This article was originally published in a sponsored newsletter.
I love the summer here in Minnesota. Spending more time away from the office, and doing a variety of activities with my family, has made me reflect on the early days in my practice. I felt like I was beholden to my practice rather than it serving me, and my time revolved around my business hours. Within the first few years, I changed how I structured that time, and I’ve appreciated the flexibility I’ve gained since. To give you a full understanding of my “journey,” I will explain what I’ve learned. I hope these takeaways inspire you to restructure your time so you can do what you value most.
Analyze Days of the Week
When I started my practice cold in 2008, I saw patients two days per week as I continued my other job as an associate. Within six months, I added a third clinic day and maintained that schedule for the next five years. I was also open for half days on specific Saturdays each month, thinking the extra time would benefit my patients. While not every community is like mine, I soon realized this was not the day that patients in my area wished to be seen.
Given how slow Saturdays were, I cut back to one Saturday morning per month and cut them altogether after a year. I did the math and determined patients were more likely to leave immediately after their appointment rather than stay and purchase glasses, and they were also more likely to no-show. On average, it was costing me more to be open on Saturdays than it was profiting me. This is why I strongly encourage analysis of which days are most profitable, and why, in your clinic. Is it the hours you are open? The staff available? Can you apply these reasons to the other days of the week? Use this knowledge to your advantage.
Look at Time of Day
We have always had one or two days per week on which we start seeing patients at 7 a.m. We found that our patients fill those slots most quickly because they value getting their appointments taken care of before work or school. It’s also nice to have those times available for urgent or emergent patients.
My clinic used to have evening hours, staying open until 7 p.m. at least one to two days per week; we found those later appointments filled quickly as well. After COVID, however—and, most recently, when we dropped our final vision plan—we found that evening hours were no longer being filled and were also more likely to have no-shows. Last year, when we got rid of our last day with evening hours and added them to the morning, we noticed that more of the schedule was filled on the days that we shifted those hours.
Start Half Days
This may also be a local phenomenon, but Friday afternoons in the summer proved to be a veritable scheduling disaster, with many cancellations and no-shows. In Minnesota, driving to your cabin on the lake is a big deal, and an eye exam will not take priority if the day and weekend look promising. So, about seven years ago, we shifted Friday clinic hours in the summer to be an early half day (open at 7 a.m.; close at noon). It worked so well that, after two summers in a row and continuing to analyze our profitability on all other Friday afternoons, we extended it to all Fridays, all year-round. The kicker? Fridays are currently one of my most profitable days each week, second only to Mondays, with three fewer hours of seeing patients. As my clinic grows, I’m open to the possibility that I may need to add more hours back in, but for now, our half days work well for us.
One of the biggest benefits of this current schedule is the attractiveness to staff. No weekends or evenings and only one early morning, after which they are done at noon and get an extra half day in their weekend. Staff often use this time for appointments and other personal matters, rather than taking PTO. So, look at your schedule. Perhaps some tweaking will result in a win all-around.
