With everyone on a tighter and tighter schedule these days, we can’t afford to waste our time or our patients’ time. Patients expect to be seen either exactly on time or no more than 15 minutes late…..anything beyond that is unacceptable and a great way to lose patients for the practice. While we constantly strive to keep the assistants and doctor running on time and smoothly, we also need to be sure the front office is doing the same. Our front desk staff should be aware of who’s on the schedule, when they arrive and when they’re late. Even in a very busy office, I should be able to ask a front desk assistant how the afternoon is looking and get a good answer…..without them having to pull up the schedule and look. While I don’t expect them to be able to rattle off the name of every patient, I do expect they always have a mental overview of what’s happening in the office and whether we’re on time or not….and if we’re running late, I expect them to know why and have appraised any waiting patients of the situation so they may reschedule if needed. The front office is our best time keeper……and when they’re not on the job, we’re not on time and we’re not making our patients happy.
