As a dentist, what would you do in this situation?

[PocketRocket]

You work for a practice and today you are the only doc working. You are up to your last patient of the day and it looks like they are not showing up because they are already 20 minutes late. You tell the secretary and the assistants that we are closing up shop because you have to be out of the office in 10 minutes anyways. The office, as advertised, technically closes in 10 minutes as well. As you are about to leave the patient shows up with her 3 kids telling us that she was coming from far away and that the traffic was really bad. She begs us to understand. The patient is scheduled for a 30 minute treatment.

Do you stay and care for the patient or do you tell the patient that you are sorry but you have to leave so they are going to have to reschedule???

Is this technically on the patient because he/she should have considered road conditions when figuring out traveling time?

What do you guys think?

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[Screwtape]

Take care of the patient.

 

[mrdocta]

I'd have my Secretary call the patient five minutes after their scheduled appointment time if they still weren't there. Especially since its last patient of the day. Figure out if it's best to fit the patient in late or to just reschedule. Not your fault they missed their scheduled appt time.

 

[Daurang]

Depends.

If it's your own practice, stay and take care of your patient.

If you only work there, some corporate place pretty much expect you to take care of your patient thru lunch and thru after hour.

If you're male doctor and the patient is female, tell them all your staffs already shut down all machines and left for the day. You would love to but you're not allowed to treat female patient alone due to reason they'd understand. Then reschedule.

 

[CMistry]

Of course it is the patient's fault; regardless, I would treat them that day. Don't expect success if you're not willing to work for it, right?

 

[DrJeff]

Unless it involved me absolutely 100% having to leave the office to say pick up my kids, with no way of extending their pick up time, or say catch a flight, I'm staying and treating the patient - chances are you'll end up getting more patients via word of mouth from that effort on your part

 

[Saddleshoes]

This is why a BACK DOOR is a must for all dental offices.

You do it like this...
#1 Lock the front door.
#2 Announce to the staff the last patient is a No Show.
#3 Tell the staff to turn off the lights and shut it down.
#4 Everyone leaves out the back door.
#5 Stop by 7-11 on the way home and have celebratory big slurpy for an "early out".

 

[PocketRocket]

This happened the other day at the office I work at and I felt so bad for her. When we told her that the doctor is leaving and it was ultimately up to him, I saw her eyes tear up. She grabbed her 3 kids and just walked out. I'm pretty sure we lost that patient for good. But I just felt soooo bad for her. If I was the doctor, as much as the staff would hate me I wouldn't have the heart to send a patient away like that.

This is why a BACK DOOR is a must for all dental offices.

You do it like this...
#1 Lock the front door.
#2 Announce to the staff the last patient is a No Show.
#3 Tell the staff to turn off the lights and shut it down.
#4 Everyone leaves out the back door.
#5 Stop by 7-11 on the way home and have celebratory big slurpy for an "early out".

We do have a back door haha. I'll introduce this method next time at work. It definitely makes it easier on our conscience.

 

[Daurang]

We used to open 9am-9pm, 7 days/week, 365 days/year. Yes...July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Xmas. We had patients everyday. Even Christmas Day we had 7 walk-ins. When you're pre-dent and new-dent, you have all the energy in the world. After seeing 20,000 patients later, you'll burn out and need take care of yourself first and foremost. There are exceptions of course.

 

[I want to go to there]

You take care of the patient. Not only is it good thing for you to do, but you are only working 20 min late for the chance of getting a loyal customer with 3 kids. That's potential of 4+ loyal patients.

 

[mrdocta]

But what happens when patients begin to realize that you will always fit them in even when running late? If this wasn't last patient of the day then this could potentially screw up the rest of the day/days to come if there's no solution for late patients failing to make there appt on time. Gotta find a happy medium somewhere. I'd take one pissed off patient when it's their fault for running late rather than causing problems for the rest of the patients scheduled that day.

 

[510586]

But what happens when patients begin to realize that you will always fit them in even when running late? If this wasn't last patient of the day then this could potentially screw up the rest of the day/days to come if there's no solution for late patients failing to make there appt on time. Gotta find a happy medium somewhere. I'd take one pissed off patient when it's their fault for running late rather than causing problems for the rest of the patients scheduled that day.

My dentist has a fine if you're like 30 minutes late lol Idk if that is standard practice or not. I had to sign a waiver (normal stuff I wasn't late) and it mentioned a late fee.

 

[cmcner]

My office it's 15 min late is a missed appointment. 2 missed appointments is deactivation. My time is valuable. When they don't show up I don't get paid, the ones that are late and miss are always late and always miss. I'm also booked out 3 months so they cost another pt a chance to get seen sooner.

 

[dentalschoolstudent]

You work for a practice and today you are the only doc working. You are up to your last patient of the day and it looks like they are not showing up because they are already 20 minutes late. You tell the secretary and the assistants that we are closing up shop because you have to be out of the office in 10 minutes anyways. The office, as advertised, technically closes in 10 minutes as well. As you are about to leave the patient shows up with her 3 kids telling us that she was coming from far away and that the traffic was really bad. She begs us to understand. The patient is scheduled for a 30 minute treatment.

Do you stay and care for the patient or do you tell the patient that you are sorry but you have to leave so they are going to have to reschedule???

Is this technically on the patient because he/she should have considered road conditions when figuring out traveling time?

What do you guys think?

Take care of the patient. When you do so in those situations, it builds your practice. It's free marketing when they tell their friends.

 

[m1817]

Patients and patients alone determine whether your group practice succeeds or fails. It is the responsibility of each and every employee of the practice to serve patients.

If you refuse to treat the patient, not only are you passing up an opportunity to generate immediate revenue, you risk the possibility of losing long-term revenue streams, not only from the patient but from the patient's family and friends. Treat the patient and be pleasant about it as if the patient was on time.

If you scheduled your time such that you had to be out of the office by closing time, that your problem, not the patient's.

Treat others the way your would like to be treated. This is especially true when you are in the the personal service business.

Just because you graduated from dental school doesn't make you better than anyone else.

 

[bigstix808]

when i've had times like this arise i typically just evaluate how "badly" i need to be out of there. usually, no problem staying. however, i have also been in a situation where my staff needed to leave and a pt showed up late.

just because you're the dr of the office, you need to respect your staff's time also. they have families, obligations and such too.

but to OP, use your best judgement. if you want to treat them, do it. if you're itching for happy hour, peace out the back and find that 7-11

 

[PocketRocket]

Yeah I think this is a tough spot and really depends on the case. But it looks like the consensus here is that we take care of the patient first! At the end of the day, that is what we signed up to do. We chose the life of service. But yet there are issues of keeping your staff happy too so it also comes down to personal preference and the goals that you set out to accomplish as a practicing dentist. But man it is really annoying when a patient is 20 minutes late to their 30 minute appointment and then they expect us to take them before the person that's scheduled right after them. The struggle is real!

 

[DrJeff]

To further elaborate on this topic, since it is becoming a very real, and regular thing at my office right now, and will be for the next 4--5 months. My office is on the main road through my town. There is a river that bisects the town. The state Dept of Transportation about 3 weeks ago started doing work on the bridge about 1/3 of a mile from my office that the main road in front of my office feeds into. The detour root, depending on the time of day can now take an extra 10 to 15 minutes than it used to to get to my office from the other side of the river. This detour is well marked, and the traffic issues, well publicized in the community, and also on all of the patient appointment reminder/confirmation communications we send out. We're still regularly seeing 2 to 5+ patients PER DAY right now arriving 10+ minutes late to their appointments because of the construction detour traffic issues. We're seeing them. We're also using more of our over flow rooms at times to try and at least get everyone into an operatory on time, even if we're not yet done with the patient prior to them because of the traffic issues. Patients appreciate this. Rarely have I found that a patient whom you make a one time effort to see them when they arrive late. will continue to arrive late

 

[jippyslim]

Treat the patient. You're not doing the work for free and the benefits outweigh leaving 30 mins later than normal. Delays do happen. Chances are the dentist has arrived late at some point and a patient had to wait. Do you know how hard it is deal with 3 kids by yourself? No wonder why some people can't help but view dentists as cold money grubbers.

 

[jippyslim]

To further elaborate on this topic, since it is becoming a very real, and regular thing at my office right now, and will be for the next 4--5 months. My office is on the main road through my town. There is a river that bisects the town. The state Dept of Transportation about 3 weeks ago started doing work on the bridge about 1/3 of a mile from my office that the main road in front of my office feeds into. The detour root, depending on the time of day can now take an extra 10 to 15 minutes than it used to to get to my office from the other side of the river. This detour is well marked, and the traffic issues, well publicized in the community, and also on all of the patient appointment reminder/confirmation communications we send out. We're still regularly seeing 2 to 5+ patients PER DAY right now arriving 10+ minutes late to their appointments because of the construction detour traffic issues. We're seeing them. We're also using more of our over flow rooms at times to try and at least get everyone into an operatory on time, even if we're not yet done with the patient prior to them because of the traffic issues. Patients appreciate this. Rarely have I found that a patient whom you make a one time effort to see them when they arrive late. will continue to arrive late

well said

 

[setdoc7]

See the patient. Patients in my practice are reminded when making appts to call us if they encounter traffic, or are going to be late. That is what the cell phone is for. We all have one.

 

[bingpredent]

See the patient, because we are DOCTORS.

Helping people is what we do.

 

[oralcare123]

I find it disrespectful to be late without even calling the office. The only exception I would make is for the emergency