Sally McKenzie, CEO McKenzie Management Printer Friendly Version

Feeling the Economic Pinch? Uncover Your Profit Hub

I don’t need to tell you that our economy is experiencing some challenging times. Dental teams are wringing their hands and many dentists are wondering when it’s all going to end. I may not have a definite answer, but I can tell you that we’ve seen economic boom and economic bust in the past. What we do know is that it is cyclical and things will improve.

In the interim, this is an excellent opportunity to take a close look at one of your key production centers: hygiene. Hygiene departments, which could be the hub of huge profit, are yielding some pretty abysmal results more than most dental practices would care to admit.

It’s very likely that in your practice right now, hygiene is probably producing well below the standard of 33% of total practice production. If you step back and really look at what is happening, you’ll likely find that the hygienist has far more down time than you realize, patient retention is seriously lacking and periodontal treatment is minimal at best. No-shows and last-minute cancellations are taking a toll on many schedules these days. Throw in a weak recall system and you have some very real challenges. Take a couple of steps immediately and jumpstart your own economic recovery in hygiene, starting with the recall system.

In many practices, the recall “system” may be pre-printed postcards purchased en masse. Even if the patient overlooks the grammatical errors often found on these pieces, the mailers commonly reinforce what patients typically want to believe, that the hygiene appointment is just a “routine” appointment. Usually it says so right on the card.

During challenging economic times, if the patients are led to believe that oral health care appointments are simply “routine,” they are likely to interpret that as “not necessary.” For patients cutting back on seemingly unnecessary expenditures, a “routine” dental visit isn’t likely to rank high on the list of priorities. Look at your recall notices and evaluate whether they convey a message of urgency and importance or if they minimize the value of your dental care.

Next, take a look at who is responsible for your recall system. Oftentimes, there’s no real ownership of this vital practice because, well, everyone is just too busy. At least they used to be too busy until the bottom fell out of the schedule.

If you do nothing else to improve your hygiene department, at least shore up your recall and retention efforts. It is the number one strategy for boosting your practice revenues and, most important, it automatically improves service to patients.

Assign the job of Patient Coordinator to one person—NOT the hygienist. A coordinator is professionally trained to make calls. She/he is given uninterrupted time to carry out her/his responsibilities and has a defined mission:

• Make a specific number of patient phone calls each day in a specific amount of time.
• Schedule a definite number of appointments.
• Ensure that a precise number of patients complete treatment.
• Schedule to ensure the hygienist achieves a daily or monthly financial goal.
• Manage a specific number of unscheduled time units in the hygiene schedule per day.

A good Patient Coordinator should be able to manage a patient base of 500 to 1,000 in an average of 15 hours per week. It doesn’t take much to figure out that reactivating a few inactive patients pays for the position quickly. Monitor patient retention. Each month, divide the number of patients due to be recalled for prophies that month by the number of recall patients treated. Your goal is 95% or higher.

In the vast majority of the practices we analyze, the hygiene department alone is losing $35,000–$150,000 annually. This says nothing of the thousands of dollars in additional dentistry that also disappears. However, a successful recall system helps patients to secure the dental care they need in a timely fashion. It also helps to ensure a healthy bottom line through rocky as well as robust economic times.

Sally McKenzie is CEO of McKenzie Management, a nationwide dental management, practice development and educational consulting firm. Working on-site with dentists since 1980, McKenzie Management provides knowledge, guidance and personalized systems that have propelled thousands of general and specialty practices to realize their potential. Sally can be reached directly at 1.877.777.6151.

Interested in speaking to Sally McKenzie about your management concerns? Email her at Sally@thedentistsnetwork.net.