Stop Cancellations from Destroying Your Physical Therapy Practice

Cancellations and gaps in your schedule are practice killers. The industry average for physical 
therapy private practice cancellations is 18%. Many practices don’t currently track cancellations 
properly and therefore don’t know how significant an impact can be made. At FYZICAL, we 
consider success to be keeping cancellations under 10%, with some members as low as 5-6% 
annually. How can you do the same?

1. Define a “cancellation” for your business and create a policy. 
At FYZICAL, a cancellation* is someone who cancels their scheduled appointment with less than 
24 hour’s notice. It doesn’t matter if you fill that time slot with another appointment. 
Once you define what a cancellation is, you must communicate the policy to your patients and 
staff. Outlining a policy will help patients understand why showing up is so important and also 
define staff responsibilities, which prevents subjective judgment calls by employees… “Do I 
charge this Johnny but not Sally?”

Once a cancellation takes place, follow the next three steps to make immediate impact!

2. Reach out to referrals not yet scheduled and offer the opportunity to fill the slot. 
If successful, getting in earlier than expected is a patient benefit and confusion from moving 
existing appointments is avoided.

No referrals waiting? Move to step three.

3. Take a look at the existing EMR system and make a list of all the cancellations and no 
shows in the past week. Reach out and attempt to rescheduled in the newly cancelled 
time slot. These patients still need care to improve and won’t benefit from just skipping over an 
appointment in their plan of care.

Still no success? Try step four.

4. Call the last scheduled patient of the day and see if they would like the opportunity to 
come in earlier. If unsuccessful, work your way through the schedule from the end of the day 
forward. If someone accepts coming sooner, then you can buy yourself more time to fill that 
last slot. If you cannot find anyone to fill that last slot, then let your staff go home early. Let the 
business take the hit, don’t let the therapist/staff take the hit. No one wants to see gaps in their 
schedule, but if you do have to see them, you want them to happen at the end of the day to give 
you the opportunity to earn goodwill with your team.

Cancellations are inevitable but they can be controllable. Spend time with your receptionist and 
really train them on how to handle each of these steps. You will see a significant reduction in your 
cancellations!

* A cancellation is different than a ‘no show’ - a person who misses their scheduled appointment 
without providing notice.

Get a Cancellation Assessment  We’re here to help you! We understand every practice is unique.

Call or sign up for a free business assessment to see how FYZICAL may be able to serve you in areas other than reducing cancellations! Call 941-227-4122 or visit www.fyzicalfranchise.com/cancellations.