient of having their course of treatment pre-booked

Advantages to a Patient of Pre-Booking their Course of Treatment

Hopefully you will have listed some of these already:

• They can get the days and times for their appointments that suit them most
• They can make arrangements in advance to reduce conflicts with their other life appointments
• They know what kind of commitment is needed to achieve the agreed goals
• They can budget for the cost of treatments
• Their focus will (hopefully) shift from pain relief to functional goals
• They will understand that we are interested in treating the cause of the problem, not just the symptoms

You’ve probably come up with additional advantages that I haven’t even considered!

There may also be advantages to the clinician and the reception team to having appointments pre-booked. I’m sure that you can think of some. But we are interested in what is best for the patient, so we’re not going to go down that avenue at the moment…..

Explaining it to the patient

Its simple: If you can understand what the patient needs, and why, you will be able to explain it to the patient easily and with conviction.

If you find yourself relying on pre-prepared scripts to explain why the patient needs what you are suggesting, then you do not fully believe it yourself, because you don’t know what the problems are.

Commitment

If you and the patient are able to agree some functional goals, then they will be more likely to commit to seeing the plan through to completion.

Get the patient to sign their consent to the treatment plan. This will encourage commitment.

Booking

If the patient needs 4 treatment sessions, get them to book 4 treatment sessions. If they need 10 treatment sessions, get them to book 10 treatment sessions.

Once you have done your report of findings, tell your receptionist what treatments you want to get the patient to book up and get them to do it.

Treatment programmes should all be booked ahead for all of the reasons that you have listed previously! No excuses

There is a sample report of findings here. Feel free to copy and use it in your clinic

(Note: Don't just start doing this in your clinic without having gone through it all with your reception team in advance, otherwise they'll think you've flipped)!

Summary:

Ensure that you have considered the 5 influencing factors of a patient’s problem (see previous section)

Write down hypothetical treatment plans for common conditions so that you understand all that you typically need to do with patients

Every patient is different, and their treatment plan should be tailored appropriately.

Find out what the patient’s goals are – write them down!

Agree appropriate functional goals – write these down too!

Patients should sign consent and commitment

Congratulations! You have a plan!

There are lots of reasons why a patient would benefit from pre-booking their appointments (you made a note of these earlier, remember)?

If you find yourself struggling to commit to doing this, then just try it 'as an experiment' for the next 10 patients, and see what you think after that. Then you'll have a balanced perspective on it.