Dental Marketing - Tyson Steele Associates - Advanced Dental Marketing Concepts

An old success formula for a new economy

Written By: Tyson Steele

The United States is unquestionably in one of the most difficult economic periods since the Great Depression. Deflation (lowering of prices) and de-leveraging (reducing of debt) exert a dualistic force on the overall economy and job market. This, in turn, greatly affects consumer confidence and discretionary spending.

Most of the revenue generated by dental offices comes from discretionary dollars. These are dollars that patients are not required to spend. And patients manage these dollars differently from the mandatory dollars they spend for food, shelter, clothing, and critical medical care. It's this shift in discretionary spending that has placed a downward pressure on fee-for-service dentistry in the last year.

So as Americans keep a tighter hold on their pocketbooks what is one of the most important things a practice can do to keep patients healthy -- and maintain practice revenue? Quite simply, its time to instill a desire within your existing patients to have undone treatment performed.

Throughout the boom years of the past decade, undone treatment was largely ignored by most practices because new patient flow was sufficient to keep busy. However, with the downturn in the economy, dental practices must now become willing to “turn over every rock” in order to maintain their viability. This necessitates the rebirth of chart audits.

Throughout the past 10-15 years of easy dentistry, chart audits slowly drifted into the optional category within dental job descriptions. They became one of the things you would consider doing “when doctor goes on vacation” or “whenever we get a free hour." Of course, those times were usually filled with other, more urgent duties. So the chart audits slipped into never-never land.

As we have heard many times, the vast majority of practices have 6-12 months of undone treatment in their patient charts and numerous patients who are not in the active hygiene program. The implementation of a fail-safe chart audit system combined with a good recall program will ensure that you are doing everything possible to motivate existing patients to accept treatment.

A successful chart audit system is composed of the following:

1. Appointment of a team member as “Chart Audit Coordinator”. This is not an optional duty. It demands accountability.

2. Audit one letter of the alphabet each week. This means that all active charts will be reviewed twice per year.

3. Use a “Chart Audit Report” form. No more post-it notes and stacks of charts laying around the office. A good report will track patient name, undone treatment, need for hygiene, and dates of contact for reactivation.

 4. Make, and track, telephone calls to patients whose names appear on the Chart Audit Report.

5. Based on the results of the telephone calls: schedule appointments; move the chart to the archives; or dismiss the patient from the practice.

Dentists who have adopted this system are extremely satisfied with the results. They have realized that the old systems and methods that allowed them to prosper during the boom will no longer be adequate. In the future, successful practices will gladly expend the extra effort and energy it takes to keep their practices highly successful in both booms and busts.