Divide your area into zones
Draw your service area into four or five zones. Assign each zone a day or a half-day. New patients get offered times on their zone's day.
Book by zone, not by request
When a patient asks for "Tuesday at 2", check where they live. If Tuesday is your east zone and they are west, offer Thursday instead. Most patients are flexible when you explain why.
Order the day
Plan each day as a loop: start near home, work outward, and finish close to home or the next day's area. Leave the hardest-to-park visits for quieter times.
Put travel in the diary
Travel there and back belongs in the diary, so you are never double-booked and late. In Clinidiary each home visit can carry its own travel before and after, so a nearby house might have 10 minutes there and a farther one 20 minutes back to your next patient. See home visits.
Keep a buffer
Traffic, a patient who needs longer, a missing key. One buffer slot in the middle of the day stops one delay ruining the rest.
Use clinic days or telehealth
Some reviews can be done by video or at a clinic room. See running a hybrid practice.
Review your routes monthly
Look at where your patients actually live. If one zone keeps growing, give it more time.
Good routes also change what a visit should cost. See pricing home visits and how mobile physios manage their caseload.
Frequently asked questions
How do mobile physios plan their routes?
By dividing their area into zones, booking each zone on set days, and ordering visits as a loop.
Should travel time be in the diary?
Yes. Blocking travel before and after each visit prevents double-booking and late arrivals.
What if a patient can only do a certain day?
Make exceptions when needed, but explaining your zone days usually finds a time that works.