What’s the best way for her to have handled the situation?

Question

My daughter had one of her early intervention appointments today for speech but the lady never showed up to our home. I texted her once she was 20 minutes late, but didn’t get a reply text for another hour. When she eventually texted back, she apologized for not making it, and said that an earlier evaluation she was doing at someone else’s house ran late and she had no cell service there to call and notify me. 
I’m not pissed - I realize these things happen, however I am slightly annoyed because I planned my day around this and she never showed. 
So what do you think the best way to handle this type of situation would’ve been (if you were the early intervention specialist).  
A) not plan any appointments too close together because you never know if one will run late? (This option might not always be possible though if you are very busy working with lots of families).
B) leave the earlier appointment/evaluation - explaining to that parent that you’ll have to finish up at another time because this is taking longer than expected and you have another appointment
C) do what she did - finish with the first appointment and leave the second one hanging (no cell service -remember)
D) something else? Please comment.

Accepted Answer

I think she did the right thing by contacting you as soon as she could. I understand that you were inconvenienced, but we don’t have the entire story of what happened other than the appointment ran late. That could mean anything from she has poor time management to there was a medical emergency that held her up. As long as she doesn’t make a habit of this happening I would say what she did was appropriate.

Answer

I totally understand why you’re frustrated. I would be too. However from an outsider’s perspective I like that she spent the necessary time with the child before your daughter and didn’t leave before she felt the appointment was over. If it were your child she spent the extra time with you would probably be thankful!
I will say it sounds suspicious to me that she had both an appointment go long AND didn’t have cell service. It seems like a lot of bad luck at once!

Answer

Make sure that I also have my clients email in order to send an email. Cell service and 4G are different. Can also connect to wifi.
Not put the appointments following the client without service close to another.
Book the no service client as my last appointment for the day.
Speak to the client following the no service client to let them know I could run late without being able to notify them. 
There are many things that can be done. A mistake like this is okay with me once. After that, I will not be your client anymore.

Answer

I picked D, did something else. Maybe it's just my weird self but I would have a planner with each appointment listed for the day and their contact information with me. That way I could excuse myself for a moment and ask to use the phone to make the necessary arrangements for my next appointment.

Answer

She could have used their home phone to call you.  It’s likely that family knew they were running over their regular appointment time and aware that their house is in a dead zone, so I don’t think it would be unreasonable or unprofessional to ask to use their home phone or to take a moment to step outside to look for a cell signal.  I definitely think she could have contacted you.

Answer

I think she should have a phone that gets service everywhere if these things have a tendency to happen.
If it was me I would have excused myself for a moment and tried to contact you. 
If I was you I would write a letter to the company making them aware of the major inconvenience it is and had been for you ... so they can 1.  Address and/or correct understaffing.  2.  Address a potential irresponsible employee, of which could be the case.

Answer

Her appointment ran an hour and a half late? That seems unlikely.
I completely understand appointments running late, but the average early intervention session is 30 min to an hour, so for her not to let you know she wasn’t coming until almost an hour and a half after your session isn’t right. She either got to the other appointment late or had some time in between. Unless the other family lives in the middle of the woods it doesn’t seem like she called you within a reasonable time frame.

Answer

The thing is, you can't always just "finish up later." If you're on the verge of a breakthrough with a child, ending the session and returning later could actually send progress backwards. Even just stepping away for a moment when the child is being responsive can shut the child down, ending the progress they were making and potentially sending them a little bit backwards.  My sister was in both occupational and speech therapy. I can't count how many times her appointments ran long or started late, because when you're in the business of helping kids the progress of that child needs to come before the clock. There were even a few times where the appointment ran several hours late and we ended up needing to just reschedule, it happens.
You have to realize that when you're inconvenienced by an appointment running late, there's a child out there who just had a breakthrough because they were given the gift of patience. 
What I'm saying is she handled the situation exactly how she should have.

Answer

I think B is the most appropriate thing to do in that situation.  Yes it’s nice that she wanted to finish up with that child, but she needs to remember that she has a responsibility to her other children as well.  She could have contacted you if she actually wanted to, like using their home phone. It’s the least she could do.  I see that as a bit unprofessional, I would still give her another chance.  She needs to get it together though.

Answer

As someone who runs a client based business with a very unpredictable schedule (babies come when they wanna come 🤷🏻‍♀️😂), in this situation I would have only spent the amount of time I had allocated with the new family and explained that I’d love to follow up to spend a bit more time evaluating this child’s specific needs. 
When you schedule commitments, unless an emergency pulls you away you should always follow through with them. 
Never schedule back to back and always give yourself a bit more time than you need in case of traffic, food/potty breaks/needing to refuel/etc. 
personally, I’d give her one more chance but if it happens again, I’d be wanting someone else to work with us.

What’s the best way for her to have handled the situation?

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