Dental Chart Audits

It's time to wake the sleeping giant in your practice

by Mike Farley

As the American population begins to define how it will respond to terrorism within our country, we are continually being told that things will never be the same as they were prior to September 11, 2001. Certainly that appears to be true within the dental community.

Those of us involved in Dentistry must become more aware that most of the revenue generated by dental offices comes from discretionary dollars. These are dollars that patients are not required to spend. These dollars are different from the mandatory dollars which people spend for food, shelter, clothing, critical medical care, and other necessary items. We are already seeing a slowdown within the more optional areas of dental care such as Orthodontics.

With Americans keeping a tighter hold on their pocketbooks it is obvious, that if a dental practice desires to maintain its ability to keep patients healthy -- along with maintaining its revenue and profitability, that practice must not only increase its attractiveness to new patients but must dramatically improve its system for stimulating a desire within its existing clientele to have undone treatment performed.

Throughout the past decade, undone treatment has been largely ignored by most practices because new patient flow has been sufficient to keep these practices very busy. With the downturn in the economy, dental practices must now become willing to "turn over every rock" in order to maintain their viability. This will necessitate the rebirth of chart audits.

Because dentistry has been so successful over the past 10-15 years, chart audits 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, when those times actually occurred they were filled with other, more urgent, duties and the chart audits slipped into never-never land.

As we have heard many times, most 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. (This form should have columns for patient name, phone numbers, treatment needed, comments, date contacted, and action taken.)

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.

Our clients who have adopted this system are extremely satisfied with the results. They have realized that the systems and methods that have allowed them to be successful will no longer be adequate. They are willing to expend the extra effort and energy it takes to keep their practices highly successful in these anxious times.