Plain names for appointment types
What 12 patients taught me about the words clinics use.
Note
Notes are where things go before they turn into a case study. Some never do, and that’s fine.
Fernway’s booking page offered six appointment types: Initial Assessment, Follow-up, Extended Follow-up and three more. Staff knew exactly what each one meant. Patients guessed.
I asked 12 patients to book an appointment for a sore knee they had never had checked. Seven picked a follow-up, because they had seen a different doctor about it once.
The fix was one question in their words: is this your first visit for this problem? Yes means an assessment, no means a follow-up, and not sure books the longer slot.
The internal names still exist. Staff see them on the front desk tablet, where they are useful. Patients never have to learn them.
Most booking problems I see are naming problems. The system is right, and the words belong to the wrong side of the desk.