Letters
Once the option of an appointment has been accepted and the patient is booked in consider what paperwork you send out. Before I began to meet patients prior to booking their appointment, I played around with what was written in the letters and performed a small blind trial. I tried sending out letters with varying amounts of information in them and assessed the effect on attendance at the first appointment. I tried a letter that had only practical information like the place and date and where to park. I compared that to two other letters that had progressively more information in them. One was a fairly standard MSK physio appointment letter which had in things like you may need to take clothes off and consent etc. The other gave even more information about the format of the assessment and went into a fair bit of detail. I found that the more information I gave the worse the effect on attendance. I assume because it created ideas about what would happen in the appointment.
Something else to consider with letters is avoiding the letter looking like a bill. Because these letters often don’t get opened. If the letter is printed and in an envelope with a window this can look very ‘professional’ but it can also look like a bill and get filed in the bill pile. The apprehension some people have opening letters that look like bills should not be underestimated. If we hand write the name and address on the envelope, then there is a much greater chance of it being opened. It can also be possible to set up little things like symbols on the envelope. Like our initials on the back, or a little circle in one corner. Something pre-agreed which symbolises that this is from us.
Phone Calls
Phoning a patient to book the first appointment can be a tricky business. If you and the referred decide that it will be the best approach to do so, it can be the most efficient. Consider how you start a phone call, what is your routine and what words do you say. Do you dial the number and then wait for the person to speak and if so, how long do you wait. Consider what somebody may be bringing do that phone call. Many people that we work with will be used to receiving phone calls which are not very pleasant. Their phone number may be frequented by debt collectors or people they’d rather they hadn’t given their number to when manic. They may be somebody has a history of being vulnerable to called cold callers and and salesman, so now that person’s phone number is passed around these companies as a valuable commodity. So now they will receive a huge number of unwanted phone calls. The sound of the phone ringing creates a sudden Pavlovian response, so when the person answers the phone, they may not be as relaxed as you would hope. your job is to put the fears at bay as quickly as possible. I experimented with different methods of introducing myself on phone calls and I found the first line I should say I was simply hi, my name is Andy, I'm a physiotherapist. If I lead with “hello is that insert patient's name?” I could easily be a cold caller, but if we lead with with our name and profession, immediately we are in a place to begin the conversation. I also found it was important to give the person space to say hello but be aware that some people will deliberately wait for the caller to speak. Wating for you to disclose who you are before they show that they are there. So, give space for the person to answer but not waiting too long before taking the initiative and speaking first. This is the first impression we are giving and if we make a good one it will make things easier down the line. So, wait for a moment to allow the other person to speak but don’t wait too long to build tension. Then straight into name and profession and then say the name of the person that they already have a good relationship with (the referrer) and say that they have asked you to give them a call. These things may seem trivial, but you are not only trying to achieve that the person comes to the appointment we are trying to categorise ourselves in their mind as someone who is positive and really understands. Getting these little things right will make things down the line smoother. Any errors that we make later will more likely be forgiven.
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