Have you ever wondered how many days are right for your practice? Should you expand and if so, what are some best practices you can apply to succeed? Kirk welcomes Miranda Beeson and Dr Barrett Straub to answer these questions and more. They discuss the need to make decisions based on core values, the impact of PPOs on profitability, and highlight the importance of maximizing capacity and building effective systems. You’ll get a formula for calculating the number of hygiene hours needed, how to make data-based decisions, and make the best decisions for your practice.
Episode Resources:
Main Takeaways
Segments
00:00 Introduction and Overview
06:25 The Importance of the Dental Hygiene Department
10:49 Making Decisions Based on Core Values
13:01 Identifying and Focusing on Patients
14:26 Determining the Need for Additional Hygiene Hours
16:43 Understanding the Impact of PPOs on Profitability
21:29 Maximizing Capacity and Utilization
26:40 Building and Implementing Effective Systems
32:50 Balancing Scheduling and Future Appointments
36:07 The Importance of Block Scheduling
41:25 Creating an Ideal Schedule
44:41 Implementing a Strong Re-care System
45:04 Creating Value for the Hygiene Visit
46:03 Pre-Appointing for the Next Visit
47:29 System for Unscheduled Patients
49:23 Personalizing Contact with Patients
50:21 Importance of Listening and Learning
52:37 Calculating the Number of Hygiene Hours Needed
01:00:58 Upcoming Events and Opportunities
01:02:22 Closing Remarks
Quotes:
“A successful dental hygiene department is the backbone of a successful dental practice.” (6:40 - 6:45)
“Everybody's telling you to grow, add more ops, get a second location. And that's great. If that's your value system and that's where you want to go, but you have to do what's best for you. I don't like the idea of super sizing. I like the idea of right size.” (10:09 - 10:24)
“What you do is so valuable in dentistry. As a dentist or as a hygienist, you have to believe that money spent on dentistry is one of the best investments a human being can make. You should never say to yourself, well, we're just dentists or we're just hygienists. We should probably be cheap. No, that's not why you're listening to this webinar. You're really good at what you do. Charge for it.” (17:58 - 18:18)
“I want to make sure that people realize that the numbers really shouldn't be personal. We should take personal accountability for our impact on the systems that affect the numbers, but it's not a personal measure of you individually. It's a reflection of the systems that we have in place in the practice and how well they're working or not working.” (25:04 - 25:25)
“When hygiene utilization drops below 92%, you're dipping into profitability yet on average, 12 percent of patients miss their hygiene appointment across the United States. So this is a very dangerous thing. And it goes back to having the right patients. We’ve got to have a system in place and then we've got to be able to train our team on how to keep that schedule full.” (28:21 - 28:47)
“You also have to build value in your aligned language. So whatever's being said at the front should be said at the chair should be said by the doctor.” (28:49 - 28:58)
“Instead of building a great system, a great structure, when you build an amazing system where everybody's on board, I promise you you'll achieve greater things than you ever imagined. You'll wake up and go, this is crazy because systems reduce effort. They reduce energy and they improve profitability.” (38:33 - 38:50)
“A pivotal critical piece of this whole puzzle is making sure that we have an ideal day built out day after day for the hygiene team.” (43:44 - 43:52)
“Creating value is kind of what we spoke to earlier when we're making the appointment. We're building value and the importance of that next visit, which is why it's also important to make it easy for them to schedule. But building value is going to help them to be more committed to showing up for that next appointment. We're reserving this time. And what are we going to be doing at that appointment? And what is the benefit to your patient? For that appointment to help them maintain and have value and show up for that visit. It's important to pre-appoint the next visit as often as possible so that we're minimizing the amount of work it's going to put in on the back end when they are due and having someone administratively following up, following up, trying to move them into schedule.
And now, heaven forbid, we can't get them in for another six, seven or eight months. And they should be here now. So anytime we can, at the end of a hygiene appointment, reserve their next visit. And if they're coming in every three months or four months, we may be reserving their next three months and their six month.” (45:46 - 46:42