Notice given, and a long list nobody has written
An associate hands in their notice. Over the next weeks the practice needs to decide who takes over their patients: people mid-course of treatment, those with lab work in progress, future appointments in their diary, patients on their recall list, and anyone they referred who is awaiting a specialist report.
In practice this becomes a series of reports and a spreadsheet. The diary is moved first because it is visible. Recalls and open plans are dealt with later, or discovered when a patient arrives expecting a dentist who has gone.
Patients on long-running private plans or membership are especially sensitive to this, because many chose the practice partly for a particular dentist. How they hear about the change matters as much as who they are moved to.
Why handovers leave patients behind
- The leaving associate's commitments are in several parts of the system.
- Nobody produces a single list of everything to reassign.
- Reassignment is done by hand, one patient at a time.
- Patients are informed inconsistently, or not at all.
- Lab cases, referrals and open plans are easy to overlook.
What a messy handover costs
Patients who are confused or feel abandoned. Treatment interrupted. Lab work arriving for a dentist who has left. Recalls that go to a dentist who is no longer there, or not at all. For the incoming associate, a book full of surprises. Your practice's contracts and obligations shape how this must be handled; we only address the admin.
Timing makes it harder. Notice periods can be short compared with how far ahead a diary is booked, and much of the handover happens in the final weeks, when the leaving associate is still seeing patients and the practice manager is also recruiting. Anything that is not on a list at that point is at risk.
The handover workflow we build
- A handover list is generated from your practice management system of everything tied to the leaving associate: future appointments, open courses, lab cases, outstanding referrals and patients on their recall list.
- The practice manager sets reassignment rules, such as by appointment type, patient group or day of week, and applies them in batches, with exceptions reassigned individually.
- Clinically sensitive cases are listed separately for a clinician to review before reassignment.
- Patients receive a message in your wording explaining who will be looking after them, with contact details for questions.
- Each item on the list is marked as reassigned, and a dashboard shows what is left.
- After the associate leaves, any new item that still points to them, such as a lab reply, is caught and flagged.
| Item | Reassigned how |
|---|---|
| Future appointments | Batch by rule, moved in the diary |
| Open courses | Clinical review, then reassigned |
| Lab cases | Moved to the dentist who will fit |
| Recall list | Batch by rule |
| Outstanding referrals | Reports routed to new dentist |
A handover with nothing left dangling
The practice manager works from one list with a clear finish line. Patients hear from the practice before they notice a change. The incoming dentist inherits a book that makes sense. And nothing continues to point at someone who has left.
If the associate is replaced by a locum for a while, the rules can route patients to the locum for routine care and hold more complex cases for the permanent replacement, with the list showing who is waiting for whom.
Is this what happens when an associate leaves?
- Handover is done from a set of reports and a spreadsheet.
- Patients turn up expecting a dentist who has left.
- Lab work or referral reports arrive for former associates.
- Patients are not told consistently who will care for them.