Chiropractors: rebooking patients before they leave

Rebook patients before they leave by making it the last step of every visit: agree on the next date while they're still on the table or getting dressed, book the slot yourself from your calendar in under a minute, and let them go with the time already confirmed. When you've agreed on a series of visits, book them all before the patient leaves. Keep a few slots each week out of this routine, so new patients can still find a first visit on your page.

A patient who leaves without a next appointment has to remember to book, find a time that suits them and hope it's still free. Some will do it that evening; others will do it weeks later, or not at all, and come back when the problem has returned. When you've recommended a follow-up, the easiest moment to fix it is while the patient is still in front of you and the reason for coming back is fresh.

For a practice without a receptionist, the challenge is doing this without creating a queue at the door or eating into the next patient's time.

Keep your Book calendar open on a tablet or computer in the treatment room, so you don't have to walk to a desk. If a patient prefers to decide later, send them your booking page link and let them choose.

When you and the patient have agreed on a series of visits, booking only the next one means repeating the conversation each time. Book the whole series instead. The patient leaves with all their dates, and you can see your coming weeks filling up.

Choose the same weekday and time where possible. A regular slot is easier for the patient to keep and easier for you to plan around. If a date needs to change later, reschedule it from your bookings list and let the patient know yourself, since Book doesn't email them when you move a booking.

How often you see a patient is your clinical decision, and it often changes over the course of care: closer together at first, more spaced out later, perhaps a regular maintenance visit. Your calendar needs to follow that change.

If every returning patient is rebooked weeks ahead, your page can fill up until a new patient finds nothing for a month. New-patient visits are their own service with their own slots, so decide how many you open each week and keep them out of the rebooking routine. Don't give a new-patient slot to a returning patient just because it's free; open an extra adjustment slot instead if you can.

Look at your calendar a few weeks ahead once a week. If the adjustment slots are nearly all booked, that's a sign to open more hours, or to space maintenance visits a little further apart.

Some patients prefer to book on their own. They open your page, choose the visit type and a free slot, and book without an account. They receive a confirmation email, and you receive an email for each new booking. Book doesn't send reminders, so for visits booked weeks ahead, you may want to send your own message the day before.

Not every patient knows their schedule at the end of a visit. Rather than leaving it open, agree on a deadline: "Book it from my page by Friday, or I'll call you on Monday." Note it in your own follow-up list. It keeps the decision with the patient without letting the next visit slip for weeks.