Practice management
Block schedule
A block schedule reserves set blocks of time in the day for certain procedures, patient types or providers, so the right kind of appointment fits the right time.
Block scheduling comes from outpatient medicine. A study of an outpatient clinic describes a block schedule in which each morning or afternoon block has a set number of time slots reserved for certain patient types, such as new patients first and follow-up patients after. In a dental office, blocks might protect time for crown preparations, new-patient exams or emergencies. Blocks are usually set in a schedule template and reviewed against results such as production and no-show rate. The cited study is from a non-dental clinic, so a dental office should test how any block design fits its own work.