Orthotown May 2024 - 30

Dynamic scheduling breaks one of the cardinal rules of orthodontics:
'Don't let your patient leave without an appointment.' This is scary
territory for many orthodontists to enter, but once you leap the mental
hurdle of not scheduling using the traditional six to eight weeks, the
benefits to your practice are tremendous.
members and less overhead, because you
schedule based on patient needs and not
only on industry norms.
* More oversight on patient care. Patients
are no longer going six to eight weeks
without supervision.
* Better communication with patients.
Patients have direct communication with
the doctor or team member through an app.
* More data for patient records. You know
what happened, when it happened and why
it happened. Th is is benefi cial for patient and
team member education, plus communication
with referring doctors.
* Fewer no-shows and rescheduled appointments.
Because you're scheduling when your
patient needs to be seen, instead of every six
to eight weeks just for a visit's sake, patients
are more likely to attend their appointments.
You probably don't need the capacity you
currently have; so many patients are cancelling,
rescheduling and no-showing to appointments
that you most likely are overstaffed. For example,
if you have four assistants who see 15 patients
per day, your capacity in a four-day workweek
is 240 patients. In many cases, 40 to 80 of those
patients won't attend the appointment they
were booked for. Th is is a hidden tax on your
practice your front desk will never tell you about.
Th ey have no incentive to efficiently manage your
schedule, because your team gets paid the same
whether your practice sees 240 patients per week
or 120 patients per week. However, you may be
paying your assistants two to three times to see
some of the same patients.
Dynamic scheduling helps fi x this issue
because you schedule patients only when they're
ready and available. So instead of spreading 180
patients across a weekly 240-patient scheduling
block, you'll book only 180 patients. Th is eliminates
four patient columns per week, one patient
day per week, or the need for one assistant.
What are the costs?
* Depending on the features and volume use,
an app such as DentalMonitoring will cost
2%-3% of collections. Th is should be offset
by a 5%-10% decrease of your overhead
through payroll reduction, creating a more
efficient practice. Th ere are no worries of
sudden sticker shock because you won't
onboard all patients immediately, so the
price will slowly increase month to month.
* During the process of onboarding patients, if
you lose team members because of attrition,
replacing them isn't always necessary.
* Some patients will be hesitant about the new
technology; some will be inconsistent with
scanning. Th ese patients will lower the cost
of monitoring. A patient who refuses to scan
can still be scheduled at regular intervals.
How is it implemented?
1. All active patients need to be onboarded
with your remote monitoring application.
Th is will take some time, so to make it easier,
consider starting with your new patients
and those whose treatments have more than
six to 12 months to go. Th is likely will be
50%-75% of your active patients.
MAY 2024 | 30 | ORTHOTOWN.COM
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Orthotown May 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Orthotown May 2024
