Scheduling Your Week

Every Doc in DPC is different. We all work in our own ways.  This question was a good one:

  1. How do folks schedule their week? Do you limit the number of physicals each day? Save first and last hour each day for urgents? Try to book Tues, Wed, Thurs first? We are trying to set some basic guidelines to stay sane as we grow. Tips on what’s been successful for others much appreciated!
  2. We don’t have any rules for scheduling other than patient preference.
  3. Ditto, the simpler things are the better
  4. Same thing
  5. I am mid 500s. I try to do 13 -15 complete physicals a week to get everyone in. We try to leave at least 4 openings a day for acutes. The rest are follow ups.
  6. I stagger my hours but make exceptions for patients who have less flexible schedules. I don’t wanna be sitting around for 6 hours between visits. That way I’ve got early hours some days, late hours others, and patients understand if I’m not there at every moment
  7. I try to limit to 3 or 4 one hour appointments per day (whether physical or mutiple issues), and try to group them from early to mid part of day unless the patient cant come at those times, then.we accommodate them. Leaves me time early and late to address.acute visits and take care of admin issues.
  8. These seem trivial questions but I’m going to ask anyway.
    What time does everyone open their clinic in the morning?
    Do you work 5 days a week?
    I’m still failing a lot at work-life balance so trying to get a handle on that. (Or at least as close as a confirmed workaholic can get.) Thanks!
  9. m 9-5 tue 10-5 Wed 12-5 Th 10-5 Fr 9-5
  10. M-F. 9-5 for patients. I’m usually at the office 8-6 though for additional work on software, consulting.
  11. No such thing as a trivial question. That’s a very important question, actually. M-F 8-5.
  12. Until my kids just started summer camp, I only came to the office in the afternoons, 3 days a week. I am still only around 150 patients, but many of them are babies, so more visits. I will probably cap between 200 and 300 to stay part time.

    Work-life balance has been a big driving factor in how I set up my practice, so I have made growth/income sacrifices in favor of having more time at home. (I homeschooled my kids for the past 3 years as well).

    I end up doing some work 5 days a week, but my new schedule for the summer is:
    Mon 10-1
    Tues 1-6
    Thurs alternates between 10-1 / 1-6.
    So I get some evening and morning hrs in.
    Wed and Fri are blocked off from regular appointments. I do some work from home on admin/catch up, maybe some phone visits.

    I also have a part time nurse (8-9 hrs/wk) and a part time admin assistant (5-10 hrs/wk) to take over the busy-work pieces that I no longer want to do.

    Feel free to PM, this is a passion of mine!

  13. I still don’t have any patients so this probably means absolutely nothing, but my ideal start time is 830 so I have time to drop my daughter off at school in the mornings. I plan to work five days a week through the school year and hopefully cut back to four or maybe even three in the summer to spend more time with her. After all, she was ONE of the driving forces in my decision to do DPC
  14. M-F 9-5. But if someone’s not scheduled, I may come in at noon and leave by 2. That’s becoming less common as I get busier.
  15. Th, Friday 8-4 Wed 8-12. Tues 11-7. But I am not in there the whole time, staff is. I certainly wiggle things for my kids’ schedule too.
  16. There are a lot of blue collar uninsured and high deductible patients here that I hope to add as patients. They love early morning and end of day appointments so they don’t lose pay due to missing work. We open early (and close early) one day per week. We also start late and stay open until early evening one day.
  17. M-F 9-5, but planning to schedule a regular 1/2 day off soon
  18. 9-5 M-Th, F 9-N. After second doc joins, we will both take 1 d/week off from office, but answer text email and phones for our own pts.
  19. If you always have someone answering phones and you are available by email, you appear to be there all the time, even if you aren’t. I frequently take 2 hr lunch breaks and go home
  20. M,T,Th,F 8:30-4:40, lunch from 12-1. W 8:30-12. I’ve also started blocking off time if I need it for kid school stuff, doctors appt. How are you failing? Too many hours?
  21. In all due respect, and keep in mind this is coming from the workaholic, I find it hard to not offer at least 40 hours a week of office hours. This is a service industry. If you were my bank can you close for lunch then I would find another bank to shop at.
  22. I’m with you, which is why I talk big about starting later and then instead come in early so that I can draw labs and my nurse can come in late.
  23. My perceived failure is multi-factorial. It has to do with the schedules of our patients, many of whom are blue-collar, working-class individuals who cannot take time off work without having their job threatened. They need the early morning or the late afternoon appointments. Having patients being able to access us at lunch has been important as well – in fact I often see a patient over the noon hour. Patients are never upset (to my face) when I have taken time off, but they also want to know all about it (detailed schedule).
    I think my biggest failure is that I am simply overscheduled. I have about 575 patients. I see an average of 10-12 patients a day. Is this similar to everyone else’s experience?
  24. I would say that has more to do with how many patients you’re scheduling per day than anything. I have about 680 patients currently on my roles and I probably see six or seven per day on a busy day. Are you making sure to take phone calls and voicemails and text messages? Maybe have your nurse recommend a patient email you for an issue rather than come into the office?
  25. So many phone calls, texts and emails… I think my peeps are needy. We try to be a wall but…
  26. I’m seeing 8-13 daily, with 585 people. Mine must be needy too
  27. M-th 9-5 for routine patient visits– I usually get to the office about eight and leave about seven. I was doing a lot of communication on Saturdays to wrap things up because I had an urgent care job that paid well and I never had to see anyone . We’re closed on Fridays during the summer and open Friday nine to noon the rest of the year. Dr. kathryn and I are probably going to change this up completely — we’re looking at transitioning to a modified shared practice model where we are open Monday through Friday including one day a week where we have extended hours until about seven or 8 o’clock at night that we alternate who covers this from one week to the next. We will both be in clinic four days a week and overlap three of those days but both have a three-day weekend .
  28. M, T, Th 8:30-5, sometimes working through lunch, and W 8:30-1, F 8:30-3, although on Fri afternoon we save for same day only. If no takers, we close at 1. Still working on converting remaining cash FFS patients to DPC. Average 6-12 Patients per day.
  29. I’ve been doing 9-5 M-F. However, I purposefully avoid scheduling people much on Friday, as I use it for a flex day, although I’m usually still there all day. I’m also a pretty bad workaholic, but I’ve been ridden hard and put away wet for 9 years in the rural trenches doing full-spectrum FM with OB and shitloads of ER including frequent 62 hour weekends from hell.