It’s important for your dental practice to keep the average wait time between appointments at a minimum. Waits exceeding 15 or 20 minutes can leave your patients feeling frustrated and forgotten. 

Scheduling conflicts, low staffing, and emergencies can cause your employees to fall behind on their responsibilities in less than an hour. Knowing how to communicate with patients and prevent overlapping appointments helps you protect your practice’s reputation and provide outstanding care. 

What Causes Long Wait Time in the Office?

Long wait times in your office may occur for several reasons. 

For example, suppose a patient needs extra attention from one of your dentists, causing their appointment to run over. In this case, other patients behind them must wait longer for service. Unexpected scheduling errors like these can push back the appointments of every person in your queue. 

Some other causes of long wait times for patients include:

• Overbooked appointments
• Not enough front desk or back office staffing to keep up with your patients
• Sudden disasters, such as power failures, medical emergencies, and severe weather that affect your practice’s ability to see patients

How Do Long Wait Times Interfere with Dental Practice Operations?

You may not be able to grow your practice if your office already struggles to keep up with appointments. Unfortunately, this issue prevents you from providing quality dental care and meeting revenue goals. 

From your patients’ perspectives, long wait times can feel frustrating and cause them to find a different dentist.

Long wait times can also harm staff morale. Delays may require your staff to spend valuable time rearranging schedules or dealing with upset patients. Your health care professionals may also feel pressure to complete tasks quickly, resulting in underperformance.

What Do Patients Think About Long Wait Times?

Patient satisfaction should be your foremost concern as a medical professional. Sticking to a schedule without sacrificing the quality of your service is a practical way to build a positive relationship with your patients.

The waiting room experience significantly impacts your patients’ first impressions. Studies show that long wait times can cause someone to mistrust a dental practice, regardless of how well the rest of their appointment goes. 

In some cases, long wait times can result in negative reviews about your practice online, disrupting your reputation and deterring new patients.

What Can You Do To Prevent Long Waits?

Managing your schedule is the key to reducing wait times in the lobby. Use a shared calendar among staff so they have access to the same schedule when they book appointments.

Other tips to prevent wait times throughout your patient’s appointment include:

• Answer phones promptly so that patients don’t have to wait to speak to a staff member when they call
• Avoid leaving the patient alone in the treatment room
• Extend your office hours, allowing more space between appointments throughout the day to accommodate appointments running over

What to Do During Unavoidable Delays

Some delays are unavoidable, so plan ahead by creating a clear waiting room policy for your dental practice. Always communicate delays to your patients with as much notice as possible, typically over the phone or by email so they know what to expect. Keep plenty of chairs in the waiting room to prevent overcrowding during delays.

Station an employee at the front desk and allow them to communicate and apologize for any issues that arise. This method keeps your patients from feeling ignored and eliminates confusion about their wait.

Sometimes, patients themselves are late, causing delays in appointment times. It may be necessary to create an office policy that forces a cancellation or reschedule for patients more than 15-30 minutes late to their appointments. This acceptability of service time allows your staff to keep up with other appointments and encourages patients to be on time.

Dental Practice Management Strategies To Simplify Your Day

Respecting your patients’ time is essential for maintaining a positive image and delivering outstanding service. At Dental Intelligence, we ensure that you have the tools to streamline your practice.

Schedule a demo to see how our digital solutions can help you prevent and manage long wait times.