How To Implement a “Standard of Care” To Increase Dental Practice Production

Kiltesh Patel
August 27, 2020 | 3 min read

One of the best ways to increase dental practice production and generate more revenue is to make sure existing patients are returning for regular care, especially procedures that are covered by their insurance plans.

You can achieve this by implementing a “standard of care,” which refers to a basic set of care your patients should receive (e.g., cleaning, FMX) on a regular basis to maintain their oral health. 

However, keeping track of every single patient can be challenging -- especially if you’re scaling up or managing multiple office locations. To effectively implement this strategy, You need a system that will allow you to check all the patient records, send out timely communications, and make it easy for patients to schedule appointments.

Increase Dental Practice Production With “Standard of Care”

Here’s how you can make sure every patient is getting the appropriate care and at the right time while increasing your practice’s production and efficiency:

Add Relevant Procedures to Upcoming Appointments

Every Friday, have your staff review the benefits and eligibility of the patients who are coming to your office the next week. Create a spreadsheet with clearly marked codes to indicate procedures that can be easily added to those appointments so you can make recommendations during the visits.

Since the patients are already in your office, it’d be much easier for them to agree to additional care (especially if it’s covered by their insurance plans!) You can deliver better service without the added administrative cost of scheduling separate appointments while building loyalty with a proactive approach to patient care.

Optimize Your Hygiene Program

Implement a system to ensure that your hygienists are scheduling patients’ next hygiene visit at the end of each appointment. This will reduce the friction of booking a cleaning appointment and help you keep patients coming back.

Hygiene visits and preventive care is an easy way to get patients to say yes because they’re mostly covered by insurance and can be scheduled ahead of time. This can be a “low hanging fruit”  if you want to improve production -- for example, you can encourage hygienists to schedule more appointments by offering an incentive.

Stay on Top of Comprehensive Exams

While it’s common for new patients to receive a comprehensive exam at their first visit, returning patients often only get short exams during recall hygiene appointments year after year. However, comprehensive exams are typically covered by insurance every 3 to 5 years so make sure you’re keeping track of patients who are due for one and send out reminders in a timely manner. 

Doing so will help you keep existing patients healthy, stay top of mind, and nurture relationships so they’d keep coming back to your practice.

Implement “Standard of Care” in Your Practice Cost-Efficiently

Your “standard of care” is only as good as how you implement it. 

Many of the processes discussed here are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to human errors. You can use a dental practice management software to help minimize overlooked opportunities, deliver care consistently, and increase operational cost-efficiency by automating the workflows. This will also free up your staff to focus on delivering the best care to your patients.

For example, tab32’s Revenue Discovery module can scan patients’ insurance benefits and show what treatment each patient is due for. You can also automatically send booking links for unscheduled re-care appointments, as well as reminders to help patients maximize their year-end insurance leftover.

In addition, the module can pre-define new and returning patient's billable insurance codes, so you’re armed with the right information to recommend appropriate care for additional production opportunities.

Request a demo to see how tab32 can help you increase practice efficiency and optimize your clinical outcomes.

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