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I have a small private practice and many patients opt to contact us when they wish to make another appointment. I have noticed that in some cases the appointment interval is increasing so that in some cases their feet are abit 'neglected'by the time they attend for treatment, or they are missing their orthotics/ diabetic review. When I spoke to my dentist he stated that they rely on postal reminders to prompt their patients to make appointments at suitable intervals and when one month they didn't send these due to computer poblems they noticed a sharp drop off in appointments. My questions are:
1.Does anyone have similar expereince in using this type of system in podiatry?
2. How do you manage the variation in appropriate appointments eg annual diabetic review, 3 monthly nail care etc ?
3. Can you recommend any practice managment software to aid with this - I am based in the UK?

thanks a lot charlotte

See the thread in Practice managment entitled 'Electronic medical record - web based V's computer software'.

Have a look at Practicepal---- http://practicepal.co.uk/ --- its allows the function you are after either by mail, email or auto text. You can set the individual recall times.

D Smith

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Descartes seems to consider here that beliefs formed by pure reasoning are less doubtful than those formed through perception.

Hi Charlotte,

I maintain a simple database on computer giving the patients Name, Address, Telephone and Last Appointment date.

This has proved invaluable over the years.

You say you run a small practice but believe me it will grow!

When I see a quiet period coming up in my diary I do a quick search of the database to find any patients who haven`t been seen for, say, four months. Then it is a simple matter to print out standard letters and envelopes addressed to each of these. The outlay in time and postage is more than made up by the appointments generated.

I will be glad to send details if you wish.

Hi charlotte,

We send reminders for annual reviews, 6 monthly reviews etc. which are generated automatically with PPS Software from Rushcliff. You draft your own templates for the appropriate type of consultation/treatment the patient needs to return for and at the end of the treatment episode, you just select the reminder you wish to send and date it for the following month, year or whatever. We mostly use email now, so it cuts down on postage costs and is ecologically friendly too.

Karen

Hi karen thanks a lot for the info. How do you find the pps software generally as i think it may be sensible to update my record keeping to an electronically based system.
charlotte

Hi john , i originally thought that i would have to move to electronic records in order to support a recall system but your way sound like something i could implement while i investigate the pps out there. As you say my practice will grow - indeed it is growing allthough a little more slowly than a year ago. thanks charlotte

Hi david, thanks for the info the practice pal looks like a sensible system but it may take a bit of a 'mind shift' for me to subscribe to something as i usually 'save up and buy outright'. i think i must be debt-phobic ! I will do more research on pps. charlotte

Hello again Charlotte,

Further to my last, I may not have made it clear that my patient records are done with old fashioned pen and paper, (much easier to make non clinical notes e.g births, holidays, pet dogs name), The database is used merely as a quick way of identifying a patient from garbled phone calls where, for instance, you only get the first name and street!

My personal preference is to handle reminders myself. There are a number of reasons but the prime one is that I know my patients and when I list patients who haven`t been seen for a while then I might know of a good reason that they haven`t been in touch. To me it would be intrusive to chase up in such a circumstance, much better to leave it for a while.

Another instance is where you see more than one person in a family. There is no point in sending 5 reminders to the same house. If nothing else it is impersonal.

There are many other reasons to "do it youself" not least that fact that you are not paying or relying on someone else.

It`s really not as difficult as you might think.

Charlotte,

PPS IMHO is a fantastic patient management system, it is the 2nd one I have used and I would not change to another system. It makes life simpler, easier and frees up your time to do more effective things, like market your business. Remember, software systems only do what you tell them to do, so they can be as personal or impersonal as you want them to be, you have control over who you send your reminders to.

I for instance generate a reminder letter for an annual review on a patient's orthotics during their fitting appointment with me. With the activities function you have the facility to put as much or as little information regarding the patients personal situations as you want to, which you can then refer to when you next see them.

Rushcliff will provide you with a demo CD if you ask them, well worth a look

Karen

hi john thanks for that clarification. I agree sometimes a reminder would be insensitive and like you i know my patients and whats more many of them know each other so we tend to keep up with changes in personal circumstances. as i am not sure how 'reminders' would work i have decided to foolow up on the mthod you describe and see if it would be going 'electronic' at some point in the future. thanks for your advice it is much appreciated charlotte

hi karen, yes while i trial a 'reminders system' i will look at rushcliff pps and ask for a demo disk.
take care charlotte

Hi we use software that you can itemise what the recall is for, the you can do a preview and decide who and why you send a reminder, you can also log events such as birthdays, wedding anniversaries, anything you want to create.
A lot of work to set up but once set up, can be a major bonus. C

cheers

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Heather J Bassett
137 Wheatsheaf Road
Glenroy 3046
Victoria
Australia

No offence, but I hate receiving "Happy Birthday" letters from medical professionals. They don't care. It is purely a money generating thing. I have had long standing patients turn 100 or die, & then I might send something particularly a condolensce card (in cases of death), but when I get one for turning 39, I think less than kindly of the clinic who sent it to me.

I tend to just send reminder letters for annual orthotic reviews. I use Frontdesk and it can generate recall lists based on type of appt, birthdays etc...I agree with Mark on the birthday card thing...I think it's a bit sucky to send birthday cards...I have a few favourite patients that I send a Xmas card to which they seem to appreciate...aside from that I book people in for their next appt before they leave the clinic. We give reminder phone calls confirming appt's the day before; saves on the no-shows, or gives them a chance to re-schedule and opens a spot for someone who's possibly waiting to get in..

Talking about more broadly on Parctice Management, I've had contact from a company called "Ideal Practice - Experts in Health Care Practice Consulting". Anyone heard of them or used them? They provide an initial free audit for your practice from a marketing/practice management point of view & then I guess they offer at a price, coaching to improve your practice. I'm interested because I'm not good at marketing or promoting my practice & think maybe with potential for a slow down occuring, I'd like to do more to avoid a downturn.

My computer program now does all the recalls automatically, but previous to being computerized I used to do it manually. I simply kept a diary and entered in under the date when the recall had to be sent. Just wrote the patients details in the space of the date and what the recall was for. Very easy for orthotic reviews and diabetic assessments. Just tick off the year it was sent. We kept this diary for years, it was 2005 and the diary was from 1998!!!!
Totally agree with Mark about the Birthday card thing!!!!!!