Having a full schedule is crucial, and one way to ensure that is to focus on your Pre-Appointment Percentage. It refers to the percentage of active patients who leave your office with a future appointment already scheduled, and you can calculate it by dividing the number of active patients who are scheduled for a future visit by your total number of active patients. Ideally, you want this number to be above 65%, because it will benefit your practice in several ways:
- Starting the month with a full schedule creates stability and keeps you from relying on last-minute attempts to fill chairs.
- Patients with treatment scheduled are less likely to fall through the cracks and leave your practice.
- A full, predictable schedule creates momentum and confidence across the team.
Keeping this metric above the 65% benchmark is crucial to your practice’s financial health, and you can make an impact today with these strategies:
- Set the expectation that every patient leaves with their next visit scheduled.
- Use outcome-based language when scheduling, such as tying appointments to the patient’s health goals.
- Implement a reliable report and follow-up system for unscheduled patients, and make sure that someone “owns” them.
If your patients aren’t scheduled for treatment when they leave, it’s a problem. It puts your practice at risk for losing patients to attrition, not to mention wasting thousands of dollars each year on recall attempts. It should be the default, not an option, that your team consistently schedules the next visit before the patient leaves.
Your first step on this journey is simple: calculate your number. If you don’t like where it is, start implementing countermeasures and see how the number changes. Over time, you’ll discover what works best for you, your practice, and your patients.
