{"id":443,"date":"2014-07-18T23:55:09","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T23:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogadvancedpracticemanagement.webaloo.com\/?p=443"},"modified":"2014-09-08T13:12:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T13:12:43","slug":"dental-dow-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/dental-dow-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Dental Dow – First Half of 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"statistics-in-dental-management\"<\/a>Looking at the data from the mature area practices sampled, we\u00a0found that growth continues to be moderate with practice\u00a0production up 3.2% and collections up 2.2%.\u00a0The collections picture has improved a bit. The first quarter of this\u00a0year collections were lagging at 83% and now they are up to 85% –\u00a0I know this is nothing to brag about but, hey, it\u2019s better than 83%!\u00a0PPO write offs continue to dig into practice collections and profits.<\/p>\n

Hygiene down time as a percentage of hygiene hours worked\u00a0remained pretty consistent over the last three years at 12% of hours\u00a0scheduled. That means that the average hygienist has about an hour\u00a0open per day. So, every practice should have a discussion with their\u00a0hygienists about what to do with that open time (Hint: It\u2019s not just sharpening instruments and restocking rooms). We have a list of suggested Hygiene Downtime Priorities \u2013 just call if you\u2019d like accopy.<\/p>\n

New patients are up 7% with total patient flow up about 2.6%. To\u00a0my surprise, there is not much happening with crown and bridge \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s up just 1.7%. We have heard that more patients are saying\u00a0\u201cyes\u201d as the economy peps up. We can\u2019t prove it yet by the\u00a0numbers though.<\/p>\n

\"Production<\/a><\/p>\n

HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCTION PER HOUR STACK UP?<\/h2>\n

(Advanced Practice Management\u2019s Statistical Snapshot):<\/p>\n

Our clients consistently tell us that one of the main things they rely\u00a0on us for is our realistic frame of reference. So, below I have\u00a0broken out Doctor and Hygiene production per hour by Outstate\u00a0and Metro Area practices. The fee schedules are different and I\u2019ve\u00a0shown you a sample* of these just to help you have that frame of\u00a0reference.<\/p>\n

\"metro<\/a><\/p>\n

Statistics like this can be a little dangerous. If your hygienist\u2019s\u00a0production per hour is lower than average, don\u2019t beat her over\u00a0the head with the numbers! Through hard experience, I\u2019ve\u00a0found that you can\u2019t appeal to your hygienist\u2019s sense of\u00a0statistics \u2013 for many of them, dollar amounts are an anathema\u00a0to patient care. However, you can appeal to their sense of\u00a0professionalism. Their production per hour is most\u00a0determined by the range and depth of services they offer and\u00a0provide. That\u2019s why we are so big on examining and\u00a0reasserting hygiene protocols once per year for everything\u00a0from adult fluorides through perio to x-rays!<\/p>\n

You can increase Doctor Production per Hour by\u00a0addressing the following factors:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Clinical Speed (usually not the most important)<\/li>\n
  2. Staffing, Delegation and Teamwork<\/li>\n
  3. Equipment, Technology and Facility<\/li>\n
  4. Procedure Mix<\/li>\n
  5. Scheduling\/Appointment Book Control<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It\u2019s not enough to just post a goal on the wall and tell your\u00a0staff to produce it. Work with them on the above factors to get\u00a0more done each day. When it comes to your practice growth,\u00a0there are three main approaches:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Do more for the people you see.<\/li>\n
    2. See more people.<\/li>\n
    3. Do more per day!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Many Doctors hold off on equipment upgrades or facility\u00a0expansions when usually they are very easy to cost benefit. Do\u00a0you have a room that could be brought up to speed? Would it\u00a0mean that you could see another operative visit or two per\u00a0day? Then it\u2019s almost certainly a better investment for you\u00a0than anything in the stock market. So, take a little of your\u00a0money out of the stock market and put it into your practice.<\/p>\n

      Then you can enjoy seeing your money put to work (and it\u00a0will help you smooth out your days too).<\/p>\n

      Delegation<\/h3>\n

      Make sure that you are not duplicating efforts.\u00a0Your staff is very capable of delivering pre- and post-operative instructions and doing co-diagnosis \u2013 delegate most\u00a0everything that doesn\u2019t require a Dental Degree!<\/p>\n

      Scheduling<\/h3>\n

      Howard Farran\u2019s famous line (to paraphrase) is,\u00a0\u201cMost Doctors are hung up on how far they are scheduled\u00a0ahead. McDonald\u2019s isn\u2019t scheduled ahead very far and they do\u00a0pretty good.\u201d \u201cSame Day Dentistry\u201d is much discussed now in\u00a0practice management circles.<\/p>\n

      I\u2019ve never had an office say they didn\u2019t do \u201cSame-Day\u00a0Dentistry.\u201d But there is a difference between doing it and\u00a0really doing it. We\u2019ve seen this blossom best when the staff\u00a0is incentivized and, otherwise, encouraged to \u201cGit Er Done\u00a0now.\u201d This saves everyone a lot of work. Reappointing,\u00a0reconfirming and so on.<\/p>\n

      Look at what you have scheduled for production at the\u00a0beginning of the day. Challenge your staff – even after the\u00a0inevitable cancellations and failures – that they end up with\u00a0$500-$1,000 more done per day than was scheduled at the\u00a0beginning of the day. It\u2019s out there if you look for it! It\u2019s\u00a0easier to do if you have plenty of rooms and plenty of\u00a0equipment. It also certainly helps if the hygienists can numb\u00a0up patients and everyone is looking beyond their own\u00a0column.<\/p>\n

      Even though I do not think daily goals should be\u00a0worshipped, it certainly helps to have them. One of my\u00a0favorite techniques is a \u201cWeekly Review\/Preview.\u201d That is,\u00a0having a set time each week where the Doctor and Assistants\u00a0meet with the front desk staff (and whoever else is\u00a0scheduling) and discuss what worked or didn\u2019t work the\u00a0previous week and then look ahead a week and make\u00a0adjustments as necessary. Then you can really fine tune the\u00a0schedule and scheduling in general). With the wisdom of\u00a0hindsight, were there patients you could have treated last\u00a0week if you were fully in the \u201cSame-Day Dentistry\u201d mode?<\/p>\n

      On average, another operative visit done per day means\u00a0about $6,000 additional production per month \u2013 and most of\u00a0that goes to your bottom line. So, it\u2019s not how far you are\u00a0booked out. It\u2019s how much you do per day.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Looking at the data from the mature area practices sampled, we\u00a0found that growth continues to be moderate with practice\u00a0production up 3.2% and collections up 2.2%.\u00a0The collections picture has improved a bit. The first quarter of this\u00a0year collections were lagging at 83% and now they are up to 85% –\u00a0I know this is nothing to brag […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dental-practice-management","category-the-dental-dow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.advancedpracticemanagement.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}