Fruitful ways to increase productivity in a dental office

Fruitful ways to increase productivity in a dental office

Good productivity is the main significant factor for running a dental practice smoothly. Production is essential to recovering a dental business because the practice will be outstanding if productivity is at the proper level. Productivity generates revenue, which generates money, which generates profits. Unfortunately, excluding the period from 1960 to 1974, when dental productivity increased by about 4% annually, yearly productivity growth fell behind the expansion of the US economy. This decreased productivity is a primary concern for dentists as it negatively impacts patient flow and the dental practice’s reputation. Dentists must keep in mind that the development of an effective and productive practice necessitates effort and time. However, greater productivity itself does not appear overnight. Dental practitioners must implement fruitful ways to increase productivity in a dental office. If you are facing the same issue and searching for different strategies, then be at ease because today, we are here to describe a few highlighted methods that can help you increase your productivity.

Eleven of the most effective ways to increase productivity in a dental office

If you want a helpful answer to the question of what can increase productivity in a dental office, then implement the following strategies in your practice.

Reduce the time patients spend in the waiting room

It is generally understood that prolonged wait times for patients harm their satisfaction, particularly in terms of their trust in the clinician and their assessment of the level of the treatment they obtain. Approximately 20% of patients change providers due to longer waiting times. As losing patients will be expensive and affect your bottom line, you must concentrate on reducing long wait times.

There are specific points that might assist you in this matter, such as:

  • Schedule a time for each patient to minimize their waiting time.
  • As communication is the key, your staff members ought to receive training on dealing with the waiting patient in a manner that makes them feel noticed.
  • No one likes waiting; therefore, informing the patient about the expected waiting time would be beneficial.
  • You can minimize waiting time by working efficiently along with your staff.

Make sure everyone gets an appointment

According to research by the Levin Group Data Center, 20% of dental practices don’t schedule the next meeting unless the patient specifically demands it, while more than 50% of dental practices only ask people when they want to return. That can result in missed income.

  1. Remember to schedule each patient’s future appointment before they leave the clinic. Remember that it takes more than just questioning a patient when they intend to visit for their next appointment. It would be better to elaborate to the patients about the benefits of the following schedule.
  2. Moreover, if they face payment issues, you must provide them with installment options so they cannot cancel the appointment due to money issues.
  3. Not only this, but you should also offer them a variety of ways to pay the money.

Offer teledentistry appointments

If your dental practice isn’t upgrading to satisfy today’s patients’ evolving requirements and expectations, you are already compromising your revenue. Sending digital photos through email for remote diagnosis of oral lesions is a successful option (Torres-Pereira, 2008).

Positive outcomes of Teledentistry:

  • With Teledentistry, you can skip out the time-consuming before and after phases of a dental appointment and go straight to the crucial portion.
  • Data from a survey of dentists done in 2021 revealed that most participants said that Teledentistry;
  • Increases the effectiveness of patient referrals by 75.8%.
  • Facilitates interaction (74.7%)
  • Peer-to-peer engagement (79.5%)
  • Patient affordability (61.1%)
  • Assists with patient education (86.3%),
  • Reduces the need for excessive travel (76.8%)
  • Aids in monitoring (71.6%)
  • Advantageous to patients in remote places (74.7%);

Online patient scheduling

A study released in 2019 compared parameters before and after establishing an online appointment system. It had a considerable favorable influence on the means of the three measures.

  1. Waiting time for patients decreased to about 15 minutes (from 38.2 minutes to 23.8 minutes).
  2. The No-show rate significantly reduced from 25% to 11%.
  3. Physician punctuality (30 minutes before the intervention vs. -14.2 minutes after the intervention).

Advantages of online patient scheduling:

  • Saves time and effort: Online appointment scheduling will help you and the staff at your clinic save time and pressure by replacing the laborious setting of patient schedules with a scheduler.
  • Convenient for employees: Online appointment scheduling is incredibly convenient for your patients and comfortable for employees.
  • Easily accessible to patients: Patients can schedule appointments from anywhere, including their homes, business, or even while on the road.
  • Ensures accuracy: It eliminates inaccurate data entry and accelerates the entire appointment-setting procedure.

Improve your practice by paying attention to patient complaints

You must realize that patients are crucial to running your dental practice effectively. Because of this, dealing with patient complaints about your personnel, services, or practice is necessary for running the business. Even though patient complaints might be unpleasant, you must consider them a favor since they provide you with the chance to improve your practice, which would increase productivity. Hunting for complaints is a smart move. For this purpose, consider implementing a review system. It is simple to get patient feedback by contacting them after their session or creating a short poll for them on mobile and using their comments to make changes.

Follow up with your dental patients to reduce late arrivals and no-shows

When patients receive care in the dentist’s chair, productivity climbs. So you must follow up with the patient and their treatment. When patients are receiving care, your dental office will produce more. However, your office personnel must be prompt with follow-up phone calls because patients are overworked and prone to forgetting. Give one of your staff members the responsibility of maintaining patient contact via calls and messages between appointments so that no patient can fall through gaps.

Discuss your dental team’s performance

  • Encourage frequent interactions among your team members since a collaborative atmosphere is often more successful and productive.
  • Appreciate your team every time they do the best work. This will make them feel that their work is being noticed, and they will be happy. According to a 2008 theory, happy employees are more productive than their unhappy and stressed-out coworkers.
  • Evaluate and resolve any obstacles or worries within the crew.
  • Gather a fresh viewpoint and use innovative concepts that can amplify work production. A lot of the expensive mistakes your dental business makes could be avoided by improving internal communication.

Use Cloud-Based Dental Practice Management Software

Dental professionals may now easily accomplish numerous activities, such as gathering and combining medical, operational, and financial data, thanks to the introduction of technology like practice management software (Alba Demneri Kruja, Kei Hysi, 2019). There are several advantages to modernizing dental practice activities with the cloud. Using cloud-based software may increase system availability, mobility, staff productivity, and financial benefits for your dental business. Moreover, They are durable, safe, and readily available.

Make sure you have all the necessary inventory

It takes time to bill customers manually, raising the possibility of human mistakes. Your business will benefit from rapid and safe access to money by switching to a digital automated billing system. It gives your staff additional time to work on other activities because the burden is commonly reduced by about half. In addition, most health insurers are moving to electronic claim processing from paper claims because it takes time to handle paper bills. Moreover, it will enable you to collect payments more quickly. There may be fewer employees required because it is quicker and easier labor.

Leverage practice analytics to set KPI goals

To determine if your efforts are converting the hectic environment of your business into a competitive one, your clinic requires a standard against which to measure recently introduced productivity improvements. The best action in this situation is setting up KPIs for frequent assessment based on whatever adjustments you make. The KPIs established and any precise production targets that must be achieved within a set time frame should be known to everybody in your workplace, from clinicians to administrative. The following are common KPIs that many dental clinics use to gauge their production levels:

  • Record processing
  • Case Acceptance
  • Appointments booked
  • Cancellations
  • Patient engagement
  • Account receivable
  • Average patient appointment time
  • Payment errors
  • Labor costs
  • Overhead revenue and profit

MedsDental billing company-best billing partner for your dental practice

The billing procedure influences productivity and the number of clients who come into your clinic. Consequently, your dental office needs a precise payment process. The best choice for you in this situation is to outsource with the MedsDental Dental Billing Company If you wish to make your dental office a productive one in all ways, then outsourcing the billing with MedsDental is reliable for you. We do not just make a partnership; instead, we believe in providing quality services to our partners for the effectiveness of their practices. To ensure a seamless billing process and boost productivity and income, we identify the weaknesses of our partners and address them. To be effective, every stage of billing and credentialing is completed using dependable equipment and software. Do you wish to increase your income by leveraging the expertise of others? Then interact with us and witness the miraculous effects. We are available all the time to provide answers to your queries.

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