Comments on: Should We Penalize Late Clients?

By: Teri and the cats of Furrydance

Teri and the cats of Furrydance — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:18:45 +0000

Oh, we’d like to and kind of charge them in our ‘mind till’ lol. When I call appts for the next day and have to leave a message, I always say “If you need to cancel or reschedule this appointment, please give us a call so we can fill the appointment time with a patient on our cancellation list. Sometimes we don’t have a list, but it’s a gentle reminder that our time is valuable, too.

As to emails, for a while we had a statement to the effect of ‘after the initial appt followup/consultation, a fee would be charged for ‘email time’ but the Dr thought that was detering clients from contacting us, so she removed the statement.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 18:34:35 +0000

Much of the decision to charge for tardiness ought to be market driven, and a component of this is local competition and the current economy. If I were the only game in town, and times were great, charging a late fee would be fine: the client’s choices are limited and the money is there. However, with lots of local competition and an economic downturn, I frankly must take what I can get and allow for the occasional tardiness. It’s not an ideal situation, but it is what it is.

Charging a late fee in my area would be the lead balloon that you describe, and I’d be faxing the records to another clinic as soon as I finished collecting the fee. I’d rather suck it up and retain the business than slap a fee on an owner (likely an owner with a decent excuse for their tardiness) and have them walk.

By: VetRN

VetRN — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 19:51:04 +0000

I always schedule 2 (or 3,4, or 5) depending on how many of my animals are being seen. I don’t take sick pets for well-visits or vacs. And I let the front-desk people know when I schedule if there are issues to be addressed such as bloodwork, fecals, etc. I try to be considerate of my vet’s time and would never try to “sneak” in an extra animal when I have an appointment for another. But my vet(s) also seem to be willing to spend time answering my questions, or addressing an unforseen issue, such as this week, when she discovered a small mass I hadn’t noticed on my 11-yr.-old Lab’s foot, and decided to do a needle aspiration right then to see if it was a cyst or a possible mast-cell tumor. (Luckily only fluid & debris seen, so most likely cystic). I think frequent and considerate clients reap the benefits by the vet being willing to do the little “extras” that make the difference in a so-so vet-client relationship and a great one.

By: G

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:53:09 +0000

Perhaps late clients make veterinarians run late. But I typically see my vet about 45 minutes after my scheduled appointment–every single time, and I have 3 senior dogs With Issues, so I’m there a lot. I generally see my internist between an hour and 3 hours after my scheduled appointment. I know this, and I show up on time (ever the optimist) but I don’t expect to get out any time near when I “should.”

If doctors or vets start charging a late fee, it should be fair to charge them for MY time, too. If the patients before me who make them late (multiple pets, emergencies, late appointments) are charged for making them late, then it’ll all balance out, right?