Block Booking Vs. Open Access: Which Wins Holiday Season

Block Booking Vs. Open Access: Which Wins Holiday Season

November and December. High cancellations. Patients traveling. Kids home from school. Your schedule fills with gaps.

Block booking (reserved slots for specific patients) vs. open access (same-day appointments, flexible slots) shows the gap clearly in Q4.

Block-booked practices: Schedule Sara for 9 AM every Friday for six months. She cancels Thursday before Thanksgiving. You lost $350 in production that hour.

Open-access practices: Sara books a standard cleaning Wednesday. If she can't make it, you fill it with an urgent case, a same-day whitening, or a patient from the waitlist.

November-December data from large DSOs: open-access practices maintain 85-90% hygiene utilization. Block-booked practices drop to 70-75%. That's 20% lost capacity right when you want to push collections.

The catch: open access requires staff flexibility and a waitlist culture. If your team fights it, block booking feels easier.

Compromise: block 60% of slots for your steadiest patients. Reserve 40% for walk-ins and overflow. Test it through Q4. Measure production per labor hour.