One of the biggest success strategies for a dental practice is a dynamic dental hygiene team. However, recruiting to fill the critical position of dental hygienists can be challenging. Often the dental professional will want to add another dental hygienist to their team when:
1. Patients are not being seen when they want due to their dental hygienist’s availability.
2. Production needs to increase due to higher dental industry costs.
What if there was another way to solve appointment availability, and dental costs without the challenge of recruiting another dental hygienist?
There is another way. And all it will cost you is to change – change from booking standard one-hour dental hygiene appointments to booking according to your patient’s dental hygiene needs.
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The pay-off?
Enhanced patient care, more available time for new patients, and increased production.
Let’s do the math. We’ve put together an example dental practice to illustrate.
Dental Clinic Hygiene Statistics
Total Number of Active Dental Hygiene Patients: 2000
Their standard dental hygiene intervals are:
3 months
4 months
6 months
9 months
12 months
Their % of patients base according in each interval:
3 month 35%
4 month 20%
6 month 10%
9 month 25%
12 month 10%
The # of patients for each interval:
3 month 700
4 month 400
6 month 200
9 month 500
12 month 200
The # of appointments required per year based on # of patients and intervals:
3 month 700 x 4 = 2800
4 month 400 x 3 = 1200
6 month 200 x 2 = 400
9 month 500 x 8/12 = 750
12 month 200 x 1 = 200
When Dental Clinic assigns every patient the standard one-hour appointment, they need 5,350 hours.
On average their three full-time dental hygienists work 1,536 per year (32 hrs a week, 2 weeks vacation, and 9 statuary holidays).
They require 5,350 hrs to service their patients and 3.5 dental hygienists. To meet the hours necessary, they need to hire a part time hygienist. Or do they?
If we take all the same information but modify the length of time spots, to reflect their patient service requirements, the requirement for 3.5 hygienist changes.
Let’s do the math.
5350 appointments based on intervals & # of patients:
Intervals | # of patients | Time | Total Hours |
3 month | 2800 | 50 minutes | 2333 |
4 month | 1200 | 50 minutes | 1000 |
6 month | 400 | 50 minutes | 333 |
*9 month | 750 | 70 minutes | 875 |
*12 month | 200 | 80 minutes | 27 |
|
|
| 4568 |
*includes recall, radiographs, polish, fluoride
That simple move from one-hour appointments to appointments based on patient requirements results in an additional 782 hrs, and Dental Clinic no longer needs to hire a part-time dental hygienist.
But wait, there is more.
What happens when Dental Clinic removes the 3 months intervals?
When we move 3 month interval patients to 4 month interval:
Intervals | % of patients | Number of Patients x Visits per/yr | Total Hours |
4 mos | 35% | 700 pts x 3 | 2100 |
6 mos | 30% | 600 pts x 2 | 1200 |
9 mos | 25% | 500 pts x 18/12 | 750 |
12 mos | 10% | 200 pts x 1 | 200 |
|
|
| 4,250 |
When we move 4 month interval patients to 6 month interval:
Intervals | # of Patients | Hrs @ 60 min | Adjusted Time | Total Adj Hours |
3 mos |
|
| x |
|
4 mos | 2100 | 2100 | 50 min | 1750 |
6 mos | 1200 | 1200 | 50 min | 1000 |
9 mos | 750 | 750 | 70 min | 875 |
12 mos | 200 | 200 | 80 min | 267 |
TOTAL |
| 4250 |
| 3874 |
So, what did we do here?
We simply took our patients with 3 month intervals and moved them to 4 months.
Then we moved our 4 month interval patients to 6 month interval.
Have we compromised care?
Absolutely not.
Compromising care is when we don’t see our patients at all (or can’t fit them into our schedule).
What we have done is managed their care.
More importantly, we have created space where no space existed, so we can manage to see all our patients needing care and opened space for to see more patients.
In summary, this Dental Clinic thought they required 5350 hours to manage their 2000 active dental hygiene patients. Through effective time management, they reduced the necessary hours to 3,874 to service their patients and created time to see more patients.
How can you accomplish this?
Do you have the metrics to know how to schedule effectively, solve appointment unavailability, and increase production?
You do now with RNA 180 that optimizes your schedule without a lot of your time, so you can focus on what is most important – delivering quality patient care.
Chat with us! Book a demonstration here.
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