To ensure its proper functioning, our clinic has a strict appointment attendance policy. The latter aims to allow us to prepare well for each of the interventions we perform, while avoiding penalizing our patients and our professionals when a person does not attend his appointment without notifying us within a reasonable time window.
In the following lines, we review our attendance policy and take the time to explain the negative impacts of missed or cancelled appointments.
Our appointment attendance policy
At Dents Mon Quartier, we ask our customers to notify us at least 48 business hours before their appointment if they wish to cancel. When this is not the case, we may charge a fee of up to $ 75 to cover the expenses that are incurred or close your file (if it’s not your fist time).
We explain the reasons why we have set up this appointment attendance policy to make you, our patients, are aware of the importance of notifying your dental team if you are unable to be there at the agreed time.
Preparation for appointments: an important step
To better understand how missed appointments, affect a clinic’s workflow, we need to know how our dental professionals prepare to receive patients before each appointment.
- The dentist must analyze your file, the information it contains, your X-rays, pictures, medical history, plan the intervention, etc ;
- The hygienist must, before your routine visit, analyze your file and prepare the treatment room according to your dental needs ;
- The dental assistant, who assists the dentist during the interventions, is responsible for preparing the instruments necessary for your care. This includes sterilizing the room and all equipment, which takes a considerable amount of time ;
- The dental secretary is responsible for the schedule of dentists and other professionals in the clinic. To limit the waiting time of our patients, the daily clinic schedule is meticulously planned every 10 minutes.
Negative impacts of missed appointments
In the light of the information presented above regarding the preparation of each member of the dental team, here are the impacts for the operation of the clinic when you miss an appointment without notifying us in good time.
- The dental professionals (dentist, assistant and hygienist) who were dedicated to you for the duration of your appointment are in forced break. Indeed, when you have an appointment of a duration of 1 or 2 hours, this time is entirely reserved for you by our professionals ;
- The preparation of the treatment room must be redone to 0, since the equipment and instruments have been prepared for the care you need. Dental needs vary greatly from one person to another, which has a direct impact on the preparation of rooms and equipment ;
- Missed appointments have a financial cost (related to lost time and wasted resources), since the preparation for your treatment was made for nothing ;
- Missed appointments can affect compliance with the daily schedule and the waiting time of other patients ;
- The time slot of your missed appointment is lost. It might otherwise have been assigned to an emergency appointment to relieve someone else of their pain and the urgent problem that person was facing.
We sincerely hope that reading this article has made you aware of the importance of respecting our appointment attendance policy. This allows us to offer high quality care to each of our patients!
Approved by Dre Charouk
Dr. Joumana Charouk, D.M.D, is proud to offer her patients exceptional care that combines experience, efficiency and good humor.
Dre Joumana Charouk, D.M.D