Waiting list
A list of patients who want to be seen sooner than the next free appointment. When someone cancels or reschedules, the freed time is offered to them so the slot isn't wasted.
≈ waiting lists · waitlist · wait list · cancellation list
Why a clinic needs a waiting list
Every clinic has two flows that never meet. On one side, patients who couldn't get a convenient time with the clinician they wanted. On the other, slots that open up because of cancellations, reschedules and no-shows. A waiting list connects them: the patient is seen sooner and the clinician's time isn't lost.
Without one, the front desk offers freed time to whoever they happen to remember. Often they remember nobody, and the slot stays empty. Meanwhile, the patient who was simply told "we're fully booked" is already booking with another clinic.
How to run a waiting list
- record not just the name and phone number but also the clinician, the service and the days and times that suit;
- keep the list in the CRM, not in a notebook or the front-desk group chat;
- check the list straight away after every cancellation and call suitable patients;
- log the outcome and remove anyone who has already booked or changed their mind;
- offer a place on the list to everyone for whom the suggested time didn't work.
Measures: how many freed slots were filled from the waiting list, and what share of patients on the list eventually booked. If slots are hardly ever filled from the list, it exists only on paper.
A typical mistake is thinking a waiting list is only for the busiest clinicians. In fact it's useful wherever cancellations happen. The second is letting the patient go with "call us later": they won't, and the clinic loses the contact.