%20(1).png)
Scheduling Patients and Managing Flow
Welcome to the world of direct primary care. If you’re reading this, you’re likely in the position of owning your practice (or working with a DPC doc who owns the practice). This means: you’ve now got more control over your schedule than you’re likely ready to deal with.
Things to decide:
- How long will your initial visits be? Typically want these to be pretty extended. Often you will spend time talking about the logistics of the practice and how you accomplish taking care of pts as well as the typical new pt medical things.
- How long will your follow-up visits be?
- How long will you schedule for procedures? Obviously, this may differ for different procedures. Don’t forget to consider when you need assistance and/or chaperones
- Will you take walk-ins?
- Do you need a buffer added to your visits to complete notes? Put in orders?
- How many days a week do you plan to see patients? Will this change as you grow?
- How much can be triaged to your staff? How much do you want to triage directly?
- What expectations do you want to set for text, email, phone, and/or in-person visits?
Once you decide your schedule and preferences, various software providers can help automate your scheduling while others don’t allow for outsourcing your scheduling:
- AtlasMD (via their Mac App)
- MDHQ
- Elation
- Calendly, Google Calendar
Keeping your Schedule Open
Some DPC doctors are emphatic that schedule management should be carefully triaged and managed by either the physician or a highly trained staff member (to keep the schedule open and address things without an in-person visit). Others open their schedule to direct scheduling so that no clinic bandwidth has to go into scheduling. Each has its pros and cons; decide what flow you think fits best.
Additionally, there are many opportunities to train up your nursing staff to provide basic care visits (any visit that can be directed by an explicit algorithm -- cerumen washout, uncomplicated UTIs, strep visits w the Centor Score, Ottawa ankle rules, etc., etc.).
The content of this page is restricted to active members.
If you are an active member please log in. If you have recently applied for membership, please allow staff 3-5 days to review your application. Otherwise, if you feel you are reaching this by mistake, email hello@dpcalliance.org for assistance.
Scheduling Patients and Managing Flow
Welcome to the world of direct primary care. If you’re reading this, you’re likely in the position of owning your practice (or working with a DPC doc who owns the practice). This means: you’ve now got more control over your schedule than you’re likely ready to deal with.
Things to decide:
- How long will your initial visits be? Typically want these to be pretty extended. Often you will spend time talking about the logistics of the practice and how you accomplish taking care of pts as well as the typical new pt medical things.
- How long will your follow-up visits be?
- How long will you schedule for procedures? Obviously, this may differ for different procedures. Don’t forget to consider when you need assistance and/or chaperones
- Will you take walk-ins?
- Do you need a buffer added to your visits to complete notes? Put in orders?
- How many days a week do you plan to see patients? Will this change as you grow?
- How much can be triaged to your staff? How much do you want to triage directly?
- What expectations do you want to set for text, email, phone, and/or in-person visits?
Once you decide your schedule and preferences, various software providers can help automate your scheduling while others don’t allow for outsourcing your scheduling:
- AtlasMD (via their Mac App)
- MDHQ
- Elation
- Calendly, Google Calendar
Keeping your Schedule Open
Some DPC doctors are emphatic that schedule management should be carefully triaged and managed by either the physician or a highly trained staff member (to keep the schedule open and address things without an in-person visit). Others open their schedule to direct scheduling so that no clinic bandwidth has to go into scheduling. Each has its pros and cons; decide what flow you think fits best.
Additionally, there are many opportunities to train up your nursing staff to provide basic care visits (any visit that can be directed by an explicit algorithm -- cerumen washout, uncomplicated UTIs, strep visits w the Centor Score, Ottawa ankle rules, etc., etc.).