Patient Recall System for Your Practice
Your patient recall system is the life blood of your dental practice. In the hustle and bustle of daily routines in the dental practice, the recall system is also often pushed aside to another day. Then that day comes when the dental hygiene schedule or restorative schedule has open time you can’t fill!
Consistent Outreach
Sometimes, this is the only time the unscheduled hygiene patients receive a call. When there are open appointment times and the office is quiet, people can panic. What can be done to fill the schedule? Are there are reports to run? And patients we can call?
Boost Your Production!
If you are waiting for quieter times in your dental practice to contact unscheduled hygiene patients, you are making a huge mistake! 80% of your dental restorative patients come from your hygiene chairs. Office stability and expansion can only come when a patient recall system becomes routine in your dental practice.
If you wish to see consistency in your dental office production, or even growth & expansion, read on!
My Patient Recall System
My patient recall system is only a small piece of a Weekly Management System I have personally developed. However, it is an absolutely crucial piece of the puzzle. Weekly Management Systems take all of the dental front office tasks. And the system organizes these tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly responsibilities.
In a nutshell, this is how the patient recall system works: Each month of the year, a routine system of unscheduled hygiene patients are contacted. Each month is broken down into 4 weeks, right? So.. each week is assigned a group of patients to reach out to.
Patient Recall System Management With Technology
Patient Recall System Management With Short-Notice List
If you are unable to schedule your patient for a specific date or time that they are hoping for, offer to call them with any schedule changes! Let your patient know you will work on this for them. Then do everything in your power to make it happen!
Patient Recall System Management Notes
Be sure to make notes in your software somewhere that you have reached out to your patient if you were unable to schedule. You may want to use your office journal or other feature you may have to note the conversation or message left. It’s impossible to remember every conversation. Good notes make call backs so much easier.
Sometimes, patients will ask for a call back . Be sure to schedule this for yourself! Make a note and call them again as promised.
Inactivate Unscheduled Patients at 18 Months
I wait 18 months from a patient’s last hygiene appointment to inactivate their patient chart. They can always come back. However, I like to clear their insurance and continuing care information at 18 months. Mark as inactive and know that we’ll be starting fresh when they do.
Be Proactive: Don’t wait until your hygiene schedule has open appointments you can’t fill to start calling your unscheduled patients! Implement my patient recall system and follow it faithfully each month
