Health practices: balancing new patients and follow-ups

Split your week deliberately between new-patient appointments and follow-ups: give each its own service and slot length, decide how many of each you open per week, and keep that pattern for several weeks before adjusting. Book follow-ups yourself at the end of a visit, and leave the new-patient slots on your public page for people who don't know you yet. A practice that fills every slot with follow-ups stops taking new patients without meaning to; one that opens only first visits loses track of the patients it already treats.

Follow-ups are booked at the end of each visit, weeks ahead, so they quietly take the best slots. New patients arrive later and find nothing before next month. The opposite happens too: after a quiet period, a practitioner opens many first visits, and a few weeks later has no room for the follow-ups those patients need. Planning the split in advance stops both.

A first visit includes history, examination and explanations; a follow-up is shorter and more focused. On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service with one place. Separate services let each have the right length and show you, in your bookings list, how your week is divided.

Durations and prices are examples: set your own. Use the first consultation description to say what to bring, such as referral letters, recent results or a medication list.

Decide how many new-patient slots you want each week, then place them: for example two in the morning on three days, or one at the start of each half-day. Open those slots in the first consultation service, and the rest in the follow-up service, repeated weekly on the weekdays you choose until an end date. Keep the pattern for a few weeks so you can see whether it works.

First visits tend to run over. Put them where an overrun does least harm: at the end of a morning before a break, or before a short check rather than before a long consultation. Avoid placing them back to back, so one long first visit doesn't delay the next new patient too.

When a patient needs to come back, book the follow-up yourself from your calendar before they leave, in the follow-up service. First and last name are required, email and phone optional; enter the patient's email so they receive a confirmation with a calendar file. Book doesn't send reminders, so a date already in the patient's calendar is what brings them back. Follow-ups booked this way go into follow-up slots only, so the new-patient slots stay free for people who book online.

Look at your bookings list every couple of weeks. If new-patient slots are full weeks ahead while follow-ups have gaps, convert a few follow-up slots into first consultation slots for the coming weeks. If follow-ups are full and patients can't be seen at the interval you want, do the opposite. Small changes, tested for a few weeks, work better than redesigning the week every Monday.

Some patients need to be seen soon. If your practice takes such requests, keep one or two short slots near the end of each day for them, and say in the description that they're for patients already followed. Fill them from your calendar when someone calls, so they don't disappear into routine bookings made weeks ahead.

When the first free new-patient slot is far away, say so honestly in the first consultation description, and suggest calling if the need is pressing. Open new-patient slots at least a few weeks ahead, so people can book now for a date that suits them rather than checking your page every day for a cancellation.

Patients can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you reschedule or cancel from your bookings list. Rescheduling works across services, so a first visit can become a follow-up slot if needed. Book doesn't email patients about changes, so tell them the new time yourself. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract. It handles appointments only and doesn't store medical records.