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Dental Management: Systems Your Team Should Know
In the most progressive dental practices, it is apparent that all members of the team commit and take responsibility to make the practice the best it can be. In order to accomplish this in your practice, the entire team needs to master the basics of business and dental management.
To be excellent, it is essential that the clinical skills, attitude, philosophy and systems of the practice work in perfect harmony together. The team becomes empowered with the passion and desire to succeed, and most importantly, to work together to achieve the practice’s maximum potential. Therefore, the first step is to build a team.
Team building in dentistry is analogous to building a baseball team:
- A skilled manager has the responsibility to help select the players. She coordinates the team’s effort, and oversees the entire game.
- Players must know their jobs, have the skill to do them well, and be committed to make a contribution to the team.
- Beating the competition requires a game plan and the flexibility to change that plan when circumstances change.
- Players and managers must communicate with one another, trust and support each other, and resolve their differences in a constructive manner.
- There must be a reward system that meets the needs of the team as well as the personal needs of the individual players.
Just like a baseball team, it is vital to track all statistics, e.g., the ‘score’ of the practice: who’s winning; what are the goals; who is reaching these goals; how do we know when the systems of your practice are healthy; and what standards do we use to evaluate them?
There are five basics systems that make up a dental practice:
- Marketing -- A patient comes to our practice through one of two sources: internal or external marketing.
- Sales (Case Presentation) -- The doctor and hygienist, both well-trained in comprehensive treatment planning, educate the patient about ideal dentistry. Then a treatment plan is presented.
- Scheduling and Financial Arrangements -- Patients are scheduled for treatment.
- Production -- The treatment is completed.
- Collections
Every patient, from the time they first contact the practice, passes through these five departments, which are best called systems. It is necessary that these systems be so organized and running so efficiently that they are 100% effective all of the time.
Each of these systems are unique in their own right and must be handled consistently well to maintain the flow of patients through the office. This is why we stress the need to reorganize and revitalize these systems on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Do not let these systems run by chance. Organize them, delegate responsibility to each team member and make sure they are running extremely efficiently. Create experts in these systems and be an expert in your appropriate system!
In order to gauge whether your existing systems are healthy or not, the following guidelines will help you to ensure your department is on the road to continued success. Then when you monitor the numbers or vital signs of the practice, the numbers just come and the goals you’ve set become a reality.
The following are some of the numerical vital signs or numbers you will want to achieve each month:
Doctor’s Statistics
- Consistent flow of new patients -- at least 10-15 per month in a fee-for-service practice
- Retention of 90% of patients annually
- Re-care effectiveness of 85% monthly and annually
- Collections: minimum 98% of production annually
- 80% scheduling effectiveness monthly
- 800-1000 active patient base per doctor
- Goal is to achieve an 80% acceptance rate of treatment recommendations on a daily and monthly basis
- Power block scheduling (2-4 each day)
- Three internal marketing plans and three external marketing plans implemented and working simultaneously
- The entire staff are all at peak efficiency in their skills and attitude toward goals and practice vision
Hygiene Statistics
- “Re-care department” should maintain an 85% or better re-care effectiveness each month
- 100% of patients should pre-appoint for their continuing care appointments
- Up to 75% of patients can and should be referred to a more frequent re-care return
- Up to 50% of patients should be referred to a more intensive level of periodontal treatment
- Less than 10% loss through cancellations or broken appointments monthly
- 40-80% of doctor treatment coming out of the hygiene re-care chairs monthly
- Retention of 90% of patients annually through the hygiene department
- Power blocking primary time in the hygiene book each day
Set your sights on reaching these numerical goals and monitor them daily, weekly, monthly and annually. Bring the information to the team meetings and discuss them. What you will see evolving are the trends and patterns within the various systems, which may not be working as well as they should.
Please remember that when you monitor the health of your practice regularly, you will always be on top of the practice and see the earliest warning signs of potential trouble. You can then make educated decisions that will positively affect the practice’s growth immediately and not allow for inappropriate reactions to enter into your decision making. The decisions you make will be very precise and based on fact from months and years of statistical data, reviewed, and examined carefully by your “experts” in dentistry. It is imperative you learn and analyze the score of your practice.
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