You Can Do It!
Producing more in your practice is very do-able and really isn’t a mystery. This stuff is kind of basic, but many of you never learned it and lots of you are telling me you want more help with your practice, so I’m going to try to help. I absolutely do think many of you can produce at least 20% by these simple tips. Let’s dive right in!
Track Your Diagnosis
#1: Keep track of everything you diagnose on every single patient, patients on your schedule and patients on the hygiene schedule. And yes, you should do hygiene exams pretty much every time a patient comes in for hygiene – unless they are in a perio treatment sequence. Here, you are going to track two things:
Track the Number of Crowns you Diagnose
First, track the number of crowns you diagnose, or implants - or whatever high-dollar service you want to monitor. I want you do this by having a date column going down the left side of a single page and add only one more column, that you are going to place tally marks in. Just make it easy and very visual.
Track the Approximate Total Amount You Diagnose
Second, I want you to write down the approximate total amount you diagnose. Don’t get hung up on the exact number, it isn’t important here, but make a good guess. Write it on a separate table or excel document, list the patient’s last name and the approximate dollar amount you diagnosed.
If you can’t do this in-between patient, then catch up at lunch and at the end of the day. Add your total diagnosis amounts for the morning and afternoon and write your total. No going out to lunch until you get efficient at this, you’ve got work to do and money to make.
#2 Provider Productivity
Keep track of provider productivity – how much you and each hygienist produce - per half day, if you really want to ramp things up.
So, at lunch and at the end of each day, you are also going to look at the day sheet and see what you produced and what each hygienist produced and write in on a separate sheet with the day. They don’t have to be formal, or perfect – they are just for you – but just do it.
If you have more than one hygienist, you might want to post production amounts in the break room twice a day – that does seem to help.
#3 Have 2 “Morning” Meetings
Separate the day into two parts, mornings and afternoons, and have a meeting before each work period starts.
One morning meeting before you start work, and the second meeting before you start the afternoon. Have a very clear and quick agenda, these meeting shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.
Have a plan for the afternoon, as you probably did for the morning.
Tracking is Key!
Remember – if you don’t diagnose it, it will never happen. And things that get tracked, improve.
The more things you track, the better. Which doesn’t mean you drive your office manager crazy – I want you to do this yourself so you know exactly is happening in your office.
Also – and perhaps more importantly – the more frequently you track, the better. Which is why I’m saying that to make the most impact, divide your day into essentially 2 days – morning and afternoon – and completely re-set and re-plan for the afternoon.
Yes, this takes time and effort, but it will work.
How to Get Patients to Accept Treatment
Also – don’t forgot my other 3 short podcasts on how to get patients to accept treatment.
As a review:
1. Make sure YOU look like a Million Dollars. This making money thing takes work!
2. Present big treatment plans yourself.
3. Talk about money yourself – at least the Big Picture.
Let Me Know How You’re Doing!
Got it? OK, put it in action and let me know how you are doing!
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