T2: Coordinating and Scheduling Appointments

Question 1

What may appointments be made for?

Answer 1

• Consultations - routine health checks (including vaccination visits); medical complaints (the animal is unwell)
• Surgical appointments - for admitting patients into hospital for surgical procedures
• Euthanasia appointments
• Follow-up appointments, eg post-surgical checks, suture removals, rechecks

Question 2

What information should you get from a client when making a booking?

Answer 2

• Owner’s name and address
• Telephone numbers (home and mobile) and email address
• Patient name, species, breed, age, sex, color
• Presenting complaint or patient problem
• whether the patient has insurance
• If the client is coming from another clinic
• Name of your previous veterinarian or clinic (optional)
• Name of referring veterinarian (optional)
• How long ago the vet was seen
• Summary of previous history etc

Question 3

What should you do when the booking has been made before the client hangs up/leaves?

Answer 3

• READ BACK DATE AND TIME OF APPOINTMENT AND NAME/SPECIES OF ANIMAL
• Make them aware which vet they will be seeing
• Be sure of reason for visit
• Give directions if never been before

Question 4

What should you ask the client upon their arrival at the clinic for the appointment?

Answer 4

• Double check entered info is correct
• Ask them again what issue is with animal
• list as having arrived
• be aware of wait times

Question 5

What needs to be considered when scheduling an appointment?

Answer 5

• Vet availability
• nature of consult ie will blood, rads, etc need to be run?
• staff break times
  *

Question 6

When do we schedule Surgical appointments?

What other bookings or considerations need to be made?

Answer 6

• These should be kept separate from daily routine appointments e.g. these might be allocated to a specific period of the day
• Further to these appointments individual surgical cases may also require a drop-off/admission appointment scheduled and a discharge appointment
• As we require patients to be fasted overnight (prior to surgery), we commonly schedules these appointments first thing in the morning, prior to routine appointments commencing.
• May need to advise client:
• Do not feed 12 hours prior to surgery
• Do not give water 8 hours prior to surgery
• Bring in any medications the patient is currently taking
• Book admission appointment – explain that the owner will need to be present, to sign off paperwork etc
• Estimates for procedures/surgeries to be completed
• Some clinics may have pre-written hand-outs that they can either mail out to clients or hand-out over the counter, again depending on the procedure.

Question 7

When do we schedule euthanasia appointments?

What other bookings or considerations need to be made?

Answer 7

• Try and book these appointments, with enough time during quiter times of the day, if possible.
• Ask the owners if they would like to be present; this will depend on whether a formal appointment and consult room will need to be organised
• Ask and discuss with the owner what to do with body after the procedure
• Be well prepared; try and get owners to finalise the account prior to having their animal euthanised, as they may be quite hysterical after the procedure.
• Try and be as sincere and empathetic as possible.

Question 8

What should you do if an appointment is running late?

Answer 8

• Appointment cards or reminder/confirmation sms or phone calls can be made, these are an excellent tool if you are appropriately staffed.
• Keeping an eye on re-offending clients that may continually not show for their appointments or arrive late, thereby wasting the clinics time
• The key is to COMMUNICATE with your waiting clients to keep them informed of what is occurring, and to offer them alternatives if they cannot wait too long.
• Also, have a strategy for keeping any children occupied
• The other important consideration is to be aware of the waiting patients’ behaviour and act to minimise distress.
• Be very aware of potential contagious illnesses that patients could spread
• Offer clients to wait outside or in the car if they have anxious animals

Question 9

What should you do if you suspect a client’s pet has a potential infectious disease?

Answer 9

• It is important for you to recognise key clinic signs or presentations on phone or in person
• route of transmission will depend on what considerations and precautions we must take,
• key is to protect other animals and to remove all potential sources of infection, including:
• any discharges or secretions the patient leaves in the waiting room
• any pathogens present on fomites, including the owner’s clothes, boots and hands
• and the patient itself.

Question 10

How should you deal with an unhappy client?

Answer 10

• If a customer comes in quite angry and aggressive,remain as calm and as neutral as possible.
• Try and speak slowly and limit any sort of expression in your voice or on your face.
• Avoid folding your arms or staring down the client.
• An important thing is to NOT appologise. Once you make an appology, you are admitting some sort of fault to the problem
• lead them AWAY from the front desk
• Once you have managed to get the client out of the view of other clients, try and get them to take a seat and offer them a glass of water or tea/coffee.
• Whilst they sit you can gather any necessary information or otherwise, whilst they calm down.
• Then ask them to start from the beginning and explain everything.
• Try and re-iterate, that you understand why they are feeling the way they are.
• If the client is calm, you can either provide an alternative or redirect the issue to someone who has more authority.
• If the client does not calm down, assistance from other staff or call the police.
• make sure you explain every cost or estimated cost that may be involved in the treatment of their animal. Over-estimation is far better than under-estimating
• Follow this up with owners SIGNING documentation, which stipulates that they understand these costs and make them accountable and responsible for the decisions they are making.
• EVERYTHING is documented on the patient/client file and that there are witnesses both external and internal.