Practices thrive when the appointment schedule is full.
However, your patients may lose their patience when made to wait a prolonged period to see a physician. If your patients are losing their patience, chances are, they are already lost and are looking for a new provider that can see them on a more timely basis. Patient scheduling is somewhat reflective of the economic principle of supply and demand. A theory based on this principle, called advanced-access scheduling, hypothesizes that scheduling appointment requests as they are received, even on the same day, allows patients' requests for appointments to be met in a timely manner. Success in creating timely access is dependent on a balance between provider supply and patient demand.