How soon can I see you?


Many people in our society have gotten used to more or less instant gratification where their needs are concerned. It is possible to use the internet 24 hours a day to help fulfill our every need.   Not surprisingly, it is not uncommon for patients to reach out to me after hours via my cell phone, email or Facebook, with a dental question, especially when they are having a dental problem  and feel the need to schedule an appointment asap. Most can wait until regular office hours to be seen, but would like to be seen during our  the next available opening.

I can remember the time  before Zocdoc and Logmein existed, I would have to say that they should call at 8:30 Monday morning and speak with Ida, my office manager, in order to see when we will be able to accommodate them. Most were happy with this suggestion, but not so much now.

Currently I have Logmein installed on my home laptop so that I can remote into my office server . Now when a patient reaches me at home I am  able to remote into my dental office software and help my concerned patient schedule their dental appointment.

We also are registered with Zocdoc, so our patients can see what appointments are available and book an appointment with me online. With this service patients can book their appointments at a time of their own choosing, as long as we have an opening at their desired time. They have twenty four hour access to viewing available appointments. The appointments they make are actually really "requests" and need to be manually confirmed by me or another staff member, but they do allow patients to reserve a desired time from where ever they are, at anytime, day or night!

I really don't mind speaking to my patients and if I need some privacy or it's not a good time to talk, I can always turn my phone to silent for a short while. Most calls or texts can wait an hour or two to be returned. I don't actually have to go silent often and usually I have my phone close to me. The sole exception is when I am treating patients and don't keep my phone nearby. Of course during office hours if a patient needs to communicate they could call my office's actual landline!





from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-soon-can-i-see-you.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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