First Appointment Checklist

❏ Introduction – Greet the patient with excitement and welcome them to their new health journey

❏ Ensure all intake forms are complete

If not: “I see that you haven’t completed your intake forms yet which is totally fine, we can do them together before we get started”
If the patient does not have their health insurance info handy, you can still proceed with the appointment after confirming that they have active commercial coverage with one of the carriers that we accept. Skip the insurance form for the patient and tell them they must fill it out as soon as possible. ALL OTHER FORMS MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE PROCEEDING!

❏ Check how many appointments the patients’ insurance includes per year for free & inform them

❏ Conduct the patient’s health assessment

❏ Give the patient 1 or 2 things to change/work on

This gives them a reason to schedule their follow-up appointment, so you as the dietitian can check in on their progress
Too many things to work on after the first appointment isn’t good because:
- It’s overwhelming – it's more effective to change peoples’ health/diet behaviors one step at a time
- It “gives away the farm” – patients may feel like they got all the information they can from you, and won’t feel the need to schedule follow-up appointments

❏ Schedule a follow-up appointment

Make the patient excited about how much better they’ll feel the next time you meet with them
Give them something to look forward to – tell them you’ll give them more ways to improve at their next appointment – set the expectation that it’s on ongoing process

❏ Remind the patient of their Healthie login email and password, and inform them that:

They'll need it to reschedule or to schedule a follow-up appointment if they didn’t do it on the call
That's where they’ll be able to see their treatment plan info

❏ Enter the appointment status (Occurred, Cancelled, Late Cancellation, No-Show, Re-Scheduled)