Joni Brantley,
Director of Business Operations
We all understand that things happen unexpectedly and sometimes you just can’t come to your appointment. If that should occur, please call the office to cancel or reschedule. By calling ahead, you create an opportunity for another patient to be scheduled in that time slot. Each person we see is important to us and we want to ensure that we have appointments available when they are needed.
Now, imagine that you have an urgent problem and need to be seen on a certain day but there are no appointments available for several days or weeks. You get an appointment that may not be as convenient, you rearrange your schedule and make plans to come. Meanwhile on the day that you actually wanted, we have one or more no shows from other patients. That was an appointment time that YOU could have had if someone had called to reschedule, instead of just not coming. When an appointment is not canceled with adequate notice, it is too late to reschedule another patient for the vacant slot. This can result in a longer wait time for an appointment for someone who has an issue and genuinely needs an appointment sooner. It also creates inconvenience and frustration on the part of our physicians and staff. That is something that you don’t see or aren’t even aware of. But it happens every day.
If you know that you cannot make an appointment, it is important that you call our Appointment Call line at 252-443-5941 option 3, and cancel at least 24 hours before your appointment time (sooner is preferred) if you know you can’t make it. You can also reschedule an appointment on the same line.
If you cancel an appointment with less than 24 hours notice or if you simply don’t come to your appointment, then you are considered a “no show.” Once a patient has "no showed" for three times, then they are eligible for dismissal. Once a patient is dismissed from our office, we will no longer be responsible for their care nor will we schedule any more appointments for you.
Dismissing a patient is not something that we do lightly and we want to avoid it if we can. We encourage all patients to contact us if there is an issue with their appointment and we will do our best to accommodate you.
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