Copy the whole procedure, then edit it in your own document.
Purpose
Every appointment slot is either confirmed or given to someone who needs it. Urgent patients are seen within [14] days of referral.
1. Confirm 72 business hours ahead
Contact every patient 72 business hours before the appointment. Count business hours only: a Wednesday appointment is confirmed on the Friday before.
Call first. If nobody answers, leave the confirmation voicemail and send the confirmation email straight after.
Mark the appointment as confirmed only when the patient or family answers yes by phone, email or reply.
2. Release at 48 business hours
If there is no answer by 48 business hours before the appointment, release the slot. For a Wednesday appointment, that is end of day Monday.
Tell the patient by voicemail and email that the slot was released and that they will be offered the next open one.
Expect Mondays to be busier. Plan an extra hour of booking time on Monday afternoons.
3. Move a patient at most twice
A released patient goes into the next open slot that fits their urgency.
If they are released a second time, offer one more slot. After the second move, return the referral to the doctor who sent it, with a note of every attempt and its date.
Nobody is pushed forward forever, and the referring doctor always knows where the patient stands.
4. Fill every freed slot
Keep one cancellation list: patients who would come in sooner if a slot opens.
When a slot is released, offer it first to the most urgent referral waiting, then to the cancellation list.
When an urgent referral arrives and the schedule is full, move one routine patient to another day and add them to the top of the cancellation list.
On days with no urgent referrals, work the cancellation list until every slot this week is filled.
5. A person checks each step
[Name or role] reviews every release before it goes out, and every returned referral before it is sent back.
[Name or role] checks the cancellation list each morning and the confirmation log each afternoon.
Nothing on this list happens without a person looking at it.
6. Record keeping
Log every confirmation attempt, release and move on the patient file, with the date, the time and who did it.
Review the number of releases, moves and returned referrals once a month.