Does Every New Patient Have Recare Booked?

Transcription

1 Does Every New Patient Have Recare Booked? For the Dental Practice that wants to STAND OUT

2 Recare & The Hygiene Schedule 5 tips to polish your process Hygiene & Revenue Every general dentist knows that recare appointments are a practice s lifeblood. A busy hygiene department means healthy patients, and it s an indicator of a healthy business. Each practice uses processes to reach goals and objectives, yet many do not consider recare management as a key element in the campaign for business success. For most practices, hygiene appointments are at the core of financial health and typically account for anywhere between 30% - 50% of practice revenue. Unfortunately internal ecosystems that are supposed to work in tandem and contribute to the overall financial health of the practice can sometimes slide. If you re not sure what s happening with your recare system, it s time to review the process to ensure it s working like the machine you want. We recently had a client with an excellent return on his direct marketing campaign, in the range of 1/2% and a nice flow of new patients. During a program review we uncovered that not a single one of these new patients was booked for recare. With a healthy marketing investment he was generating the desired new patient flow, but unfortunately, without knowing it, the team was putting the practice s long-term gain at significant risk. If half of a business revenue stream is operating inefficiently and below capacity, the ballooning implications are significant. The friendliest staff, the most competitive pricing, and the highest quality service will not be enough to maintain growth and financial health. 1

3 Domino Effect Patients can be complacent about booking recare appointments. Some just don t see the value of regular checkups without a perceived immediate need for dentistry. More than half of the population avoids the dentist altogether, and that includes your patient base. That s why a systematic approach to recare scheduling is imperative. Let s face it most people don t look at dental work as a joyous experience. And these days we have dual working parents, shared responsibilities, busy schedules, the demands of family life, and daily stress if an appointment isn t in the calendar, people naturally tend to postpone what they don t really want to do. For patients, making time in their day and in their schedule to book a recare appointment is not always at the top of their to-do list. This can lead to erosion in your hygiene schedule and an increased workload in chasing down patients with reminders. Practices that don t pre-block their schedules are likely to have holes in their hygiene schedule. These will result in even greater holes down the road for recare and elective services opportunities. Experts suggest that 65-80% of restorative work comes out of hygiene in a general practice, and most patients accept restorative or cosmetic treatment only after 1-3 years with a dentist. Maintaining consistent communication and recare with existing patients is key to a strong elective revenue stream. Inefficient booking of recare appointments will, no doubt, have a negative domino effect on revenue. If patient John Smith is due for recare appointments every six months, but continually lapses by 3 months and occasionally skips recare altogether, that amounts to thousands of dollars in lost annual revenue over the lifetime of just one patient. This leads to lost opportunities to present needed and optional treatments, ask for referrals and encourage loyalty. Now multiply this behavior by 50% of the patients at your practice, and you can see why maintaining efficient recare scheduling can have a huge longterm impact on both your patient s health and your bottom line. Practices that don t pre-block their schedules are likely to have holes in their hygiene schedule.

4 The Recare System Make sure you have one! It s busy at the front desk. Without a structured system or clearly defined responsibilities, booking the next appointment will consistently be missed. Whether it s a hygienist, scheduling coordinator or receptionist, a successful practice will have their system of communication down pat. Once you have a hygiene patient, they shouldn t leave the practice without a future appointment. You may have long-term patients that are consistently no-shows but those folks should be treated separately from your core process and not be allowed to sway a system of booking recare for everyone else. Booking recare appointments after the patient is outside of your office can be tedious work, especially when it is difficult to reach patients during regular business hours. This involves reminder services, leaving voic s on their home, work, and mobile numbers, recording all activity on the patient s record, and reassigning a follow up date/time for your office to make another attempt and then the cycle repeats. Plus there is the work of maintaining an internal followup system and organizing the lists of patients to call who are nearing their due date for their next recare appointment, have recently passed their due date, have lapsed and are becoming inactive patients. 3

5 Polish Your Recare Booking Process With 5 Tips 01 Create benchmarks & measure success. Set your goals. Once you know how your team is performing, you can set realistic goals and track your progress. Many experts feel that 75-80% of patients is an ideal target while others suggest that the majority of, if not all, patients should leave the practice with a future dental hygiene appointment. You ll also want to incorporate a process for rescheduling when calendar conflicts arise. Timing is everything. You have a captive audience. Book the recare appointment while you have your patients undivided attention while they are in your office. Once they leave your office, you no longer have this advantage and you are at the mercy of a tedious, more costly follow-up process. And they are open to competitive dentists marketing offers ASK for the appointment! If you don t ask, you don t get. Be proactive and avoid closed ended questions. Rather than asking When would you like your next recare appointment Mr. Smith? (Never). Provide definitive options. You re due back for your recare appointment in October. I can see you on October 1st or 3rd. Which date works best for you, Mr. Smith? Many practices find that this is best done with the hygienist while the patient is in the chair, rather than a busy front desk. 4

6 Recare Booking Process Tips Cont d 04 Educate, Motivate & Communicate. Educate your patients on the importance of recare appointments. Newsletters are great, they keep you in touch with patients, educate and motivate patients by showing them the benefit of maintaining regular recare appointments. Be mindful of how you communicate; no longer just a cleaning or menial task, emphasize the importance of preventative care. Elevate the status of the appointment in how you address it to help patients understand the value of their recare appointments. Be Organized. Having a dedicated scheduling coordinator can be a valuable asset to your team. Managing an ever changing schedule requires organization and skill. Set your practice precedent prompt scheduling, good organizational skills, and a proactive approach will enable patients to respect your process and reciprocate by maintaining their appointments. 05 5

7 Full Hygiene Schedule = Healthy Bottom Line Polishing your recare booking process will help you reduce cancellations & noshows, and help you increase revenue by maintaining a full hygiene schedule. This is your internal marketing protocol schedule, communicate, educate and remind. These will keep active patients engaged and reactivate lapsing patients. Don t let a new patient leave your practice after visit number one without visit number two scheduled and an offer to schedule family members. For more information and a free consultation, call to find out how Patient News helps dental practices STAND OUT with prospective patients and patients-of-record. We re available Monday Friday from 9am 5:30pm EST. STAND OUT Achieve Your Goals Distinguish Your Practice Be THE Dentist In Your Area MEASURE Call Tracking & Scoring Success Benchmarks Performance Dashboard IMPROVE Informed Coaching Fact-Based Feedback Continuous KPI Analysis DEVELOP Practice Needs Assessment Demographic Analysis Strategic Planning IMPLEMENT Creative Development Tactical Team Training Campaign Deployment Patient News has been helping dentists grow their practices for more than 22 years. We provide a wide variety of marketing solutions for new patient acquisition and patient retention, which means that we have worked with thousands of dentists, understand your profession, and know that every practice is unique. 6 XXXXXX-XXXX