The Speech Source
Mary Brezik and Kim Dillon are two pediatric speech-language pathologists with over 25 years of combined experience. As speech therapists, we are often the first professionals to assess young children once they are referred by their pediatrician. Either they are not talking well or they are not eating well. We get to know our patients, their families, and how they are developing. We have a front row seat during the first critical and formative years of development for those who receive our services. Because of this, we have developed relationships with other professionals, observed what parent questions and concerns often arise, and see a need to share the resources and information we have compiled over the years. Join us as we dig into topics that show all of the overlapping aspects of child development and intervention. We invite you to be a part of our collaborative platform as we discuss, learn and grow for the betterment of our kids!
The Speech Source
Setting Up for Success Part 1: Why Policies Matter
In this episode of The Speech Source Podcast, Mary and Kim talk about why having strong attendance and cancellation policies is key to running a successful private speech therapy practice. These policies aren't just paperwork, they help support your mission, set clear expectations, and ensure clients make steady progress. They also bring consistency and professionalism, especially when working with multiple families or team members.
Mary and Kim share how using systems like Simple Practice allows them to customize policies, send reminders, and make sure families truly understand what they’re signing. They recommend encouraging families to review their schedules in advance and proactively cancel known conflicts. This helps keep communication open and your calendar manageable.
Enforcing policies isn’t always easy, but approaching situations with empathy and clear boundaries makes a big difference. Whether it's adjusting session frequency or offering referrals, having clear policies helps guide those decisions. The episode wraps with a reminder to download their free checklist of essential practice documents for anyone setting up or refining their private practice.
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Welcome to the Speech Source Podcast. My name is Mary Brzeek and I'm Kim Dillon.
Kim :We are two pediatric speech-language pathologists with a combined 25 years of experience.
Kim :We are your source for speech, language, feeding, play and much more in between Mary and I wanted to do a season about setting yourself up for success in a private practice, and one of those areas we felt were very important was making sure that you have policies in place for your practice that are ready to go, and we wanted to talk about why we think that's important policies, procedures, paperwork all different things that you need to have in place to make your practice run smoothly and be successful. So today we're going to be talking about some policies, specifically the cancellation policy, and why it matters. So, mary, what's one of the reasons that you think a cancellation policy, or some of these attendance policies that we put into place, are so important in a private practice?
Mary :Sure Policies and procedures.
Mary :I promise this is not going to be a boring episode. It's actually so vitally important to the success of our business that I think that one of the biggest things about writing your own policies and procedures is understanding the why behind it, understanding why it's so important and understanding how to put everything in the right framework in a way that, basically, your policies and procedures should promote your purpose and your mission of your business. All of these are really the parameters in which you can fulfill your mission statement. So that first purpose of your policies is going to be to promote your mission statement, to be able to have the company and give the parameters in which you can do exactly what you go and set out to do. The second purpose of policies is to provide patient progress.
Mary :Kim and my business is so word of mouth based that what is paramount to our business is the fact that patients have a great experience, that they see amazing progress, that they have a wonderful experience with us, that they feel like this is a great service for them, because those patients are then going to go tell their friends and then they tell their friends and the whole word of mouth circuit, and so it's so important that your policies, when you're writing them, you're thinking about. How can I put parameters in place so that my patients understand the expectations and understand the framework in which they can make the most progress?
Kim :And I think Andre's setting really shows professionalism in your practice and also just that consistency across your clients and families. As we have added to our team with some of the contractors, that has even been more important for us to make sure that these policies that we have in place are consistent amongst all of our families and again, that not only shows professionalism but that's also going to provide protection for you legally and that's really important. Just for families to have that clarity of what they're signing and what y'all are doing together as a team is really important.
Mary :The idea of protection of business is definitely number three. Protection of business is definitely number three. That is also such an important part of why you make your policies is to protect your business. One of the ways that we protect our business is protecting the patient relationship, and so by having really clear-cut policies, that is giving your patients the first step in having an open communication. So open communication to say, hey, this is what we expect, this is the framework, and then if they have any questions about that or anything, that suggestions, whatever may come up, then you have something to go off of, and then you also can keep that communication open so that you preserve the relationship with your patient, because the last thing that you want is for you to somehow feel like you should do something in your business that you didn't initially think was a good idea, but you do it anyways because you just are a people pleaser and you wanted to do it and you pushed your boundaries, and then resentment grows and then that patient relationship is not the same as if you had just had a policy in place. You knew the why, and so when a patient asked about it, you could give a reason. So I'm going to give an example here.
Mary :One of the frequent questions that I get from patients is can we do sessions every other week? And on the surface that's a great question. Can we just go every other week and have that as our frequency? The thing is, in our policies we have weekly visits and then we also have as-needed or by-appointment visits two different ways. The reason for that is because the every-week visit, or even two times a week visits, is research has shown to be the most successful in getting patient progress.
Mary :So our policies of we're going to do every week sessions are not because we're trying to somehow like make the most profit or we're trying to make an easy calendar for ourselves. It's because we're ultimately very concerned about progress. We want to make an easy calendar for ourselves. It's because we're ultimately very concerned about progress. We want to make the most progress with you, and so we have developed policies that show that and show, hey, we want to be all in, we want to be a partner with you in your child's progress and development, and so what that looks like is we're going to do every week sessions and then if we get to a point where, hey, you know, we kind of need more of a maintenance plan.
Mary :Then we can switch to another kind of model, which would be check-ins. Maybe we say hey, they're good, we're going to take them off the schedule every week. Why don't we slip you in an open spot or a cancellation for somebody else and let's do it in a month? Make sure that all those skills are sticking. So that's just a good example of something that comes up quite a bit. Parents ask it's a great question and then you can go back to your policy, but also the why behind the policy, which is always patient progress and patient experience.
Kim :So let's talk about that attendance policy. There's two that we wanted to talk about in this session today our attendance policy and our cancellation policy. But we've talked about how we have to understand the attendance policy first before the cancellation policy even really means anything. So, Mary, you talked a little bit about that attendance policy and I also wanted to make the point, too, that however you have these policies whether they're handwritten and you're using them that way, or you have an EMR system make sure that what those attendance policies say so that you can explain it to your families. They are usually in an EMR system, preset and even pre-selected what's being sent to the families. But make sure you're going through and reading through those, plugging in your information, adding information, taking it out. You can put anything into these templates that you feel are important for your business. So make sure that you understand that so that you can explain to a parent what they're signing.
Mary :Totally agree. And if you are using an EMR system where, like Kim and I, use simple practice, where you are able to customize your templates, I highly recommend that you add additional signature lines between every single bullet point on that attendance and cancellation list so that the message is extremely clear that you really want them to read this information and understand it. Because I am so guilty of my husband gets on to me all the time I'm like I am definitely not reading that, I'm just signing. That is a horrible, that is a horrible pattern. But I know that about myself and I know that all these busy parents are, frankly, doing the same thing, but by gosh for that cancellation policy. Doing the same thing, but by gosh for that cancellation policy. I need them to understand it, I need them to be a partner with me, and so I had to break it down into. Every bullet point has a different signature line that says I agree, here's your signature, so that it really makes them stop and digest every little piece of that.
Kim :So, throughout that attendance policy, those are your expectations together as a team. What are we wanting as far as attendance? To make optimal progress for this kid that we're working with. So that is going to be what you're going to put in place for your attendance policy. And then your cancellation policy is what have you decided, as a business, is going to be your policy, because everybody has a little bit of a different cancellation policy, but that's going to be. What are your guidelines for canceling an appointment and making sure that the family understands that part of the policy is really important.
Mary :I also think that it's so much easier to develop a policy versus enforcing it, and that is so true of the cancellation policy, because things happen. We're working with kids, right, and their families. Kids wake up and they're sick. Kids have to go in the hospital, they have to have surgeries, they have plays, they have soccer, they have to have surgeries, they have plays, they have soccer, they have birthday parties, you name it. They've got everything under the sun happening, and the thing that we want to do with our policies is not try to nitpick and make it to where it covers every scenario under the sun, but basically we want them to understand that this is a partnership, that the goal here is that we make and meet our goals. Now, we know conflicts are going to happen, we know things are going to come up, but big tip that I have that I use all the time to set parents up for success with attendance is Simple. Practice has this really awesome app, and so I will encourage parents to download the app, not just log in for their intake forms, but they will download it onto their phone and then they can look at their appointments and at the calendar online, and so I encourage them to look at the next three months and I want you to go ahead and already, if you like, cross reference with your calendar. If that one's Easter weekend that's coming up right now, oh, we know they're out for Good Friday. Or okay, that's spring break, we're going to be out of town, oh, this is their play. And so they need to be able to look at that chunk of time and pre-cancel the visits that they absolutely know they're going to be out.
Mary :Once that's done, then we see what's left and we say, oh, my goodness, okay, that is a lot. A, we might need to move our session time. Or, b, we need to figure out how to reschedule those visits. Now, if it's one or two sessions and that's where your cancellation policy comes in is where is that line of, okay, those ones are fine versus okay, that's not going to work? We can't be at half of session. So we need to figure out how to maybe do a different time or different day, how to maybe do a different time or different day.
Mary :And that's how you can get a great partnership and open communication with your families. And it also helps you on the back end, because now you know where your cancellations are. You know that in advance, and especially for private practice, you can decide, hey, it looks like I'm just going to take off Good Friday now because a lot of people are out. You might do that. Or you might say, hey, okay, I'm going to put in some more eval slots on that day because that's going to be a day that people are off and I'm going to have big openings.
Mary :So it's so helpful for the success of your business to be able to take a proactive role in your attendance and cancellation policies. Kim and I talk a lot on our episodes about our favorite EMR system, simple Practice. We are a huge proponent of this system. We love all the features. It has really, really helped us grow our private practice, especially in creating our policies and procedures. So be sure to check out the show notes for our special discount code so that you can also see all the amazing things that simple practice can do to help your business grow.
Kim :Another thing I really like about the simple practice and I'm sure some other ones have something similar is the option to have a reminder sent to the parents via text, email or both.
Kim :You can choose those options on simple practice, and the reason I like that for me personally is I see many kids at preschool.
Kim :When they're at preschool and I think that that's not always top of mind for parent whenever their child is sick and they're not getting to go to schools oh yeah, they also have speech on Tuesdays when they're at school I need to make sure to let the speech therapist know. But if they're getting that text reminder or email reminder the night before, that will prompt them to make that cancellation with me or also let me know that they are out sick, and so that's another feature that I really like. And it's also helpful for the parent to just give them that reminder, because it is hard when they're not bringing their child to speech to always remember if they need to make an additional phone call to let someone else know that they're sick or something came up. Utilizing all of those features if you are using a system is important because it just helps the family and, again, helps with that communication and that relationship and ultimately, progress, which is what you're going for.
Mary :I totally agree, kim. I think that simple practice or whatever EMR system you have are really utilizing those features of text and email. Any kind of communication is really going to help you with your policies, your procedures, attendance, all of those things. Now, one step that we've talked about most of this episode is creating those policies, is making sure you're utilizing all of your software and all of your policies to your best abilities. But, like I mentioned earlier, the hardest part of all of this is enforcing it. But I liken it to parenting or the boundaries that you set in your session, that you know when we have really good, upfront rules or boundaries in place, that is half. The battle is that setting yourself up for success is going to already mitigate so many potential conflicts. You're always going to have conflicts left over, but you're going to have a very, a much smaller percentage left over than if you were to not set yourself up for success and really proactively create things in the first place. So how to enforce cancellation policies for those cases that you do have to?
Mary :The things that Kim and I recommend first and foremost are to lead with empathy. I think all of our patients know that we are also wives and mothers of multiple kids and we have busy lives. We're very active and involved in the community. We've got lots of therapies that we're juggling, we've got lots of practices, and leading with I totally get it, I understand, I'm with you goes a really long way to try to come from a place of oh my goodness, that must be hard and that I hear you and I understand this is really difficult. And then making a plan with the patient, making a plan that feels like a collaboration You're a team, right, so each person has a voice and so, making sure their voice is heard, making sure your voice is heard, you have your policies in place and then you can communicate through what the next steps need to be.
Mary :And sometimes that's that you're going back to that attendance policy, and sometimes that means that you need to really overhaul the structure of your sessions. And that's part of why I think it is important for practices to be able to offer a per visit model as well for check-ins, because I do think that is a really helpful scenario for me to be able to keep in touch with a patient who's just not ready to commit but really needs that one hour, once a month, of parent coaching to be able to help their child with communication or with feeding. Whatever we're doing, that might be what they need in a season between that weekly visit. Anyways, I think that it's helpful to really just keep empathy in mind and really work with your families and be ready to provide referrals.
Mary :Kim and I also, we pride ourselves on being really connected in our community. We love our other providers. We know them very well and we are able to really think through who might be a good fit for them or who might offer something a little bit different or a little bit more convenient for their needs right now. And so I think it's vitally important that you be really connected in your community and be ready to give out a referral if someone is a better fit elsewhere.
Kim :I think those are really great suggestions and, again, I think it just all comes down to communication and just being a really good communicator, upfront with your families, and these policies just help with that. It helps, like Mary said, lay that foundation of your boundaries and then just keeping that communication open. One thing I would add is when you start to see a pattern maybe happening, jump on it sooner rather than later and start having those conversations. Hey, is this time hard for you or is there an easier way that we can communicate if something comes up? Just things like that having those conversations sooner rather than later.
Kim :We hope that some of these tips were helpful in just understanding the importance of an attendance policy and a cancellation policy, and we have much more to come. We have forms, waivers, some other paperwork, ideas and even therapy ideas. All these things that are just going to really help you set yourself up for success in your practice. As we record this mini series on policies and procedures, mary and I have put together a list of everything that we feel is important in starting a private practice all of the policies, procedures, the paperwork that we use and that is available in our podcast notes. Just click on the link and you can download this list for yourself. Hopefully it's helpful in starting your own practice. Thanks for listening. Make sure you subscribe to our podcast and check out our website, thespeechsourcecom.
Mary :Also check us out on Instagram for more ideas on speech, language, feeding and play.
