Workplace Wednesday | Last minute cancellations

Last minute therapy cancellations are always going to happen. Kids get sick, parents are busy, and kids have tons of appointments. There's just no way around therapy cancellations, and honestly, that's when I do my paperwork, so I don't always mind too much. But I do try to avoid the last minute cancellations so I can plan my days a little better.

Here are a few things I do to limit the number of last minute cancellations that I get:

• With new clients or evaluations, I always call to confirm the day before.
• With some clients, I call or send a text message to confirm the appointment for the first month.
• I encourage parents to save my cell phone number in their phone. I'm realistic and know they might forget my name, so I recommend that they put me in as "OT Abby" or even "Thursday OT Abby" so if they have to cancel therapies for a particular day, they can just look in their phone to see who's coming that day.

Therapists,what do you do to limit last minute cancellations? Parents, what do you do to keep yourself organized and remember all of your child's therapists?