Friday, July 03, 2009

Should patients be charged for not showing up?



Interesting video I saw on CNN today. Should doctors be charging patients who do not show up? Unfair as this might sound, our clinic has started doing it, and I have to say I think it's reasonable (though we first make patients aware of this, and let them off the first time with a warning. And we charge only a nominal fee).
The truth is, time is time. And if a patient schedules a 30 min slot on my calendar, he deprives another patient from seeing me sooner (as it is some patients already need to wait a month to see me). Sad to say, but the truth is, time is money too, and you can't expect to run a self-sustaining clinic if patients don't show up.
And boy, do some patients do that. I've had patients schedule appointment after appointment, and finally, after 3 or 4 no-shows, I've had to refuse to let them reschedule. It's a clear sign, that some of them simply have no respect for your time.