MANAGEMENT - How to Avoid Overbooking Patients around the Holidays

It’s been a rough year! We all need a break!

We routinely close the office during the week between Christmas and New Years to allow our staff to enjoy more time with their families.  Unfortunately, the last day before the break and the first day after the week we're slammed!  Broken brackets, lost retainers, rescheduled appointments, and other unexpected appointments made our schedule swell to an unmanageable level!

We survived.  But by the end of these days, everyone was exhausted.

After several years, we finally decided to do something about it.

We noticed that the day before and the day after being closed for the week, we would average about 20-25% more patients than a routine day.  So as an experiment one year, we decided to relieve the pressure by doing the following:

1. We removed 20% of the archwire adjustment slots on the scheduling grid on:
   1. the last day before the week off and
   2. the first day after the break.

For example, if the grid normally had 80 patient slots on those days, we eliminated 16 archwire adjustment slots evenly throughout both days.

2. Even though they knew the schedule was altered, the front desk was instructed not to add any additional patients on these two days when scheduling routine adjustments. (Simply act as if that time was not available)

3. Two weeks prior to the holiday break, we added the 20% archwire adjustment slots back onto that final day before we would be gone. Then in the two weeks before the break when I asked to “get this patient back in before I leave”, there was room available on the schedule.

4. Similarly, a few days before the break, we added the 20% archwire adjustment slots back onto the grid for the day we returned. Then, when any unexpected appointments came up during the week I was out of the office, the skeleton crew answering the phone had room to schedule them without overloading our first day back. 

It worked!  It was so successful that we began using the same procedure for all week-long vacations throughout the year.

If you’ve had similar problems, give it a try.  It may not be too late now to adjust your schedule for the end of this year. It will eliminate those difficult days around vacations and make for a Happier Holiday.