I'm sitting here at work, manning the desk while the technicians look for new glasses. You probably think it's a slow day today, but it's been far from that. We had 8 people in the first 2.5 hours. So...my thought for today is....what does anyone reading this think about walk in appointments for health care? That could be dentists, optometrists, general physicians, chiropractors, etc. I'm not talking urgent care appointments...just that you decided you wanted something done (ie a new pair of glasses, a cleaning, etc) and walked into a facility. Is this something that will continue to become dominant in the US health care because people value their time more than their care? As you can probably read into this..I'm not a fan of walk ins. We do take them where I work, but we fit them in around our appointments. Because of that...our appointments can often get behind if the person that walked in was more of a challenge than we could fit in at the time. I love it when people that are over 75 com in and are wheelchair bound and expect to have the undivided attention of the doctor for at least 30-45 minutes (can't rush most older people) and expect to not have to wait at all. I have to admit that if we have a lot of appointments and a lot of walk ins that my care and time I take with the patients decreases...how much depends on how far behind I get and the type of patients there. I really wish people would have realistic expectations when they ask for a walk in appointment. What do you all think? Do you walk in for health care appointments? If a place said they took walk ins would you think that you couldn't schedule an appointment? Let me know what you think.
Monday, August 07, 2006
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6 comments:
I usually don't try walk-ins because I hate waiting in health care offices, and I figure that's probably what I'll have to do if I try a walk-in. I wasn't really aware that many places do walk-ins. I learn something new every day. Also, I would be irritated if I made an appointment and then walk-ins delayed my appointment so I had to wait!
Mel
I always make an appointment... because I'm a scheduler who likes to know how my day's going to go. The main thing is if I get my appointment when it's scheduled, regardless of if there are walk-ins or no.
I also am a scheduler, so I like to have an appt. As a patient, I get annoyed when I have an appt, but am delayed becuz' of a walk-in. I also don't feel that it's fair thay my health care or anyone else's should be compromised in order to accomodate walk-ins.
One last thought - if a healthcare provider is not in an area that gets a lot of traffic - i.e. the mall are walk-in's that common?
I don't know if walk ins are common in other places. I had heard that one of the HMO's here was going to start walk ins for half their patients and continue appointments for the other half. I didn't hear if they really did that or not.
Brenda and I just read this and she suggested having walk-ins half the day and scheduled appointments the other half. Maybe it's a nice problem to have? (Too many customers).
I know I'd get annoyed if I had an appointment and walk-ins got in ahead of me!
I think that being in a mall is asking for walk-ins. If I wanted to walk in (which I don't - I make appointments and wouldn't go to one in a mall for some reason) I would expect they would do it at the mall. It sounds like you accept walk ins as a way to fill out the schedule if you are slow (extra patients = extra dollars). I would turn them away if you are already busy (or have them schedule an appointment).
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