A patient is a “potential patient” before he/she is a “new patient”. A potential patient is a person that has never been in the practice and has scheduled an appointment but has not yet arrived for the initial visit. Every office has had the experience of potential patients who have called and arranged an appointment, but never arrived. This is the reason that ChiroSuiteEHR distinguishes between potential patients and new patients. Once a potential patient arrives for the first appointment, the designation becomes new patient.
There is a special benefit with this feature. You can track those patients who have seriously considered coming to your office, but who haven’t come in for some reason. This can be a special marketing category for you. With a little additional effort, or even a follow-up phone call, you can turn these potential patients into new patients and everything that implies.
To schedule an appointment for a potential patient, open the Appointment Scheduler as shown in figure 1. Right click on the Time as shown in figures 7 and 11. From the popup menu that appears, select Schedule Potential Patient (figure 21).
Figure 21
14. The Potential Patient Scheduling box opens (figure 22). Enter the patient’s name, remarks (if any), and phone number. Click Save to file the appointment.
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17. Figure 22