Same-Day, No-Wait Visits: Turn Capacity Into a Competitive Edge

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of podiatry marketing. With me, as usual, is Jim McDannald, aka Big Jim Mac. That's how everybody in the world knows you, Jim. So how are you doing today?

Yeah. World famous from Canada to Australia to The US. It's Big Jim Mac everywhere. No no Tyson. Things are good here.

Things are starting to cool down. You know, it's getting into Canadian wintertime, but they weren't the things are just heating up here at the podiatry marketing podcast. So

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's always funny when you say things are really starting to cool down, and for us, things are really starting to heat up. Yeah. We're hitting hitting November.

This is when you know you live in the tropics, and I absolutely love

it.

The hotter it gets, the better.

Yeah. I have to come visit you one of these Novembers in Australia.

It'll kill you. You wouldn't wanna do it. Come come in your summer when it's like up here, June, July, August, best time to to be here. You can go either month, May, September is okay, but it's great. So what are we talking about today?

So today, we're gonna talk about a topic that just came up on a call I had with a prospective practice owner, and that's about how to market same day, no wait visits. I think this is a huge opportunity for podiatrists. You know, you some people have know, either a little bit of an opening in their schedules or just wanna provide a type of care that, you know, other types of, you know, clinics or hospitals can't. So, you know, big hospital systems may have, you know, some name recognition. Maybe they, you know, kind of commanding and kind of dominating physician referrals, but they'll also have large, wait list.

So it's a real opportunity for your clinic as an independent clinic where you have more flexibility. Maybe you have some young associates in your practice that you wanna kinda feed some additional cases, it could be a big competitive advantage. So today, I'm gonna talk a little bit about, you I'll show you how podiatrists can use same day, no weight positioning for these visits to stand out, attract new patients, and fill their schedules kinda more consistently.

I look forward to this because you're in a different part of the world. Your insurance system is different. So you're probably gonna be when you're talking about the, like, the same day, no wait, I'm sort of thinking your thinking on this is gonna be maybe different to what what's going through my head at the moment. So I'm interested to see what what you unpack and whether I think it is the same or I'm thinking completely different. So let it rip.

Get into it.

Yeah. So I'll say the first thing is, you know, patients, especially in North America, and I'm sure around the world, value access more than you think. There's been a a big thing, especially in Canada and The US, where there's large sometimes there's really long wait times in emergency rooms. So there's been a whole kind of newer cottage industry over the last fifteen or twenty years. We call these urgent care clinics have really kind of started to sprout up everywhere.

So

Yeah.

You know, if you if you don't if you don't wanna wait for know, you if there's people that are getting having a heart attack or people are having, you know, really kind of life threatening things, those things are obviously the people go to emergency rooms. But different kind of private clinics, sometimes, you know, large community clinic hospitals are setting up these kind of urgent care clinics where maybe it's a nurse practitioner or maybe it's a a family medicine doctor, but you kinda go there knowing that you're not gonna have that same kind of wait time. And you're gonna receive some kind of care there, whether, you know, they actually can treat the thing or they're gonna send you a referral to go somewhere. But this really kinda opens up a huge opportunity. Like I said, sometimes when people go to either the ER or these urgency urgent care clinics, they're just gonna get a referral, you know, if it's an ingrown toenail or it's a broken foot that they don't have expertise about.

So it's I wouldn't say it's a weight necessarily wasted visit, but it feels like you're not necessarily getting the diagnosis and treatment started. You have, like, another hoop to jump through. So when patients have, you know, foot or ankle problems, diatriz that oak that provide these kinda same day or within twenty four hour visits can provide solutions more quickly instead of, you know, another hoop to jump through. Or if it's something that's not urgent, it's something that, you know, you can be seen and not have this long waiting list because a lot of these community hospitals or private clinics maybe have their own podiatry department. But if there's a 200 primary care doctors and there's two podiatrists, they're gonna get booked out so far that you're talking about months away from getting to see a podiatrist to treat your your heel pain or your Achilles pain or something.

Yeah. I think it's also too when you go into one of those emergency wards, and this is what I've I've heard from people. I've never been in one. That they said if you weren't sick before you got there, you're probably gonna be sick by the time you come here. Because you might go in because you've you've hurt your ankle or you may have thought you've you've fractured fractured a metatarsal or something like that, and you sit next to six other people that presumably could have COVID or some other infestation, nits, they've got something that the chance of you catching something in some of those places is not good, and that's why people don't particularly like them.

So having an alternative is great.

That's a great point. Think, especially during the COVID area, right, era, there's a lot of kinda, like, almost self triage. It's like, is this thing that I have bad enough that I would kind of risk getting sick or risk getting COVID. Right? So, like, people were trying to weigh that balance.

I would say even nowadays, you know, people don't wanna sit in the ER for a few hours. So if you said you might get sick. So, you know, when clinics are highlighting these appointments available, you know, this week or within twenty four hours, it makes your clinic kind of the obvious choice. So when it's more convenient, reduce the wait time. It's gonna kinda outweigh maybe the some kind of brand loyalty or, you know, these large hospital systems are sometimes tied to, at least in The US, to university.

So it feels very prestigious. It feels like, you know, a very trusted brand. But if you're providing convenience and reduced wait time, you know, people are probably more likely to give you a chance and kind of kinda happy to kinda jump in and see you within a couple of days as opposed to waiting those, know, weeks to see the to see a podiatrist somewhere else.

Yeah. So what and what you're talking about, it is this seems to be more probably a a North American problem than it is in Australia, I'd say.

I see.

But I do recall, I remember being in New Zealand. This was, like, twenty years ago, and one of the podiatry clinics there in Christchurch, and they had a a certain amount of hours. It might have been from five to 7PM, three nights a week where was their walk in, like, emergency care. So if something had happened to you throughout the day, you didn't need to ring up. Just turn up at the clinic between five to seven.

They were going to be open, and they would quickly, you know, triage you, see what needed to be done. Could the was this something they could do straight away, or was it something they'd make another appointment for you, or would they send you somewhere else? And they were busy, and this is twenty years ago that they were doing this.

They're ahead of their time.

Yeah. They were way ahead of their time. I remember seeing it because I hadn't seen anything like that done previously. And I said, well, what do you do between five to seven if nobody comes in? And they went, we always have stuff to do.

There's paperwork notes to catch up on orthotics that need to be made. So they would spend that time doing that, but they were usually kept pretty busy.

Oh, that's that's great to hear. It's always good to hear those kinda, like, real world kinda examples that people have been doing for a long time.

So where where where do people start with all this anyway?

Yeah. So number one, I would say that people need to put the kinda same day or same week really front and center in the messaging. So whether that's, you know, on your website, you know, making sure those pages is not only dedicated to that, but it's it's visible on your home page, whether you're on your socials or on the kind of paid advertising that you're doing. It really needs to be a a strong part of your message because, you know, if it's just a footnote, people are gonna really recognize that. Right?

So you need to kinda make sure you're putting it out there and feature featuring it prominently, like, on your home page, on your Google Business profile, in your ads, adding phrases like, you know, no weight foot medical care, sometimes even to your signage, letting people even within your clinic as well, letting them know that that's available. Like, we talked about many times in the past. People might know that you do ingrown toenails because they came and saw you for that one time, or maybe they do you do orthotics, but they're not aware that the, you know, the clinic does these either same day or within twenty four hour appointments. So you need to really make sure you're spreading the word if through a newsletter or through these different channels I had previously mentioned. So this consistency of messaging is gonna build trust.

Patients are gonna see you, that local expert with this kind of extra perk. So, you know, it's something that, you know, maybe you know, depending on how popular it is, it's something that you might have to triage in the future. But if to begin with, if you still have openings in your schedule or things are a little bit light in the clinic, you know, patients should be able to see and kinda hear this message everywhere to hopefully, you know, fill up the clinic agenda a little bit more consistently.

Yeah. Well, consistency is really important to get that message out there, but I would there's a couple podiatrists I spoke to this week. One, I and I usually run the same thing past them, same question. If I rang your clinic 10:00 Monday morning, hurt my heel over the weekend, and I desperately need to see you, when can I get an appointment? And one of them said, oh, we wouldn't be to get in for probably one to two weeks.

That's how long our waiting period because we see so many routine full care patients. I went, okay. Well, you've just lost me. I'm gonna start ringing around and see where else I can get in. Then I said this other person I was talking to during the week, if I rang up Monday morning, same thing, when could he get in?

They said, either late that afternoon or the next day, guaranteed. And I went, I said, that's great. So let's go to your website. So I went to the website. I said, where do you let people know?

And they said, oh, it's just I said, well, how do you do that? They said, oh, we've got everything structured a certain way. I went, that is fantastic. Why can't I find that on your website? That you can guarantee a same day or next day appointment.

I said, that is a is a big deal for people who are in pain. It's like the you smash a window. You don't want the you wanna see an ad that says, we can come out within an hour to fix your window.

Yeah. Absolutely. You got to let people know that it exists because, like, they don't, you know people are googling things or searching around, but unless you have it really plainly spelled out for them, it's gonna be a difficult thing. And this it kinda what you're talking about kinda builds into the next point is that you really have to make sure you're building that capacity into your schedule. You know?

You You don't just wanna kinda, like, make this claim and then get really busy or, you know, you know, kinda overpromise and underliver is kind of a a a huge thing that probably makes people more upset. It probably is gonna hurt your reputation and kinda the word-of-mouth is gonna be very negative if you make this claim, but you actually can't follow through. So, you know, depending on how big your staff is and how what their capacity is, need make sure we're reserving, you know, one to two rapid access slots each day. Maybe it's the right before lunch or right after lunch or maybe at the end of the day. But this has to be something where you make sure you can deliver on that promise.

So, you know, hold on to those spots for, you know, twenty four to forty hours before. And, you know, can always kinda open them to routine follow ups if they're unused, but make sure you're putting some blocks in your schedule if you decide to really make an effort of these kinda, like, same day appointments. Because, like I said, you know, this is it's probably realistic, for teams without, you know, major disruptions and overbooking if you if you implement this kinda into your schedule. But if you're just making these claims and not really making the capacity in your schedule or have the capacity in your schedule, like I said, people are gonna be more than happy to talk bad about you because you weren't able to kinda live up to the promise that you made on your website or these other channels.

Yeah. And I know there'll be some people listening to this, and this is a conversation I've had with a lot of podiatrists over the years. When you explain this to them about the importance of being able to get people in quicker, yeah, sooner rather than later, And they will say, oh, that would be almost impossible to do in my clinic. And I think as as soon as you got that mindset, yeah, it will be impossible for your clinic because you need to just know you can do it because there's so many other podiatrists I've taught how to do this and who are doing it successfully, having appointments same day or next day or forty eight hours at the latest. You just gotta make decision that that's what you really wanna do to provide the best care for your patients, and then it's put the things in place to do it.

Absolutely. And not only is it kind of your own mentality and only kind your your schedule you have to think about, but you really need to make sure that the next point is gonna, like, train your staff to reinforce the promise. You know, if it's gonna out there on your website but it's not mentioned, maybe when they call in, you know, having a kind of a very specific kind of front desk script, at least some talking points that people can even if it's not someone that day, they're not looking for appointment actually that day. But if they do call in asking for an appointment, you know, having them say, you know, we can see you today or tomorrow is kind of a a good reinforcer. Maybe the people don't wanna be seen that quickly, but at least you you've told them so they know that now.

And they might share, you know, share that with their friends, their family, that there is a clinic that does have sometimes available a little bit faster. So when you empower your staff to kinda triage urgent calls, whether it be something that requires an ankle sprain or painful ingrown toenail, you're able to kind of fill up these rapid access slots. So it's gonna take a little bit of, you know, training and messaging from your staff as well. And but it's it's well worth it if you get some higher paid, you know, patients coming in the door in a short notice can really be significant revenue booster for your practice. So, you know, the message feels stronger when patients hear directly from a real person on the phone.

Right? Like, if they've kinda seen it on the website, but then it's reinforced by a real person, it's gonna make a really big difference.

And I know what you mean. Like, having these spots available that people can get into, I know a number of podiatrists will say, oh, they have a certain spot in the morning and in the afternoon so that their staff can catch up on their notes. And I'm going, really? You you can allow time for your lazy staff to catch up on their notes. Why don't you have times available then for people who have a problem and wanna get seen today or tomorrow?

And if you got those time for the notes, maybe those patients take priority first over note taking and teach your staff to just get the notes. Especially with with AI now, there's no excuse not to just get your notes done. That's a different conversation altogether.

Absolutely. But there's there's a huge opportunity, like you said, to kind of get those notes done a bit quicker. But I think what you talked about, you have a real chance to the last last thing about what we talked about today is really, like, these rapid access or these quick access patients, they're gonna be so happy that you have availability to see them. It's a really great opportunity to kinda build social proof about you and your clinic. You know, when patients have these kind of wow experiences, you know, they're in pain.

They were told by, you know, the University of, I don't know, Tennessee's clinic that it's gonna be three weeks until they can be seen, or they can go to the emergency room, or they can go to a urgent care clinic and then get a referral to that, you know, podiatrist within their system or within, you know, some within that health care system, and it's they're in pain today and they wanted that ingrown toenail taken care of as soon as possible. When you ask these patients for a review, you're gonna get a glowing review online. They're gonna tell other people about about you and the great care that they had. So when you collect these and kind of these testimonials around urgent access, you know, they'll they'll say things like I was seen the same day, and I'm back on my feet. I'm feeling great.

Those things really translate well to online reviews and to have someone look at an online review, see that, and think, okay. That's the place I wanna go. I wanna wanna be taken care of in a in a in a, you know, in a in a good way, but also in a way that's not gonna be waiting around for weeks. So, you know, over time, your reputation for access becomes kind of a moat around the the hospital competitors. That's the one that they they can do.

You know, obviously, they have the name recognition. They have, you know, a referral network that is sometimes getting harder and harder to kind of infiltrate because they have their own podiatrist on staff or their own, you know, people that take care of foot and ankle pain. But if if you're able to provide great care and a great access to these patients, it's a way to, like, be seen as different and as a really relevant and helpful choice when them or their family members are looking for Footnaco Care in the future.

Yeah. I I I really believe that whole thing about your reputation and building this positive reputation that you actually care about people, that you find spot spots from. And even if you say, oh, just gotta move a couple of things around, but I'm sure we can get you in tomorrow, at least that to the patient, I'll let them know that you care, whereas the hospital will be you are just a number. And I'm curious, Jim. What have you got against Tennessee University?

I was thinking, like, Tennessee, Kentucky. I don't know. For some reason, those those states jumped in my mind, but and I know that these, you know, big hospital systems you know, it's great they're bringing up podiatrists on staff, but these podiatrists are overworked. You know, they're they're taking call. They're doing a lot of stuff.

And, you know, some people in the private sector can help them out. I think that, not only will, you know, the the the podiatrists that are overworked be thankful, but also the obviously, the patients that are getting great care from from private clinics can also benefit.

Okay. I need to ask a question then because people outside of North America is if I was a patient and I contacted the hospital that was attached to, say, Tennessee University, and I see the podiatrist there and I might have to wait a week, do I still have to pay, or is it free?

Depends on what health care plan you're on. Right? There's all these deductibles. So, like, in The US, that's the big thing is that, actually, before your health care plan kicks in, you'll sometimes have a thousand, 2,000, $5,000 to spend before your health care act you can actually get that covered, you know, quote, unquote for free. So it really depends on who your insurance provider is.

Okay.

You know, the type of plan the type of plan you have, the size of your deductible. A lot of, like, factors go into, like, whether you're able to see, you know, a provider there and what the cost would be. Because sometimes, you know, maybe the cost would be the exact same by going within the network of going to if you're referred to, like, know, the emergency podiatrist. May not be any cheaper than going to a private clinic and being on depending on how big a deductible you have on your plan.

Okay. And if you don't have insurance, it doesn't matter. You just get charged to both.

Yeah. You're gonna get cash pay at both for sure.

Okay. So anything else you wanna finish on on this particular subject?

Yeah. I would just say that, like, the same day no wait isn't just kinda like a trick or like a hack. You know, I think it's something that, obviously, you have to put time and effort into, make sure you're, you know, talking to your staff, you're building it into your schedule, but it's a real way to kind of position your clinic and kind of your your clinic brand. Right? I think sometimes we've talked in the past as like, oh, you wanna be a sports medicine podiatrist?

Oh, you wanna be, you know, someone that sees pediatric patients? Oh, you wanna be a surgeon? But, you know, I've I've even talked to some podiatrists a lot about, you know, about if they live in a larger metropolitan area, I could just be, like, the local, you know, kind of urgent care clinic for the foot and ankle in a way, which I don't know if anyone's if anyone's listening to this podcast and they they've heard someone that's actually, you know, taken the plunge and done that full time, I'd definitely be interested to hear about it. But as something I've had a conversation with people in the past about. So so it's a way to position your brain even it's not what you do 100% of the time.

It's still a way to build up goodwill and kind of build a positive reputation for your clinic because it tells your community that you're accessible, you're responsive, and you're ready to help. So, you for solo providers or small groups, this can be a real differentiator between you and that large hospital system. They they can't match it. Right? Just, you know, that availability.

So I would consider, you know, leaning into this, same day, no wait visits. You know, market it consistently. Make sure it's in your messaging, and kinda watch and see how many patients choose you because you solve kind of one of the biggest frustrations of any patient about health care, and that's waiting to be seen. And that's one of the biggest frustrations, you know, in a in a day and age where, you know, Google you know, Amazon Prime comes, you know, the same day or tomorrow. You know, we see our our movies on Netflix and Apple TV on demand.

The more you can provide this type of care for patients, the more, like, they're gonna sing your praises and the more they're gonna be willing to kinda sing your praises to others as well.

Yeah. And I think especially if you're in an area where people can count the the amount of podiatrists that are on offer. So for example, like in Cairns here, there might be 10 podiatry clinics in Cairns. If there's nobody that's got this in their marketing that they can provide a same day or next day guaranteed appointment, it's a missed opportunity. Because patients, whether they go online, they might look at five or six different clinics before they make a decision.

If they're in pain, they wanna get in now. And I think that was one of the advantage I had with my clinic is we had guaranteed orthotics within twenty four hours because we milled everything and made them all ourselves. We had same day appointments. We had guaranteed next day appointments. That was just a big part of what we did, and people could always get in.

We just structured things the right way. And I think if I could do it, it it means everybody could do it. You just need to make decision. That's what you wanna do. And then be shown maybe if you can't figure out how to do it yourself, then you reach out to us, and we'll teach you how to do it.

Absolutely. Okay, Big Jim. Anything else to finish up on, or you're done?

No. I think we're good for today.

Okay. I look forward to talking to you next week.

Bye, Tyson. Okay. Bye now. Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing.

That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.