Patients look forward to meeting the staff in a dental office. If a patient does not have the experience with the staff that he or she expects it doesn’t matter how good the dentistry is they will look for another practice with better staff. Patients love to feel welcome and invited into the practice. It is important to make sure the person in charge of greeting patients is not so overwhelmed that the patient does not get the attention deserved.

A friendly smile and enthusiastic welcome will go a long way with the patient. If the welcoming is average or sub-par the patients will likely feel the visit was average or sub-par. The person checking patients in and out is the first and last thing the patient sees about the practice.

Text message reminder services are important to help increase the show-rate of your patients. These services are good for appointment reminders. The best way to reactivate patients is contacting them by phone and scheduling them for their checkup. Once the patient has been scheduled the text message and email reminder service can help remind the patient to show up for the appointment. Patient recall is important for the practice and the patient. Dental practices that make an effort to reactivate their patients offer the best dental service by showing its patients that the practice really cares about the patient’s continuing oral health care.

Patients have the option of not receiving emails and text messaging services. It is important to track how many of your patients are opting out of receiving those reminders. if they are opting out the practice should make a concerted effort to contact these patients by phone to remind them of their appointment. We suggest contacting them by phone a couple of days before their appointment- this will give the practice time to fill the vacancy if the patient cannot make the appointment. We encourage practices to contact those same patients the day before the appointment also-the day before reminder will help solidify these appointments.

Patient retention should be top-of-mind for all office managers. Developing systems of accountability for the staff is critical in achieving high patient retention. these systems should constantly be reviewed and adjusted according to the unique culture of the practice.  Here are three systems that will help with increasing patient retention:

1).  The Patient Experience

The dental practice is a busy place. Creating an atmosphere that conveys a sense of priority on the patient and their experience is key to getting patients to want to come back. Staff can sometimes feel overwhelmed with other responsibilities but when the patient enters the practice the patient should feel like they are the priority. Remember that every patient is different. The New Patient may feel uncomfortable because they are not aware of how the practice works (i.e. where they should sit, stand, go, etc). Making teh patient feel comfortable through friendly directions and orientation will enhance the patient experience and ultimately increase patient retention.

2).  Consistent Recall

Help patients recommit to their oral healthcare. Patients always find a way to slip through the cracks. It is important the practice maintains an accurate recall list. The patients on this list have missed an appointment in the past or at very least, have not committed to another appointment. This list can get out of control and the practice can lose enormous amounts of production if these patients are not proactively contacted to schedule. The longer the patient waits to come back to the practice the more likely the patient will find a new office to visit.

3). Accurate Reporting

Having measures of patient retention is the only way to see if the practice is improving. A good way to monitor patient retention is to track the number of patients from Recall who are leaving the practice. If a patient is leaving they will make up the percentage of churn the practice is experiencing. A typical percentage of churn for a recall list that has gone unattended will be about 50% whereas a list that is constantly worked the percentage of churn falls to 20-30% on average.

Dental Reminders Services can help a practice operate more smoothly. Calling patients by phone to remind them of their dental appointment will increase the show-rate of the patients. Many text and email services are available and can increase retention but live phone calls are more effective and more personal.

Another benefit of live phone confirmations is the opportunity to capture patient feedback on the call. Text and email services legally have to offer an “opt-out” feature. Our studies show that in many cases only 40% of an average patient-base accepts the text and email reminder. This means there is 60% of patients not receiving electronic appointment reminders. If phone calls are not being made then 60% of patients are not getting an appointment confirmation at all. The cost of email and text message services can range from $299-$399 per month. This is not an outrageous cost if it were contacting all scheduled patients. The problem is that this cost is only contacting 40% of patients. Quantify this at 100% patient base and the service costs approximately $740-$1,000 per month. This shows the real value of the service.

Contacting patients to confirm appointments by phone creates more value added. First, many practice use automated services because it costs the practice time and money to pay someone to confirm appointments all-day. This time can be better spent filing insurance claims, filling holes in the schedule and working collections. Choosing automated systems over live calling has its advantages but the practice loses that personal touch with its patients.

Second, making live phone calls will help patients cancel in advance so the office has time to fill the new hole in the schedule. Many people simply forget to call and cancel the appointment and the practice is left with an unproductive time slot in the schedule.

Appointment reminders will create more revenue for the practice and decrease your marginal costs by improving the show-rate of your patients. If you are looking for an improvement in patient confirmations, live calling will always be your most effective option.

The dental office no-show patient is something all dental practices must deal with. Unfortunately, many practices do not take the necessary steps to resolving the issue of no show patients. Here are some tips on how to reduce no-shows in the dental practice:

1). Be Familiar with Your Patients

Typically, “no-show” patients are repeat offenders. If you know this about a patient it is important to emphasize the importance of the appointment. It is a good idea to mention a cancellation fee when speaking with these patients. If a patient is a repeat offender alternate option for the patient could be an ASAP list.

2). Make Reminder Phone Calls

Reminder Phone Calls will help patients with short-term memory loss remember their commitment to visit the dentist at the scheduled time. These calls should be made at least two days in advance and then again the day of the appointment. Emails and text messages are good ways to remind patients of their appointment but with most of these services offering and “opt-out” option for the patients many of them never receive an email or text message reminder.

3). Enforce a Cancellation Policy

Many practice managers are worried they will scare off patients if they enforce a cancellation policy. This can be true but if a patient continually misses appointments it is better the practice never schedules the patient. Instead of breaking even when a patient does not show up the practice loses money and would be better off not scheduling the patient. We understand there are unforeseen circumstances that justifies waving a cancellation fee but for repeat offenders it is a good idea to hold strong to the cancellation policy.

Another great Dental Recall Letter Example: If you are going to send a letter this is a good one.

Dear Patient:

We hope you and your family are well. According to our records you have not been in for your 6 month checkup. We understand life gets busy but we hope you will take the time to call and schedule an appointment. Consistent six month dental exams are the best way to avoid gum disease, cavities and bad breath. Since you have not been in we would like to offer you a 10% discount off your next exam. Call us today and we will schedule you right away. We look forward to seeing you soon!

You can reach us at 800-900-2012 or email us at scheduleme@drsoandso.com

Sincerely,

Dr. So and so

A solid patient-base is the foundation of a good practice. If the patient-base is wobbly so is the practice. Creating a strong patient recall system is imperative to achieving a sustained strong patient-base. Transitioning Practices can especially benefit from a good patient recall program. When a practice transitions patients are often left not understanding what happened or why there was a change with the doctor. A patient recall program will help patients understand the change before they are surprised at their next visit.  For example, when a doctor buys a dental practice the patients are not familiar with the new staff and could be off-put by such a drastic change if they are not prepped over the phone. A great way to do this is by saying, “Dr (new doctor’s name) is excited to meet you”. Telling them that the new doctor/staff is looking forward to getting to know them will recommit the patient to the appointment. A good patient recall system will increase patient retention and ultimately the value of the practice.

In any workplace employees are faced with the challenge of communicating effectively with their co-workers. The dental office is no different. The dental practice faces the challenge of functioning like a business but being staffed like a clinic. This structure has some inherent issues; one being gossip. The practice or any other business is no place for gossip. It will distort important information to make quality business decisions and plug the lines of communication. Effective communication comes from honesty, transparency and accurate information.

Accurate Information

Gossip is the antithesis of accurate information. Gathering information from the source is critical when making decisions. For example, if there is gossip in the office about how the “new girl” is treating patients you better observe for yourself. It is not uncommon to have someone a little territorial when a new staff member is introduced to the office.  That territorialism can lead to exaggerations which can distort the real intent and actions of the person at hand. Do not make business decisions based on inaccurate information. Make sure whoever is giving you information about staff is someone of upmost integrity.

Honesty

Being honest is closely related to motives. The motive of an office manager should be “to do the best thing for the practice and its patients”. People tend to do what is right for themselves and their friends (other staff members) before doing what is right for the practice. For example, many practices have poor systems in place for reporting or recall and there are better solutions for the practice available but office managers are unwilling to fire underperforming staff because it is uncomfortable. The doctor/owner has placed great confidence in the hands of the decision makers of the practice. Being honest means making the best decision for the practice and patients, even if it means things get a little uncomfortable. That’s what great businesses do; they do the hard things that other people don’t want to do.

Transparency

Many situations arise in which hard things must be said to correct poor, incompetent or unproductive behavior. Being transparent is critical to avoiding gossip in the practice (probably the most important). If a staff member is underperforming it is the office manager’s job to let them know what needs to be changed. This should be done in private but needs to be done. Many managers do not want to face this situation. This is a huge problem in the leadership ability of the office manager. The person underperforming may not fully understand their job responsibilities. Or a person making a clerical or even clinical mistake may not know they are doing it wrong. If these things are not addressed it will continue to happen and lead to frustration for the office manager and other staff and the roots of gossip will work its way into the vineyard. Be open about what is expected. If it is the office manager that is underperforming try making suggestions during staff meetings (an appropriate place to express perspective) as opposed to going over the head of the office manager.

If gossip makes it into the practice it is up to the doctor to eliminate it immediately before it does irreparable harm. The foundation of avoiding gossip is creating a culture in which everyone wants to do what is right for the practice and its patients. Do this and you will achieve limitless success.

Depending on the size of the practice and how much help you have with recall will determine the number how often you can make calls to remind patients to schedule a 6 month hygiene appointment. You want to call your patients because it is the most effective approach to recall, by phone with a real person. BUT you do not want to risk irking patients by calling too often. Here are a couple of things that will help.

First, you should be calling during hours patients will be available. Calling in the middle of the day is less effective than evening hours. Contacting people when they are most busy decreases the number of people you will contact and ultimately results in fewer scheduled appointments. The downfall of having staff call during evening hour is managing the recall system. You must have someone reliable for this position. It is important to have measures of accountability and performance to make this a valuable cost.

Second, if you are leaving voice messages or if your caller ID shows your doctor’s office name you only want to call patients once a month. Even if your patients are not answering the phone but they see your caller ID show up multiple time each week it tends to rub patients the wrong way. Be wise in your decision to contact patients by phone. The recall system can be a difficult system to manage and has a history of high staff turnover. If you are looking for a hands-free way of managing this system contact one of our recall professionals and they will help you improve your dental recall system.

Hundreds of companies are trying to develop the perfect dental practice management software. Each software claiming to have an advantage over the next. Software capabilities of the practice management systems have grown robust,but the increase in complexity may cause more problems in some dental practices. Don’t get me wrong, these capabilities can be great and offer tremendous value to the practice if used correctly.

The problem we see on a regular basis is a limited knowledge of the practice management software resulting in user error and causing mountains of problems for the practice down the road. Some of these errors include duplicate patient files, not attaching dates, not charting or mischarting patient diagnoses, not entering notes, entering information in the wrong places, etc etc. All of these lead to poor practice management and inaccurate data.

In one of our previous blog posts I talked about the importance of data analysis. If user error is prevalent in the practice management software the practice will not be able to run as effectively. It would be difficult to make sound business decisions on inaccurate data regarding patients, payments and insurances. A practice would be well invested if they spent the time and money to get their staff to use the software correctly.