LATE PATIENT/NO-SHOW PATIENT POLICIES

Thank you for choosing The Clinic to provide you with the very best in health care. We are honored you have chosen us and we will always strive to not only meet but exceed your expectations. In order for us to provide the same high level of quality care to all of our patients, it is important that each patient has ample quality time to spend with his or her primary care provider. This requires that our providers AND our patients honor – to the best of their abilities – scheduled appointments.

At The Clinic (this includes The Women’s Clinic and The Kids Clinic), we fully understand and acknowledge that life can be unpredictable. At times, scheduled appointments cannot be met for one reason or another. If you, the patient, are experiencing a conflict that will prevent you from attending a scheduled appointment with one of our providers, please let us know as early as you can and we will be as flexible as possible to reschedule your appointment in a timely manner.

In order to protect ALL patients, including you, The Clinic and its providers must adhere to a consistent schedule. That means our providers must balance the number of patients they see in a day with making sure each of those patients has plenty of quality time to discuss his or her care without feeling rushed. During your appointment with a provider YOU and your relative care are of the utmost importance. However, without cooperation from the patient – including honoring the appointment time – this becomes a difficult balancing act and subsequently may impact a number of patients throughout the day as providers and staff work flexibly to accommodate either late or no-showing patients.

To that end, it is essential that The Clinic enforce policies that are designed to protect every patient, including you, as well as our providers and staff. Again, we realize that life is unpredictable and that unforeseen conflicts are a part of life. To reiterate, please let us know as early as possible when such a conflict prevents you from attending your scheduled appointment and we will work hard to get you rescheduled as quickly as possible. If you choose not to communicate with us regarding any such appointment conflicts, we will have no other option than to follow the Late Patient and/or No-Show Patient policies explained below. All patients must sign an acknowledgement of these policies every year.

Thank you again for choosing The Clinic as your healthcare destination. We are honored you selected us and will do everything in our scope to make sure you always receive the very best care and customer service. It is our privilege to look after your health and well-being!

Late Patient Policy

At The Clinic, a patient is considered late if/when he or she is not checked in by appointment time. As an example, when a patient has an appointment scheduled with a provider from 9-10 a.m. and arrives at 9:05 a.m., this constitutes late arrival. At this point, our staff will consult the day’s work schedule and determine if the patient can still be seen upon his or her arrival without disrupting the appointments of other patients and providers.

If this accommodation is not possible, then our staff will attempt to offer you an appointment later that same day with your provider or another provider as availability allows. If a new appointment cannot be made that same day, our staff will reschedule you with your original provider at the next available date. Please understand it can be challenging to reschedule same-day appointments.

No-Show Patient Policy

At The Clinic, we work hard to balance each day’s work schedule, ultimately with the patient’s peace of mind at the center of these efforts. As stated above, it is our goal to make sure each patient has plenty of time to discuss the specifics of his or her care with his or her selected provider. In order for us to meet this goal, there must be cooperation and communication between the patient and the provider and staff. When a patient does not attend a scheduled appointment and offers no communication around the absence within 24 hours, this is considered a no show.

A no-show patient, however unintentional and unexpected the absence might be, can add stress to the schedules of providers and other patients seeking care. Because The Clinic’s patient population is quite substantial, it is not in our best interest – or the interests of the patients themselves – to misuse valuable office time. There are simply too many people with too many healthcare needs to leave holes in our daily work schedule.

To avoid this, The Clinic will remind you of your upcoming appointment by text and/or phone call several days in advance to ensure you can attend or, if necessary, to reschedule your appointment for another time. If the patient does not show for an appointment, and does not call to let us know, we will contact him or her to ensure he or she was aware of the scheduled appointment. If as the patient you know you cannot make a scheduled appointment, we respectfully ask you contact us no less than 24 hours BEFORE the appointment so we can reschedule with minimal impact on the scheduling process, our other patients, and our providers and staff.

If a patient fails to show for three scheduled appointments in a rolling 12-month period without the minimum 24 hours of notice, in order to protect the schedules of providers and other patients we will suspend that patient to same-day status. Again, a simple and timely communication with us will prevent this.

Please note that certain uncontrollable circumstances, such as inclement weather, hospitalization, or other similar, understandable reasons will not count as a no show.

OUR CERTIFICATIONS