In 2012, while Mike and I were at a financial planning course, the speaker tasked us with making a list of all the areas where we were bleeding money and resources.
Having recently stepped out of patient care to help manage our growing practice, I recognized a huge inefficiency in our front office. Cancellations were high, and our schedule utilization was extremely low. It meant that we weren’t helping the number of patients we should have been, and as a long-time PT, that was very upsetting.
At that moment, I decided that THIS would be my focus: improving patient arrivals and schedule utilization by helping my front office team improve their ability to manage patients effectively.
I set a one-month goal to have a day where the schedule was completely full before the start of the day AND then have every patient show up for their scheduled appointment. This meant no cancellations. This scenario meant we would be 100% efficient AND 100% effective in helping patients see how important it was to show up for care.
I shared this idea with my front office team, who were on board and accepted the challenge. It was ‘game on’!
But how could we achieve this monumental goal of no cancellations when our arrivals were running between 70-80%?
A Pink Unicorn Day means no cancellations
It seemed like such a big and impossible goal that we decided to call it a ‘Pink Unicorn Day’ because unicorns are rare, mystical creatures, and well, the likelihood of having a day where the schedule was completely full with no cancellations felt as impossible as seeing a pink unicorn!
Have you ever felt that way about something?
To help my team achieve their big goal, I knew I needed to teach them how to take their customer service and patient management skills to the highest possible level. This meant taking a long hard look at what it takes to get patients vested in their care and willing to show up as scheduled. It also meant revamping our entire front office training and improving our systems to manage our patients better and stay on top of their care.
I started working with my team on patient-focused customer service and began building better systems for patient management, something we hadn’t seen anywhere else.
It led to front office training and systems like no other. Within several weeks, we achieved our first pink unicorn day, 100% arrivals on top of a full schedule! No cancellations. Needless to say, we did a happy dance that Friday afternoon when all 30 spots were filled, and every single patient showed up as scheduled.
Going from a 25-30% cancellation rate to no cancellations was a HUGE win for us!!!
Once our team had their first pink unicorn day, there was no stopping them. We went from an average 75-80% arrival rate to a consistent 95%, week after week. As the practice has grown from 30 visits per day to well over 80 visits per day, my training program has been used to train and retrain our front office team. And now that I’m working with other practices, I’m finding it works for any size practice! They get to experience no cancellations also.
Want to have a ‘Pink Unicorn Day’ like Panetta Physical Therapy?
If so, keep reading!
Let’s take a look at Panetta Physical Therapy. As I’ve worked with them over the past eight weeks, they’ve taken to my one-of-a-kind cancellation prevention program and patient management systems.
Like many PT practices, Panetta never had a cancellation program they felt comfortable implementing with every patient across their four clinics. That is, UNTIL NOW.
Their investment in training their front office teams has been well worth the time and effort. Their team now has the necessary skills to prevent same-day cancellations and effectively handle those patients who cancel. They now have scripts and training to quickly get a new hire on board, and they can use this for retraining and staff compliance year to year.
In just two weeks of implementing my cancellation prevention program, Panetta PT saw one of their clinics jump from 70% arrivals to 93% FOR THE WEEK!
And last week, their Roslyn office had its very first Pink Unicorn Day! No cancellations! In fact, it’s game-on for the entire Panetta PT team. I’m confident that before we’re done, every one of their clinics will achieve 93% arrivals and have had at least one pink unicorn day!
Get ready for no cancellations
My Basic Patient Care Coordinator Program isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for practices that:
- Want to excel and are ready to take it to the next level,
- Who see how important it is to have a well-trained front office team who can and will help their patients get the care they need,
- Those whose purpose are PEOPLE HELPED,
- And practices that are willing to invest the time and do what it takes to implement proven training and systems.
This program isn’t just about customer service. It’s about providing your front office team with the skills necessary to help more patients get the care they need, to get patients scheduled and keep them on the schedule – not because you want a full schedule or experience no cancellations, but because your true goal is helping more people get the results they’re looking for.
Let’s face it, most patients don’t understand how physical therapy can help, but with my Patient Arrivals Program, your front office team will understand how they help your patients. They’ll be able to help more people through better patient management and front office systems.
Want to learn more? You can schedule a FREE Discovery Call to learn more about my programs and how I can help.
Wishing you the best, today and always!
Dee
