Turning away clients

RE: Turning away clients

Robyn — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:43:03 GMT

The code definitely doesn't say anything about being in trouble turning away clients unless it's a true emergency. Honestly we stopped taking new clients in November and we've stayed that way. We were in the same position with being absolutely overwhelmed with no ability to even care for our own patients, much less new patients (we didn't notice that the milk had gone off at one point bc we had no time to even boil the kettle), so we just put a total stop on it. It took a few weeks of hard work and management of the diary, but we're finally back to covid-normal levels of busy and we have a bit of space to breathe.

I'll echo what everyone else is saying - enforce some appointments left available for on-the-day emergencies however your system can handle that best, and consider not taking on any new clients (unless an emergency of course - ie and RTA or similar!) for a little while.

RE: Turning away clients

jenni99 — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 19:18:40 GMT

:) I would imagine they (your receptionists) are not doing it deliberately to pee anyone off or tip the boat over. They are steering their ship as best they can. x

And I expand on my prior post - I distinctly remember blinking speechlessly at the dog in the basket booked in because he "hadn't eaten for a couple of days" - - - yep, that would be because he was two days dead

RE: Turning away clients

Sal the 1st — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 21:11:47 GMT

have you got staff on the desk that book anything and everything that moves? we have.

This is just one example. night before Christmas Eve we have a 2nd opinion at request of client booked in (we are GP 1st opinion not specialists). This person had only rung up at about 1pm that day so getting a history across in time for the appointment and giving the vet time to read that history before the pet was going to be seen when we were already running flat out just wasn't going to happen. That animal was already under treatment , it was already being seen by another practice but to see that client we had to say no to another client that was already registered with us whose cat really did need to be seen and the best we could then offer them was the next morning (Christmas Eve) when we were limited staff, limited hours and the cat then needed a GA - was our already registered client happy about this? no she was not! and neither would I have been.

I have tried to explain this to people making these kind of bookings and they just don't get it. Some of us, vets and nurses, are getting really peed off with it. We have a number of open slots in the day for real emergencies but also so there is the chance to catch up on phone calls- and yet these are booked over -'oh its only a booster' - but then the same people are complaining that phone calls are not being done Hopefully tier 4 will sort some of this out, sick of missing lunch breaks trying to keep up

RE: Turning away clients

jenni99 — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 20:11:51 GMT

PS we are BUSY - open for consults 8am - 8pm 6 days (used to be 7!) across 3 sites. Own OOHs employing our own OOHs vets and nurses, who also do some early or late consult work

RE: Turning away clients

jenni99 — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 19:57:19 GMT

Hi.

Depends on your practice protocols but we have "emergency only" and "book on day" appointments interspersed in our daily appointment lists. We use clients called EO & BOD to block these off on the computer. Whoever is on reception can then with hand on heart tell clients the next booster vacc appt is . . . . .and still book urgents in to the next "free" slot. If we get to the start of a surgery and the EO slots are free we can book anything into them to fil them. We very vey rarely have a slot not booked. The practice management system then allowed us to look at the demand and pressures and we expanded our normal consult hours on three days (employing another FT VS) and left as were on the other 4 days. We were then even able to reduce consults on the Sunday afternoon as the demand wasn't there once we'd provided more appointments in the week

The other issue is it is sometimes hard to determine what is actually going on from the client. Even if you ask all the right questions. I could give numerous examples - not least the dog who "cut is self" but was deemed OK on the phone as he wasn't bleeding - the owner turned up with the dog's lead in one hand and its amputated tail in the other . . . .

The code says (although this is more about 24hr care )

3.8 A veterinary surgeon on duty should not unreasonably refuse to provide first aid and pain relief for any animal of a species treated by the practice during normal working hours.

and

3.10 When anyone contacts a veterinary surgeon with concerns that an animal needs emergency attention, the veterinary surgeon should decide and advise whether attention is required immediately, or can reasonably be delayed

RE: Turning away clients

apache — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 17:34:26 GMT

There's a number of issues in your post, and it's hard to tease them apart - they are interlinked. If you are fully booked up days in advance then something is badly wrong. My personal view is if an animal is unwell or in pain/suffering then we should be able to see it the same day. It's not going to die due to a bad eye/ear/limp but it will suffer. I'm not suggesting seeing it at 3am, but there ought to be scope the next day. If there regularly isn't then you need more staff or to look how you could work more efficiently.

By allowing that patient to register - they are under our care. That care is pretty poor if we can't see it when unwell/in pain.

There is also a business aspect - the client has freedom of choice. If you cannot take care of their animal when unwell, then will they ring someone else? Do you lose a client for life - I know we've gained clients when other practices have been unable to help them. In the same way - don't offer someone an appointment and make them wait hours - they will get cross (I know I would).

I think you need to stop thinking about turning people away and have a long hard look at the business. Do you need more staff? Are the consulting rooms always in use or could you stagger shifts and see more animals in the day? Do you have enough nurses? Enough vets? What could the nurses do to take pressure off the system? If you're open 24 hours can you extend appointment times so the night shift see some more routine cases? Do you need to close your books to new clients?

RE: Turning away clients

Sal the 1st — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 09:44:59 GMT

we are in the same situation - hopefully going into tier 4 will sort out some of it - either that or the next person who books a booster in an emergency slot is going to meet a sticky end! Stupidly busy at the minute