Advance Multiple Schedule

Hi, this is Dave Kats for Therapist Consultants, and I have a tip for you. One of the things we see that really builds a practice is if you advance multiple schedule of your patients.

Now what does that mean? Well, whenever you have a patient come in, when you have a patient come in, you realize that they're going to come in for a certain number of visits. That's going to take a certain number of visits. Now sometimes it's only going to take 2 or 3 or 4 visits, and that's fine, but a lot of times it's going to take 15 or 20 visits and that's fine, too. What you need to do is, at the end of the second session, when you sit down with them the second session and say, "I think you need to come in. We ought to dedicate the next 15 Wednesdays at 3:30. Can you carve out the next 15 Wednesdays at 3:30 to make this relationship the best it can be?" They say yes, then go the rest of the mile, the next mile, and schedule all 15 visits on that second visit.

We teach our clients, when they see a patient, they decide how many times that patient has to come in. Then they present the plan to that patient. Then at the end of that visit, which is the second visit, they schedule all the visits, all 15 visits, all 18 visits, however, many visits it is, we schedule them all. Now you may say, "I just schedule the first month. I tell them they got to come in 15 times, but I just schedule the first month." Well, you know what? That's a good jumping-off place. If I was your patient, I'd think, "Well, he only wants me to come in for a month. I'll probably be better then. I can probably quit coming at that time."

Every time you take a break in the scheduling, it gives them an excellent opportunity to jump off and discontinue care with you. If you're going to have a big practice and you're going to do everything you can for the patient, make sure that you show them a program that they can live with, and make sure that you schedule all the visits all at the end of the second visit. You'll see your practice go up about 30% and it'll never go back down. This is Dave Kats. Thanks for listening.