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Late, Cancellation, No-Show Policy


 

Late, Cancellation, & No-Show [POLICY]

Description

Temecula Medical Group’s goal is to provide excellent care to each patient in a timely manner. In order to do so, and for us to be successful and respectful of all of our patients, it is important that we do our best to stick to the planned clinical schedule.


We define Late, Same-day Cancellation, & No-Show as:

  • Late Arrival: any patient who arrives at the clinic 10 minutes after the expected arrival time for their scheduled appointment.
  • Cancellation: anytime a patient cancels an appointment, with or without rescheduling for a new time.
  • Same-Day Cancellation: any patient who cancels an appointment less than 24 hours before their scheduled appointment.
  • No-Show: any patient who fails to arrive for a scheduled appointment.

Policy

It is the policy of the practice to monitor and manage appointment no-shows, late arrivals, & cancellations. We give priority to patients who are on time and punctual for their appointments. We do practice compassion and understanding as much as possible, but it may be necessary to reschedule your appointment due to the provider no longer being available to see you [because they have moved on to their next patient]. In these circumstances here is our policy:

    • Late Arrivals [missed appointment]: we will:
      1. Still, try to fit in the patient (this might require the patient to wait, potentially for a significant time)
      2. Try to see if another provider can see them (this also might require significant wait times).
      3. The patient will be rescheduled for a different day.
        [NOTE: Availability to accomplish either option a. or b. is subject to the demands of the provider’s clinical schedules, and is not guaranteed on the same day.]
      4. A rescheduled appointment due to a late arrival will be considered the same as a same-day cancellation/no-show and will be subject to a rescheduling fee of $40 (if options a. and b. above are not available). 
      5. Note: If you have not completed your pre-registration arrive 20 min prior to your appointment... otherwise, you may need to be rescheduled. 

    • Cancellations: Patients are requested to call or leave a message at least 24 hours before their appointment time (we consider this the same as one business day). This notification allows the practice to better utilize appointments for other patients in need of prompt medical care.
    • Same-Day Cancellation [late cancellation]: Same-Day Cancellation impedes our ability to adapt our clinical schedule and fill the appointment time not being used, in order to be able to see patients that do need to be seen.
      1. A rescheduled appointment due to a same-day cancellation will be considered the same as a no-show and will be subject to a rescheduling fee of $40.
    • No-Show: No-Show if a patient does not show up or give notification of them missing their appointment the onus is on the patient to call to reschedule their appointment.
      1. The No-Show will be documented in their chart.
      2. If the patient has frequent No-Shows, the practice reserves the right to proceed to discharge the patient from our clinic.
      3. A rescheduled appointment due to a no-show will be considered the same as a same-day cancellation and will be subject to a rescheduling fee of $40.
      4. We reserve the right to discharge/divorce any patient who has a history of excessive No-Shows.  Patients who schedule and then don't show up are taking an appointment that could have been used to help a patient who needed it.