From time to time, patients request to schedule more than one appointment in a day, usually because it is more convenient to come to the office just once. For example, an individual may ask to schedule both a regular visit to address a specific concern, as well as a periodic health exam on the same day; in other situations, patients may have multiple specific concerns and ask to schedule two or three back to back appointments.

What Should I Do Instead?

At the present time, our standard policy is that patients should always schedule for the most important or most pressing reason. If there are additional concerns, you can let your physician know during your in person appointment, but there is a good chance you will need to schedule a follow-up appointment on another day.


Why Can't I Schedule More Than One Appointment A Day?

At Arbour Family Medical, we understand the requests for multiple appointments on a single day but, unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate them for practical reasons. Several factors contribute to this limitation:

  1.  Balancing patient needs: Physicians must consider the needs of their entire patient population and manage the availability of appointments. Allowing one individual to schedule multiple appointments on a single day could potentially hinder other patients with more urgent matters from securing timely appointments.

   2.  Effective use of physician's time: Given the current shortage of physicians in ontario, it is crucial to ensure that a physician's time is utilized effectively to provide care to as many patients as possible. By scheduling appointments to be slightly longer than typically necessary, there is often an opportunity to address multiple issues within a single appointment. Scheduling multiple appointments may result in unnecessary and potentially wasted time that could have been better allocated to accommodate other patients.

   3.  Missed appointments: Despite confirmations and reminders, patients sometimes fail to cancel appointments in a timely manner. By scheduling a single patient for a shorter duration, any potential loss of time due to a missed appointment is minimized.

   4.  Government restrictions: Government regulations exist to prevent fraud and ensure proper billing practices. Due to these restrictions, physicians are typically not permitted to have and bill for multiple visits with a single patient on the same day.

While we acknowledge the desire for multiple appointments on a single day, these practical considerations guide our scheduling practices to ensure fair access to care and optimize physician resources.