Best Answer
My honest answer to this question is that, as a medical assistant, it is highly unlikely that I would be establishing the practice’s policy in terms of cancellations and patients who show up without appointments. Generally, the doctor(s) and the office manager establish those policies and the appropriate policies may vary tremendously depending on the type of practice, the demands of the practice, patient utilization, current prevailing conditions (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic could change how a practice approaches drop-in patients), and the patient’s own medical history. As a medical assistant, I would follow the policies and procedures established by that practice, which would include handling an irritated patient with courtesy but not allowing their demeanor to dictate a change in behavior or policy by men.
However, once I am in a policy-making position for a practice, I would establish policies that are designed to work with problematic patients in a way that provides as little disruption to the practice as possible, while still focusing on the healthcare needs of those patients. After all, even socially inappropriate people experience illness. Moreover, because they behave in sub-optimal ways, these people may actually find it more difficult to access healthcare than people who behave in socially appropriate manners.
The way I view the question, there are actually three different issues: (1) no shows; (2) drop-in patient; and (3) the patient is irritated. I would handle no shows by establishing a policy that, after a patient has been a no-show for the first appointment, they must be charged a $50 booking fee when making any future appointments, which will either be refunded or credited to the cost of that next appointment, once they are checking out, and kept if they do not appear for their appointment. While many practices hate the idea of drop-in appointments, I like practices that reserve a portion of their day for same-day appointments and would reserve schedule time for those patients. If a patient dropped in with a non-emergent medical concern, I would advise them of the next available appointment time or when our practice’s drop-in times were open and ask them to return. Even after immunizations are widely available, COVID-19 is going to remain an infectious disease concern, especially for vulnerable patients, and I would use that as a reason to limit in-person waiting in the office. As for a patient that is irritated, my answer would be situationally dependent. Does the patient’s behavior seem to be related to pain or worry about a health condition or are they simply being rude? I would expect people to be polite and respectful to patients, but I do not expect anyone to tolerate abusive or hateful behaviors, and would decline to treat a patient in a non-emergent scenario, who was behaving in that
