Better Dental Hygiene Schedules Focus on The Finish Line
Better dental hygiene schedules begin with knowing some things. Like, what exactly do we want from our schedule? Of course, we want the smoothest, most productive day we can have. And in order to do just that, the schedule must fit the needs of the practice and it’s patients. Because no two dental practices are the same, each individual office does well to design their hygiene schedule for themselves. But let’s keep in mind, we all share some things in common.
Go with me on this! I know it sounds silly, but all dental practices have patients, right? But in it’s uniqueness, each practice provides care for a different population of people. So, first we want to know just how many active patients we have in our practice. Because this will tell us how many hygiene hours we actually need to schedule! So, be sure you can gather those numbers first.
What Other Numbers Do We Need?
In addition to knowing how many active patients our dental practice has, we need to know exactly what appointment types we need in each day. Hygiene appointments come in different types and lengths of time. And when we create our ideal schedule, we need all of this information ahead of time. We want the correct number of appointment type blocks each day. It’s kind of like a painter getting ready to create their masterpiece! Or, as I like to think of it.. the game board! We must first know in detail what we want to create, and gather all our tools and supplies.
Now, let’s talk about production numbers. And let’s say we have a total production goal set for the dental practice. Our hygiene schedule should total 30% or so of this total production number. These are the very basic numbers we need to create the base for our dental hygiene schedules. The template for our game board each day! And, you can get the entire guide to help you create your very own ideal hygiene schedule template right here!
Better Dental Hygiene Schedules With Expert Patient Management
Better dental hygiene schedules require clear communication and a few tricks! And by tricks, I mean tricks of the trade. It’s all on the up and up too! But in addition to very strong confirmation systems, we at the dental front office must be quick. And we must be smart! Especially with this always evolving dental hygiene schedule. Once we have our game board, we then write the rules of the game!
The hygiene schedule keeps us on our toes! As we play this game, our patients (or playing pieces) require some attention. And there are some I call “frequent flyers”, who tend to move their appointments without much notice! Despite our every effort, they play the game by their own set of rules. And our first lesson is often to learn who they are. And to learn just how to best manage those patients.
Scheduling Appointments, Patient Identification & Appointment Confirmation
You are in luck! I’ve got that all worked out for you. How do we best schedule an appointment? What do we say? Does it really matter what we say? Yes! It all matters. You see, it’s all part of the game. And once we know the secrets to making our hygiene schedule more manageable, we have more fun and are more successful with it too!
Patient identification helps us identify what to say when rescheduling a “frequent flyer”. And we must realize we are not going to change anyone’s behavior but our own. So, we do well to learn how to manage the situation to work to everyone’s advantage. And to also help us know just how much of an appointment confirmation each patient needs!
The Dental Hygiene Schedule Master Class will help you polish your hygiene schedule template, as well as walk you through additional basics of patient management and hygiene reactivation. Access this on-line course, even print it for your team!
FREE Downloads For Your Better Dental Hygiene Schedules
Inside, the Dental Front Office Library, is every FREE download available on this site. But, I have one here for you that will help you tremendously. Because you will need to invest some time in filling those short notice openings that come up. So, here you go! This is a download that will help you know just how to handle those short notice reschedule calls in detail each and every time! And to get you started, here’s an absolutely FREE download:
_Handling Short Notice Reschedules_
Better Dental Hygiene Schedules With Systematic Reactivation
Better dental hygiene schedules are a natural outcome of routine and systematic reactivation. It is easy to forget about hygiene reactivation until we see an open appointment time we can’t easily fill. And although it can work this way, it isn’t the most efficient and productive way of doing this. Which is why I have a Dental Front Office Weekly Management System. And you can have it too!
This is such a fabulous way to walk daily and weekly through each month at the dental front office. With “special assignments” for specific days, it’s so easy to finally bring everything together. And into one organized system too! Each of the individual dental front office systems are integrated into one functioning gear. It’s brilliant!
Better Dental Hygiene Schedules Summarized
- Create Your Ideal Hygiene Schedule Template: Gather your numbers & tools!
- Maintain That Ideal Schedule With Excellent Patient Management
- Systematically Work A Hygiene Reactivation System
Sounds simple enough! And it really is, once you get it down! But this is also something we want to update and revisit once a year. Generally speaking, as we approach a new year, we think about growth, expansion, and change. Is there anything about your hygiene schedule you would like to update or improve?
