How can you fill a visit during a no-show?
Current hour (Fill On-Demand)
Next hour (if unbooked)
Same day appointment
Next day appointment
Soonest possible
The strategies are outlined in the order of what we have determined is most effective, but this might look different for you depending on your members and effectiveness in outbound dialing. Maximize the strategies that WORK FOR YOU -- e.g. that result in billable MNT.
Fill On-Demand
What Are “Overbooked” or “On-Demand” Visits?
An overbooked or on-demand visit is a pre-scheduled visit that has not been assigned to a specific RD. Selecting the “Fill On-Demand” button for a visit from the Task Bar (in the On-Demand tab) on the right side of the calendar, the system assigns one of these visits to you.
Please note, this is "on-demand" from your view and not the member's view. Members have scheduled these appointments by time and not by a specific RD.
Overbooked visits may be used to schedule into any open slot, including:
Slots that are currently open that never had a visit scheduled
Patient no shows
Last Minute Cancellations (either by you or the member)
How You’re Scheduled with an Overbooked Visit
Up to 75 minutes before visit start time:
Auto-fill: Automatically assigns a visit to open slots up to 75 minutes before the visit start time. This happens with any open slot.
Between 75 minutes before the visit start time and up to 15 minutes past the visit start time
2. RD Manual Fill:RD can place a member on their own schedule up to 15 minutes after the scheduled start time.
Example: If you have an open slot at 12:00 PM PT:
Auto-fill can assign a visit up until 10:45 AM PT (75 minutes)
GDT can assign a visit up until 12:15 PM PT (15 minutes after start time)
RD (you) can assign a visit up until 12:15 PM PT (15 minutes after start time)
Benefits for You
This new system helps protect your schedule against lost units from last-minute cancellations and no-shows. Previously–just several months ago–we couldn’t book any visits within 48 hours of the visit start time, which required manual outreach and waitlist juggling on your side. Now, we’re handling the administrative work so you can focus on member care.
Another benefit: If you’ve been adding extra availability (>8 hours/day) to protect against no-shows, you can now rely on overbooking to ensure visits are completed, reducing the need for adding additional hours.
On the right hand side of your dashboard you will now see a tab titled “On-Demand” which shows all of the available on-demand visits.
If you click the “Fill on demand” button next to a visit in that tab, it will populate into your schedule
If you hover over the visit within the On-demand tab, you will see the timeslot in your calendar turn green to indicate which slot it refers to
The small red dot in the top right corner of each time slot indicates slots where on-demand visits are available.
Alternatively to selecting the “Fill On-Demand” button in the tab on the right, you can also click the 3 dots in the top right corner of a slot and select “On-demand” to populate the visit into your calendar.
Once you click on the “Fill On-Demand” or “On-Demand” button the appointment will automatically be scheduled into your calendar.
You do not need to unfreeze a slot to populate an on-demand visit
For quick reference: all On-Demand appointments will be visible by the red dot on the calendar view. A green-highlighted appointment will appear when hovering over the On-Demand appointment available for that day or week. To view On-Demand appointments highlighted in green for other days/weeks, you’ll need to change the day or week in the calendar view to match the day/week of that appointment.
On-Demand appointments are listed in your current FFD timezone.
Connect Path
Time spent contacting members for potential appointments should be ‘trackable’ and reportable to the greatest degree possible (so that your time is accounted for).
When making a call to any of the members in the various channels/sheets below, use the outbound dialing feature in ConnectPath (including when you are using numbers from your personal waitlist or from Slack channel leads; think of ConnectPath as just another “phone”).
Contact members from personal waitlist
Contact members from personal waitlist for an on-demand appointment.
Goal: engage members with whom you have a personal connection, and who are available at current time
Please contact people via ConnectPath, so that it's trackable and reportable; since many of your long-term patients may have your Zoom phone number saved, you can also send them a quick text at the same time.
Call members scheduled later (5+ days out) on your schedule
Goal: move appointments up into a slot during a no-show; the old slot will then be filled by Growth Development Team.
Call established members who have contacted you
Call established members who left you a voicemail message or sent you a text message.
Goal: convert questions to on-demand appointments.
Encourage ongoing conversation with appropriate boundaries set between sessions to promote additional opportunity for on-demand visits
In your ‘Notes to Member’ in FFD documentation, add a templated message encouraging ongoing contact. Example: “If you have any questions, you can send me a text or call me on my direct line during business hours at [zoom number]. While I cannot guarantee a response before our next appointment, I will reach out as soon as possible. For technical support, contact Foodsmart at (415) 800-2311 or email support@foodsmart.com. See you at our next session!”
Remember 1 visit/wk limit
Remember that PHI cannot be sent via SMS
Manually Dial through ‘Leads’ list on Connect Path
The "Leads" list is a list of patients who have completed an appointment at one point this year, but have not had a follow-up. By calling them, we are attempting to re-engage them and to reinforce the value of meeting with a Foodsmart dietitian.
Tips from Successful RDs
Verbally confirm appointments: Always confirm the next appointment (day & time) at the end of a visit.
Allow for longer visits, where plan limits allow: For plans with unlimited visit time, you can allow visits to go over the allotted time (i.e., bill 5 units).
In real-time, refresh your schedule to see if your next slot becomes free
Remember: do not reschedule members just to extend another visit.
Schedule strategically: Consider scheduling highly engaged members (who may warrant going over one hour) before time slots with members who are less engaged or share less during calls; if the later member doesn’t show up, continue with the visit
Stay flexible: Accommodate and prioritize members who reliably attend their appointments.
Ask members to write down appointment details: Encourage members to write down their appointment details in their calendars during the call. Accountability is key!
Add a personal introduction to your initial calls: Include information about where you are calling from and how long you have been a dietitian.
Improve caller recognition: Ask members to save your Foodsmart Zoom number with your name (e.g., “Foodsmart Dietitian Kate”) so they recognize who is calling.
Leverage Food Status updates spreadsheet for on-demand visits: When updates are available on the Food Status Updates spreadsheet, contact CalOptima members with the goal of converting to an on-demand visit if within visit limits—especially if the member has missed or canceled a prior visit.