Trait #5 – Rock Star Hygienists Know and Understand their Hygiene Production Numbers!

It’s funny that I chose this as one of the Top 12 Traits because I know that production is NOT the most important thing to you. One of the things I love most about our industry is that I truly believe our #1 intention is to deliver the absolute best care to our patients.

While it’s often the hygiene production numbers that prompt a doctor or office manager to call us, they always say ‘it was the numbers that got my attention but we just want to take great care of our patients and I think it’s time we take it to the next level in hygiene’. The reason the numbers got their attention is because those docs know that the numbers are actually a great way to gauge the value you’re delivering to your patients.

And here’s the thing…if your practice isn’t profitable, it’s tough to bring in new technology, new instruments, up-to-date training and CE and all those things help you be better care providers. The more high level care you provide, the more productive you’ll be.

Rock Star Hygienists know where they stand with their production numbers and they follow and track them. Remember…they have specific goals.

So how do you know if you have a profitable hygiene team? If you’re a doctor or office manager, the first step is to look at the production to salary ratio for the hygiene team as a whole. If you’re a hygienist, you can do this for yourself.

First, print a hygiene Production-by-Procedure report for the last 12 months. This will show you your hygiene total production.

Then compare that number to the hygiene salaries and if you have a full-time hygiene assistant, consider that as well. Production should be at least three times the amount of hygiene team pay (including benefits). If this is true, then chances are you’ve reached the first level of profitability.

Whether or not you have reached the first level of profitability, there’s always room to grow. And from that growth comes a higher level of care and nice things like new equipment and bonuses.

There are three ways to increase hygiene production:

1-Increase fees

2-Decrease open time

3-Increase the number of high level services you’re providing

Did you know that if a team of 2 hygienists enrolls just 10% of their current patients into conservative perio therapy, they can increase their hygiene production by $60-70K/year? That’s about one per day. Look at your patients. How many ‘bloody prophies’ did you see today? How many had bleeding 4-5mm pockets? These are opportunities to help someone get healthier while raising the bar on the value you’re delivering AND your hygiene profitability.

Stay Inspired,
Rachel