6 Actions That Can Increase Dental Practice Production

Swimming upstream. That would explain the challenge you and your team might feel as you work to increase dental practice production.

It’s not surprising. COVID-19 surpassed other factors as a top reason for a decrease in patient appointment volume.

Now that you’re trying to step back into the current (pandemic setbacks notwithstanding), it’s time for refreshed and new production-increasing strategies.

Increase your dental practice production with these six actions

1-Watch the clock

We’re not talking about overdone time management. But there is a reason it can pay to be more time conscious.

Patients are slowly but surely returning to dental appointments. That said, do everything you can to honor their time.

An inconvenienced patient can and often will lead to a negative review. Long-term, loyal patients might cut you some time slack, but how you honor a new patient’s time could be the difference in their loyalty to your practice.

Time is currency. Invest it wisely.

2-Highlight hygiene

You know the production value of your dental hygiene schedule. Turn that knowledge into practical strategies that can expand hygiene scheduling and their production value.

• Assess your patient flow
• Acquire or appoint a hygiene assistant
• Assign administrative tasks to support dental hygienists

Attention to hygiene department details will help free your hygienists up for improved efficiency. This can translate to a production increase.

3-Reactivate inactive patients

Patients delay, postpone, or avoid dentistry for a variety of reasons. Some of those reasons matter as you craft your personal approach to reactivating them.

But for the most part, an inactive patient might reappear on your radar when their oral health demands. Or a simple contact could produce the nudge they need.

• Audit your patient data for inactive patients
• Review previous notes to determine relevant information that could help with reappointment
• Communicate a timely and incentivized invitation to return starting with preventive care

4-Follow-up…follow-up…(you get the picture)

Incomplete or delayed treatment is an opportunity. Timing matters – especially if their pending treatment is to carry weight.

Keep the conversation open and flowing towards a scheduled appointment. Automate your patient follow-up but keep it as personal and non-templated as possible.

Again, the term “conversation” can set a positive tone for your follow-up process. Be as conversational as possible in your follow-up communications (especially automated ones).

And add the same tone to any educational-themed communications that emphasize treatment value.

5-Be intuitive and expand your services

Intuition can serve you well if you and your team are trained to listen to patient needs. But, first, be intuitive about your current services.

• Does your service list reflect your patient demographics?
• What services have appeal to each demographic within your practice?
• What are patients hinting at or directly asking about regarding oral health, their personal health goals, current trends in dental care, etc.?

Suffice to say – do your research. This can help you be more accurate (and investment conscious) as you add services to your treatment mix.

6-Stand in the gap for your patients around their insurance

No doubt, insurance creates a number of administrative headaches for your business team. Having a designated insurance coordinator helps.

Standing in the gap has much to do with being proactive about a patient’s relationship with their insurance coverage. This helps you (and them) avoid unnecessary surprises during case presentations.

• Keep patients aware of their unused benefits (timely and automated reminders leading up to the end of the year, etc.).
• Be a step ahead of an appointed patient relative to their insurance benefits (network coverage, allowable, out-of-pocket costs, etc.).
• Support them should any insurance provider issues arise around coverage. Help them with solutions that lead to getting the treatment they need.

Production increases require intentional energy. Be innovative while relying on tried-and-true strategies.

Your patient data is a solid resource for increasing your dental practice production. Access it, mine it, and use it to your advantage.

Check out the following resources relevant to dental practice production:

A Dental Patient Follow-Up System That’s Routine (Not Reactive)

Factors That Help Align Your Dental Practice Collection to Production Ratios

Trust your data and what it tells you about increasing dental practice production

The Jarvis Analytics platform helps assure that you’re tracking the important metrics and staying on track in your daily workflows and overall practice or DSO goals.

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!

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