Make sure you are reserving time in your schedule for new patients and those in need of perio appointments.
Updated 6/30/20
Your hygiene department depends on a continuous influx of new patients and the diagnosed treatment of patients with perio disease. But you might be creating a catch-22 with your scheduling habits.
New Hygiene Patients
Most of us would agree that scheduling patients for their next hygiene appointment is a good idea. It saves the office time and money. It also helps ensure patients are able to manage their oral health on a consistent basis. The problem is that many offices fill their hygiene schedule with existing patients but don’t reserve time for new patients. Offices spend time and money in order to bring new patients in. But when those new patients call and are not able to get an appointment for several weeks or even months, they often go somewhere else.
Perio Patients
Patients diagnosed with perio disease also suffer because of booked scheduling. They need to plan for scaling and root work and come back every 3-4 months for perio maintenance. Again, all your efforts to educate your patients on the need to treat perio disease become practically null and void if they walk to the scheduling coordinator and find out it will be months before they can move forward with the recommended treatment.
Plan Ahead with Dentrix Perfect Day Scheduling
The key is to plan ahead and reserve times on the schedule to accommodate these appointments. It’s actually one of the easiest problems to solve with Dentrix Perfect Day Scheduling. Simply evaluate how many of these types of appointments you need each week and create a Perfect Day Time Block that all team members know is held for a specific reason. If you diligently develop your ASAP list and manage your Continuing Care list, you will have no problem both accommodating new patients and perio maintenance and also filling these a few days in advance if they are not needed for their created purpose.
Learn More
If you found these ideas helpful, learn more about the Dentrix Profitability Coaching Program, where these, and many other great concepts, strategies and ideas, are taught to you and your team by one of our highly skilled and experienced profitability coaches.
By Cindy Sipe, Henry Schein One Practice Consultant
