A vestibular patient booked with the sports physio
A patient books online for dizziness that their GP suggested might respond to physiotherapy. The booking widget offers the first free slot, which is with your sports and MSK physio. Your vestibular-trained physio works Tuesdays and Thursdays. The sports physio sees the patient, realises it is not their area, and the patient has to rebook.
Similar things happen with pelvic health patients booked with a physio who does not offer it, parents booking a child with a physio who does not see children, and neurological patients booked into a thirty-minute sports slot. Each rebooking costs the patient a wasted trip and costs the clinic a slot.
Why allocation goes wrong
Online booking systems usually offer 'new patient assessment' with any physio. Reception know roughly who does what, but that knowledge is informal, and new receptionists learn it by making mistakes.
Patients do not know which kind of physio they need. They describe their problem in their own words, which may be vague or may not mention the detail that matters for allocation, such as their age or whether the problem followed surgery.
Specialist physios often work part-time or on particular days, which makes the problem worse. The first free slot is usually with a generalist, and a patient who wants to be seen quickly will take it. Nobody tells them that waiting two days for the right person would have saved them a wasted appointment.
Some clinics solve this by having every enquiry go through a physio. That works, but it takes clinical time away from treatment, and enquiries wait until a physio has a gap.
What mis-allocation costs
| Mistake | Effect |
|---|---|
| Specialist patient with a generalist | Rebooking and a wasted first appointment |
| Wrong appointment length | Session runs over or is rushed |
| Specialists' diaries underused | Specialist skills not reaching patients who need them |
| Every enquiry to a physio | Clinical time spent on admin |
| Patient frustration | Some do not rebook at all |
How we route enquiries to the right physio
- Your physios define routing rules in plain terms: which areas of practice each physio covers, age groups they see, and which situations should always go to a physio for allocation.
- Online booking and enquiry forms ask a few admin questions, such as the area of the body, the patient's age group and whether the problem followed surgery or a referral, in wording your physios approve.
- Answers are matched to the rules, and only suitable physios' slots are offered, with the right appointment length.
- Anything that does not fit a rule, or where the patient is unsure, goes to a short allocation queue for a physio to decide, rather than being booked with the first available clinician.
- Reception use the same questions on the phone, so allocation is consistent across channels.
- A monthly report shows how many first appointments were rebooked to a different physio, so the rules can be improved.
The questions are for routing only. They never assess, advise or tell a patient what is wrong. Anything clinical is left to the physio at the appointment.
After the change
Patients meet the right physio first time far more often. Specialist physios' diaries fill with the patients they are trained to help. Reception stop guessing. Physios only allocate the cases that genuinely need their judgement. And the clinic can promote its specialist services confidently, knowing enquiries will reach the right person.
New receptionists get up to speed faster, too, because the routing knowledge lives in the booking process rather than in a colleague's head.
Does this happen at your clinic?
- New patients are booked with whoever is free first
- Specialist patients are regularly rebooked after a first appointment
- Only experienced receptionists know which physio does what
- Online booking offers every physio for every new patient
- Physios spend time allocating routine enquiries