It is pretty quiet in most offices these weeks, the “lost” weeks just before Christmas extending to just after New Year’s Day. Students and teachers are out of school, families are traveling, and even though airports are crowded, most commuter trains have plenty of seats.
When you work in healthcare, these “lost” weeks may pose a problem. Many employees, including support staff, are taking days off to travel and be with family and yet the patients keep coming! Patients, many whom have already met their deductibles, are anxious to get in to see their healthcare providers before the end of the year. This often means just as many or more diagnoses of diabetes when there is less staff to see them.
In recent years, I saw the greatest volume of patients in December and January for this reason. I once worked in a physician’s office in which diabetes classes were not held in December. This struck me as odd because those patients had to wait until January for their group education. This was more to benefit the staff than the patients. If you have ever been diagnosed with a disease, be it diabetes, hypertension, cancer, or lupus, you want information quickly and at least enough information to get through the day and plan what your next steps will be. If you are diagnosed with diabetes at the end of December, shouldn’t your diabetes educator see you as quickly as if you were diagnosed in March? Many times I have received calls from a physician’s office stating that a patient was due to leave on vacation the next day and was asked if I could see them right away for education.
I think most of us adjust our schedules to be there when our patients need us. At my last workplace, we offered one-on-one appointments during evenings and on Saturdays, as well as group classes in the morning and evenings. Patients appreciated these options.
I have spoken to many of you who have seen a decrease in patient volume but continue to only book appointments and classes between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. You may want to consider giving your patients some choices, like a Thursday evening or Saturday morning class. If you have a large population of seniors, you may want to offer a morning or early afternoon class so they don’t have to drive in the dark. Most employed patients are leery to take time off during the day for education for fear of losing their jobs. These patients may appreciate an evening or Saturday class option.
Consider asking your patients what time will work for them and schedule your hours accordingly. This may increase your class size and income generated. We know we will never please everyone but the more flexible we are, the more patients we can see.
If you cannot maintain a full schedule of classes at this time of year, what about scheduling a support group for mid-December or mid-January? This could be a free session to provide extra support for holiday stress/overeating/irregular schedules as well as to provide at least a small opportunity to get new patients in before a regularly scheduled class.
You know your patient population best. You cannot staff your office 24/7, but adding a little flexibility to your schedule can ensure that patients receive the education they need to deal with diabetes during the holidays and beyond.
Can you share what you do in your workplace to make sure patients are seen on a timely basis? Let me know.
Happy and Healthy New Year to all of you!
Cathy