Want More New Patients? Cover the phones! Tips for a healthy hygiene department

Want More New Patients? Make Sure Those Phones Are Answered During Lunch!:

We surveyed about 100 clients in our database asking this simple question, “Do you answer the phone during lunch hours?” About 15% said they didn’t.

We then sorted the data out. Offices that answered the phone during the lunch hour averaged 20 new patients per full-time Dentist per month. Offices that did not answer the phone during lunch hours averaged 14. Enough said?

Is Your Hygiene Department in a Slump?: In my travels over the Upper Midwest over the years, I’ve often compared the Doctor’s procedures vs. the hygiene procedures as the difference between a Main Menu and a “Bar Menu”. The Dentist often has access to a myriad of different procedures which has its advantages in keeping the schedules full and, more importantly, affecting his/her productivity.

If your hygiene department has a more limited menu (i.e., the “bar menu”), it becomes even more critical that your hygienists are delivering these small-scale services consistently. By small-scale services, we’re talking about laser/periodontal procedures, x-ray coverage, in-office fluoride applications, delivery of site specific antibiotics and cosmetic procedures such as whitening. Make no mistake, a gap in delivery of any of these services can make a big difference with patient care as well as hygiene productivity.

All productive up-to-date hygiene departments have one thing in common: they deliver a wide range of services consistently. 2012 might be an ideal time to schedule a Clinical Policy Summit with your staff about practice protocols specifically for hygiene related services.

A crude but simple way to measure the range and depth of Hygiene related services is “Production per Hygiene Visit.”

Metro Area
	5%ile	AVG	75%	95%ile
Prod/Hygiene Visit	$108	$139	$147	$165
Outstate Area
	5%ile	AVG	75%	95%ile
Prod/Hygiene Visit	$93	$123	$136	$160

Check out your Hygiene Production per patient visit (it’s right there on your “Manager Report”)