In order to serve you with the best quality care our office does not “double book” as many offices do. We have more patients who need dental care than we have room for in our daily schedule. When a patient does not show up for their appointment or cancels too close to their scheduled time, we are unable to fill this appointment time with another patient who may desperately need dental care. The time you schedule with us is very valuable to you and to us; therefore we ask you to agree to our strict office policy so we may continue to serve you better.
We do understand emergencies, illness, bad weather, traffic , and other unforeseen events do occur. We ask that patients give us 48 hour notice whenever possible, if the individual cannot keep the appointment. This allows us to offer the appointment to others that may be standing by for a dental appointment.
Please tell our front desk staff about any other needs or dental concerns you may have when making your dental appointment. This way we can set off an appropriate amount of time to address any additional concerns. Otherwise you will only receive care for what you are scheduled for. For example if you are scheduled for a cleaning but also would like a filling done that day, if we are not notified in advance there
will be very little chance you will receive any additional care other than what was scheduled. Every procedure requires a different setup; when we are not notified in advance not only is there very limited time but also much more time will be used up setting up for an unscheduled procedure. To avoid these complications we ask you to be inform us of any additional concerns when scheduling or confirming an upcoming appointment so that we may make the proper modifications in your appointment if necessary.
Policy and Fees:
Cancellations or rescheduling of an appointment with 48 hours or more notification – no charge
Cancellation or rescheduling of an appointment less than 48 hours up to 24 hours may or may not be considered a broken appointment; it will be at our discretion.
Failure to give 24 hour advance notice:
We allow one 1 broken appointment within a 12 month period.
Any additional broken appointments within a 12 month period will be charged a fee.
__$40__ For a hygiene appointment
__$75__ For a procedural (that a dentist is legally obligated to perform) appointment with each additional
hour incurring an additional _$50_ fee.
Any outstanding balance due to broken appointments must be paid in order to make a new appointment.
- Definition of a broken appointment: A broken appointment is when a patient
- Cancels or reschedules an appointment with less than 24 hours notice
- Does not show up to the scheduled appointment
- Late arrivals in excess of 15 minutes will be considered a broken appointment
Reminders System:
Do not be nervous scheduling with us because of the fear of having a broken appointment! We understand the “Broken Appointment” policy can seem harsh and we honestly do not want you to miss the appointment just to collect a fee. This is why we have an electronic reminder system.
Our reminder system will:
First, e-mail to all appointments with an e-mail address 14 days in advance as a "save the date" e-mail. We do not ask for confirmation in this email. This e-mail has an attachment that the patient can click on to place the appointment on their calendar. This works with any calendar like Outlook, Google or iPhone.
Second, we send an e-mail three business days before the appointment with the practice name, phone number, appointment date and time. We asked them to reply to this e-mail to confirm the appointment. If we receive a reply, we do not send subsequent reminders until the day of the appointment.
Third, if they do not reply to the e-mail, two mornings before the appointment we send a text message to all appointments with cell phone numbers with the same information and we asked them to reply to confirm. Again, if they reply we do not send subsequent reminders until the day of the appointment.
Fourth, if we still have no confirmation, two evenings before the appointment we do an automated voice call to their cell phone number, if provided, or their home phone number if not. We ask them to press one to confirm or three to reschedule.
Finally, on the day of the appointment we send every appointment with a cell phone number a text message 60 to 90 min. before the appointment as a last-minute reminder. This is the reminder that does a great deal to prevent no-shows. Our patients really appreciate this reminder. Many patients have told the office that they would've missed the appointment without this last-minute reminder.
As an added service
eRecall will notify patients that they are due or overdue for their recall appointments.
First, each week we will gather from our patient database all of those patients who are due four weeks from now who are not yet appointed. We will send them an e-mail and text stating that they are almost due for an appointment and asking them to call your office.
Second, each week we will send an e-mail and text message to all patients who are three weeks overdue for their appointments and asked them to call your office.
Third, each week we will send an e-mail and a text message to all patients who are six months overdue.
Finally, each week we will scan our database for patients who were seen one year ago this week but have not had an appointment since then. We will send them an e-mail and text message that says "We miss you. You have not been in for a dental appointment for over a year. Please call the office to make an appointment."