There was a day when you merely made decisions.
Now, it’s essential that you make “informed” decisions. And it’s why dental practices and dental organizations are jumping on the bandwagon using data to drive decisions for growth.
It’s all about leverage, really.
There are deep wells of digital intelligence available to you.
The good thing: you no longer have to make “blind” decisions and potentially risk financial resources or team energy.
Higher-altitude decisions are the new norm
With exceptions, dentistry has typically been most interested in data that revolves around the “big three.”
- New patient data
- Production data
- Collections/accounts receivable data
There’s more to monitor but these have perhaps driven most of your decisions to date. Nothing wrong with that but there’s more data to access and benefit from.
Higher-altitude data now includes:
- Patient experience and patient acquisition data gathered from patient reviews, surveys, and intentional feedback
- Payment monitoring that help predict fee for procedure accuracy
- Practice and organizational operations that scale for creating improved patient experience with cost monitoring along the way
There’s more, of course. But these alone could help shape your growth decisions.
What makes data-based decision-making effective?
It’s worth being reminded again that, “what’s measured can be improved.”
That’s why it’s a good idea to begin gathering data around your measurable goals and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Beyond those, it’s also essential to drill-down into the patterns, trends, and cycles that are impacting your business – positively or negatively.
Once you have a clear picture from the available data you can strategize around it rather than solely relying on instinct.
Two things matter to data mining.
- Data should be accurate
- Data should be relevant
Facts and figures can be useless if they don’t provide an actionable focus or outcome. Here’s where you “strike gold” within your data.
- Qualitative data analysis focuses on observation rather than measurement. That’s valuable because not all data follows a specific formula.
- Quantitative data analysis flips the focus back to numbers and stats. Its value does indeed follow a formula of measurement that’s useful to decision making.
Using data to drive specific decisions for the growth of your dental practice or DSO
Measure your patient experience
Your dental practice or organization’s profitability relies on a steady stream of patients in treatment. Your production values are driven by new patient acquisition and retaining loyal patients.
The data that empowers your decisions around those patient demographics is strongly connected to their feedback. Online reviews and a consistent referral network are core to their input.
It’s important to determine who among your patient demographics are providing useful reviews, referrals, or both. Pinpointing that data can reveal how to channel that feedback into patient acquisition and retention strategies and/or refining your overall patient experience.
The positive and negative aspects of this data is uniquely beneficial as well. For example, a negative review or referral contains the seeds for improvement much like a glowing review or referral would.
Maximize your dental insurance networks
The more dental insurance plans you accept the more clarity is needed about how each pays. Data can reveal the overlap in payer networks, fee schedule determinations, and the providers that are best for your patient base(s).
- Explore the data relative to each insurance plan
- Seek clarity on the details of each network or partnership your payers are in
- Maximize payment efficiency around what the data reveals
Manage operations around scalable insights about care delivery
Your staffing decisions within your dental practice or DSO can be a reflection of the data you uncover about efficiency and more. For example, staff hours when compared to production can reveal much about how efficient your operations and workflows are.
Productivity can be measured and scaled to improve your systems within one or more dental practices. Keep in mind that the data should span a production time frame to provide a more accurate analysis.
Big data, small data, and all data in between – it’s all useful on the right platform
The key is gathering available data, analyzing it, and creating actionable strategies around your discoveries. That requires a platform built for data analytics.
Check out the following resources to gain insight into how you can effectively perform data analysis on a dedicated platform:
5 Ways to Transform Your Results With Dental Analytics
The Importance of Dental Dashboards and Dental Analytics
Sharpen your decision making processes and outcomes with an all-in-one dental dashboard
The Jarvis Analytics platform helps assure that you’re tracking the important metrics and staying on-track with your goals as your dental practice and/or DSO grows and expands.
Jarvis…
- Integrates seamlessly with your chosen practice management software/platform
- Presents the metrics you want and need in an easy-to-view dental dashboard that reduces data complexity for growing dental practices, dental groups, and DSOs
Experience Jarvis in action. Request a demo today!
Or…
Contact us for more information about data tracking that leads to profitability.
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