Breaking barriers to enhance patient experience

Lack of appointment availability can be an obstacle. Private practice and premium service also comes with the assumption of personalised care and therefore choice. For a lot of patients they feel as they are paying for private dentistry they should be able to choose exactly when they will be seen, and don’t appreciate restrictions on their choices. 

I have often offered several available appointments to patients, which they refused, for them to then say that ‘we don’t have any availability’ for them. Using Dentally can help with this. Proactively, careful zoning, reserving spaces for check ups and emergency appointments so that other treatment space can remain free to be booked, can help greatly. 

The search feature is also a great tool, as it allows reception team to quickly offer multiple appointment options, not only does it allow the patient to feel as if their time is being respected, but that in giving a choice to the patient they feel they have agency and gets the patient more involved in their own treatment. Even something as small as an appointment choice can allow the patient to feel listened to and catered to. 

Thanks for reading x. 

Great points Esther. I agree that in a private practice, there are some assumptions on the behalf of patients. We have our calendar zoned into morning/afternoon sessions so I’ll usually start out by asking a patient if they prefer  morning, or afternoon - then give them 2 options to choose from. If neither of those work, I say something like ‘that’s ok, let me see what else I can do for you’ and have a look at a couple more. I haven’t had too much pushback to be honest with this approach. However I don’t know if you are operating in the UK and if things are different there, compared to the Australian market?