Filling Your Pediatric Practice Schedule During School Hours

When you have a patient calling in for an evaluation, you should never schedule their evaluation during your after-school hours. Evaluations are only done during the day. Once they are through the evaluation, you can schedule them for treatment in those after-school hours. That’s how you fill your schedule between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M.  

Parents are going to say, “I don’t want to pull them out of school…” or “I can’t take time off work…” Maybe grandma can bring them. Tell the parent, “All our evaluations are done during the day, but then the treatment will accommodate your after-school hours.” 

Should You Do an Evaluation if You Have No Available Treatment Times?

There are clinics that do not believe you should do an evaluation if you don’t have treatment times available. I am not of that belief. First of all, it’s going to fill your schedule between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M. 

Second, the child may not even need therapy. Don’t leave a parent waiting. Get the evaluation completed. The parent may just need a couple of tips and tricks to help the child. Maybe they didn’t have puzzles at home and they just need some puzzles. The point is that you need to do the evaluation even if you don’t have openings for therapy. 

Talking to a Parent about Scheduling Their Evaluation 

Here’s how the script would go when talking to that parent to schedule their evaluation. 

1. “We can get you in any time between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M. Our afterschool hours fill up super quick. They are very desirable hours. But I’ll tell you what, we’re going to do this evaluation quickly because I want it on your policy this year. You probably already met your deductible. And also, I want to give you the information.”
2. Then you’d say, “If your child needs therapy, I’m going to be able to give you tips and tricks to get them started at home right away. If we don’t have the exact treatment time that you need, I’m going to have you on this priority list.” (Don’t call it a wait list. Think of the mindset!) 
3. Continue the script like this: “I’m going to have you on our priority list to get you in. When we have a cancellation, I’ll give you a call. We’ll send you a text through our system, and then we’ll just keep plugging you in. You’ll get in every week if you can be a little bit flexible with your schedule, and then once we get you in on this flexible schedule, as soon as the time opens up, the therapist will get you set up with a permanent schedule.” 

Emphasize the fact that the child is going to get their needs met. You can keep them on the priority list for an after-school time if that’s what the parent ultimately wants.

Helping Parents Utilize Their Insurance Benefits 

We want parents to use their visits for this year, for sure. You need to know about all of your patients including how many visits they have left for the year. You want to help them use all those visits. They’ve already paid for those visits in their plan. They’ve probably already met their deductible. Work with the parents to get extra visits in. 

Let me show you how that looks. First, you look at all the patients currently scheduled between 9 A.M. and 3 P.M. Can you get them in more times a week? Can you add a discipline? Do they need help in another area?

Then look at your patients that could come between 9 A.M. and 3 P.M., but the parent works right now. You help the parent problem-solve that. Is there a college student that they trust that could bring them to therapy? Is there a grandma, an aunt, or someone else who could bring this child during the day? That way, the child is getting the help they need, and it frees up the parent after work.

You can reschedule that child every once in a while into an opening when the parent can come or you can touch base with the parent monthly or something like that. If someone else brings the child to appointments, you need to keep the parent up to date. Really make sure you’re focusing on the child. You love the child and the parent loves the child. 

Learn More Ways to Fill Your Pediatric Practice

Believe me, I know how challenging it is to fill your practice. That’s why we have so many videos in our Lemonade Library. Get registered and look for Lemonades that advise you on the best way to handle parents and get your book filled up. 

About Diane Crecelius

Diane Crecelius is a physical therapist and founder of a multi-million-dollar, multi-location practice with well over 3,000 visits per week and 200 staff! In the past several years, Diane has worked tirelessly to support Peds-A-Palooza® Community & Conferences and the success of Private Practice Owners. Diane has presented at nearly every Peds-A-Palooza live and virtual conference since the first sold-out conference in 2018. Her extensive knowledge derives from her decades in practice and from being trained and consulted by Survival Strategies, Inc. She uses this training to help Private Practice Owners learn how to thrive and expand while keeping their stress low.