Getting an appointment

[fleur26]

Do any of you sometimes struggle to book your next appointment when you're leaving the ortho? My orthodontist always says to me "see you in six weeks" but then the battle with the receptionist begins where I have to fight often just to get six weeks often I have to take seven and at a really inconvenient time for myself. How is everyone else? I'm thinking maybe I should phone back and try and change it but this receptionist is new and seems to have started some new rules about only seeing the private patients at the end of the day, which doesn't really work for me.

[plugnickel69]

I always get an appointment without any trouble, and if the ortho gives me a choice, like three or four weeks, I always make the sooner appointment first thing in the morning so I can go in on the way to work. If they are booked up they'll put a later time in the appointment book, but tell me to come in when they open. I never have to wait to be seen and they never rush me out.

[Tobilei]

My appointment gets made while I'm sitting in the chair waiting for my ortho to come into my room. They do ask me what's most convenient but he's really busy so I can't always pick and choose. Generally if it's hard to get in I take whatever is available.

[Ciara]

Usually I can get whatever appointment I want. My ortho has changed her schedule to suit me....they know I can't cancel a class to get an adjustment.

[starfish88]

I have no problem getting an appointment but it does help that I don't work Wednesdays. My ortho does do regional work though so sometimes I have to wait an extra week.

[AdultGettingBraces]

I am about to be treated at one of my orthodontists regional offices. It's been 6 months between first consultation and finally getting braces, obviously this is because he can't take on every new patient at once. However I am now a bit worris treatment might take that little bit longer...

Generally if he says something like make an appointment for 6 to 8 weeks I will just tell the receptionist the 6.

[EbonyQ]

Being both a pt and an assistant at a ortho clinic I know both problems.

Most orthos don´t look at their schedule but rather trust that their assistant in the reception to give them the information that they need (who is the next pt, what the next pt has, what chair the pt is in, if there are some information he needs to know about etc). Therfore they don´t know which week is full or which is not. When he is finish he often just say “see you in about five weeks” to the pt and I know that this is 4-6 weeks depending on when we can fit the pt in.

It is my job to not put too many or few pt on our schedule, and it is therefor not always easy to give an appointment that fits both us and the pt. I love those pt who is like “yeah, just give one the next appointment when you have time”, I want to kiss them every time They make my job so much easier!
Those pts who can only come at a specific time and date are very difficult ones but we always try to meet in the middle.

Some just can´t understand that we do not have time or capacity to give them an appointment when they want. We really try to meet their needs but we are humans too not superman
Sometimes we work late because a pt can´t come when we are open because some reason and if this is a one timer that is fine, we are happy to help the pt and understand that sometimes our working schedule is difficult to meet. But those who expect us to always bend our back for them and work late hours or push them in our schedule that spesific time and date even though we already are double booked are very difficult to meet, we always try to find something that both are happy with though.

Why not book two appointments when you book your next one? Your next one and the one after that one. We tend to do this with our difficult pts. and it works very well

And try not to shoot the one giving your appointment if she is really trying to help you, our job is not always that easy

[bmueller]

I sometimes have difficulties booking appointments and I'm not that inflexible. Supposedly people have reviewed my Ortho and said that it's always accomodating for them to book. Not me. Last time, I was given one day/time option for the whole week! And it ended up being on a day I had business meetings so I had to cancel my work meetings to go to the appointment.

I don't understand it since I typically prefer the times that nobody else does... 9-10:30 am and 1:30-2:30 pm. When I do go, I'm often the only one or one of the few in the office, too. Strange.

[Kipepeo]

No trouble. I usually have the same time slot each visit, regardless of the number of weeks out. I literally work about 8 mins away, chair to chair, so I take midday appts. I usually get mine at 11:10 or 11:30. They are always on time.

They have this electronic system where it coordinates where the doc is supposed to be at any given time during a day. So for a normal 20 min appt, the doc time is during minutes 5-12 or something. The next chair over, may have her schedule adjusted off that one by 10 mins, so the ortho is actually scheduled to go from chair to chair to chair. It's not haphazard at all. They have these paging buttons that puts a particular assistant's chair in a queue in order, and blinks on the wall with where he's supposed to go next. I was always wondering how the doc always showed up right when my assistant needed him, until I asked one day, and she explained how the whole system works. I'm usually in and out within that 20 mins. And I spend just 30 mins out of the office. It's perfect for me.

[Ciara]

Why not book two appointments when you book your next one? Your next one and the one after that one. We tend to do this with our difficult pts. and it works very well

I've done that with the dentist but never thought to do it with the ortho!!! That would actually make it much easier for me since we are often asked our availability for meetings a few weeks in advance.