Is your team (like many others) struggling with hygiene open time? Aside from sending your patient a chariot to pick them up – ensuring  that they keep the appointment – you do everything within your power and you still have cancellations or no shows that poke holes in your schedule and cost the practice thousands of dollars a month … Not to mention a frustrated team !

One of our private coaching clients, Hull Dental Health in Gregory, S.D., had implemented many strong systems in with their perio and hygiene protocol, but now they needed to focus on the other systems that were broken or not working: Open time, No shows & Cancellations, and Recare/Reactivation. Their open time was on the rise, even though their perio service had doubled since going into private coaching.  We identified that they needed to work on a stronger handoff from the back to the front and then refine their confirmation system.  Watch the video and the tips below to find out how we solved their problems and set up a successful system!

• Build value for the next visit during the current appointment by reinforcing to the patient what services of importance are necessary at their next visit.
• During the handoff to the front desk, address in front of the patient exactly what it is that we (doctor) will be checking at the next visit.
• 98% of all patients leave with a scheduled visit whether it is in hygiene and/or restorative
• Of the 2% that don’t schedule, the admin team asks permission to call back on a specific date to schedule them (this should be within 1-3 days)
• When a patient does cancel without rescheduling,  or no-shows, they are contacted immediately
• Utilize fully the automated patient confirmation system currently in place by sending a friendly e-mail reminder of the next scheduled appointment  to the patient on the day they scheduled it
• Place patients that have cancelled or no showed a second time on a short call list
• Purge all “active” patients in the system that have not been in for the last 2-3 years, identifying your true active patient base that should be in the recare loop