Callie Haynes

You may not be a football fan, but hang in here for a minute with the analogy, because there are some important dental “plays” that you can implement when you have a change in your schedule.

They are lurking in your office waiting to steal treatment plans and hide them in the unscheduled treatment reports in your computer. If you track case acceptance, you are one step ahead of these robbers because you can then start to identify and analyze your systems and communication skills to find your vulnerable areas and take steps to shore them up. Guessing or using your “gut feeling” about case acceptance will not serve you well. A good goal to aim for is 85% for new patients; 90% for patients of record.

One of the most frequent calls we get on our Hotline at Pride Institute is the dentist or team member asking when and how to dismiss a patient from the practice. There is usually a long story involved and lots of confusion. Typically, they have waited far too long to take this action and have endured a lot of stress as a result. True, it can be uncomfortable. And true, it is easier to hope the patient just goes away. But that rarely happens. Dismissal protocol

You may be finding it more challenging to fill both the doctor’s schedule and the hygiene schedule and keep them filled. Many patients have had financial setbacks because of our still challenging economy, and many other patients seem reluctant to spend money on anything but what they consider essential. Maybe your number of new patients has declined too? Here are some steps that self-directed appointment coordinators can take to keep the schedule full and productive and also increase the number of new patients:

When we introduce the “Patient Debrief” to teams, their first response is, “We already do that.” And to a certain degree they absolutely do part of it!

The subject Nine months into a rough year, Dr. Everyman walks into his morning huddle, already feeling far from successful. He has been watching a lot of TV and has heard all the news about job layoffs, bankruptcies and other economic issues. On a personal note, last month he was unable to draw his normal salary and he has never been able to put away as much money in savings as he would like. At huddle, the team seems distracted and unresponsive to his concerns.