Orthotown July/August 2024 - 39

self-ligating brackets, indirect bonding and other
efficiencies can also open room to continue to grow.
Some orthodontists have delegated so much of the
hands-on treatment that they rarely put their fingers
into a patient's mouth! But most orthodontic practices
still experience the constant knocking of their heads
against the ceiling of growth because their scheduling
system is maxed out.
How to identify a problematic schedule
The symptoms of an overloaded schedule aren't hard
to miss. That once-good template that worked so well
is now all discombobulated, with patients thrown into
any open spaces, including extra columns. Assistants
regularly complain about things not being scheduled
correctly and take their complaints directly to the
front desk-sometimes within earshot of the patients.
The assistants are frazzled, while the doctor can't keep
up with the multiple chair lights that need her all at
once. When we're observing such offices, we often
see assistants sitting idly by their patients, longingly
inviting the doctor with their gaze to " please come see
me first " or looking at the exam room door, hoping the
doctor will get out of the exam soon.
What's not so easy to see is the actual cost that
comes when patients are unhappy with wait time
or when they can't find convenient appointment
availability, particularly with a new-patient exam.
To best capture growth, we like to ensure new-patient
appointments are available one to two weeks out in
the mornings, and no more than two to three weeks
out in the afternoons. It's not unusual to visit a practice
in June and be told all of the exam spots for the
summer are already taken, yet then have the orthodontist
tell us over dinner that she has wanted to grow
for many years and can't figure out why the practice is
locked at its current level.
Improvement takes effort
(and often outside help)
Practice growth can only come if there are more entrylevel
codes available in the template than you presently
need. In other words, a fish only grows to the size
of its aquarium, and by this we're referring not just to
the scheduling template but also the facility itself-its
waiting room, number of clinical chairs and treatment
coordinator rooms.
To grow, you need space to grow. The right facility is
the third-most important factor that limits or accelerates
growth. To stay on time and grow, you need at
least one more chair in the operatory-ideally two-
than you currently schedule. We often creatively find a
spot for one more chair even when the client is certain
it can't be found.
So, what does this " on-time doctor time scheduling "
template look like? We'll get into some of the most
vital keys in a moment-but please also remember
that often, doctors who insist on doing things all by
themselves often run into the problem of being limited
to what they think they know and can see. A consultant,
meanwhile, will be more aware of what it takes
to unlock a practice's schedule and growth and can
quickly see the current pitfalls, some of which the
team can't yet see.
10 steps toward a smarter schedule
1
Determine the doctor and assistant time for
each major procedure. We discuss the types
of appointments being scheduled and coach the
doctor and team as to how much time other successful
practices allot to complete each of them. Taking
time studies in advance can be helpful in this process,
but practice guesses usually have inflated times, so
the consultant's knowledge often becomes the final
determinant of how much doctor and assistant time it
should take to complete each procedure.
By way of illustration, a typical 30-minute bonding
appointment, or " B30, " often looks like this:
* Assistant time: 10 minutes.
* Doctor time: 4 minutes.
* Assistant time: 16 minutes.
* Total: 30 minutes.
2
Place each procedure into a code or class.
Once you have the majority of your regular
appointments mapped out, try to combine as
many procedures into as few codes as possible. Some
scheduling codes, such as an " IB " (initial bonding) or
" DB " (debonding), may be limited to just one procedure,
but a B30 code often has six to 10 different
JULY/AUGUST 2024 | 39 | ORTHOTOWN.COM
http://www.ORTHOTOWN.COM
Orthotown July/August 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Orthotown July/August 2024
