Question

Millie, an established patient, calls at 11:15 am on a Friday morning to say that she has fallen off a step and may have fractured her ankle.  She states that she cannot put any weight on her ankle and it is swollen.  She states she is not in any pain unless she tries to walk.  Her neighbor is available to drive her to the office.  You check today's schedule and see that there are no open appointments. Actually, it appears the schedule has double bookings. 

What is the best way to respond to the patient?  

Answer 1

Screening calls can be made to find out the seriousness of the situation. This will help to determine the type of scheduled needed to manage the situation. The effective use of both communication skills and medical knowledge is necessary to manage such cases. A medical assistant can determine to emergency situation while handling the appointment.

Double booking allows the physician to schedule the appointment of two patients at the same time slot. This will help to effectively utilize the available time. The double booking can be best managed when one case needs interventions without direct supervision of the physician, for example,   a case needed diagnostic tests or dressings. The physician can examine and treat the other patient when the first one is taken for interventions, without unnecessary waiting times.

If the case seem to be an emergency, it can be referred to the emergency department or the physician office can make call to the 911 by providing the correct address and telephone number available.

Or if it is assessed that the effective method to handle the emergency is to care the patient in the doctors office, inform the scheduled patients the emergency case . Then, they can be offered with the opportunity to reschedule or waiting until the emergency has been managed.

In this patient’s case, open bookings are not available, but the patient can be accommodated in a double booking or no show cases time slot also.