April 7, 2010
Simple Ideas for Effective Scheduling
Even in the best practices, the issue of scheduling can be a frustration. Too often, the front office and the back office are at odds over the schedule: who is scheduled when and for how long. The front office simply wishes the back office would work the schedule as planned while the back office team feels the front doesn't understand how easily to properly schedule patients in the first place.
While no practice is perfect in how they schedule, here are a few tips to ponder as you and your team schedule your days:
- Determine as a team what you want your schedule to look like on both a daily and weekly basis. Some practices want to do most of their "comprehensive" restorative during the morning hours when they are "fresh" physically, and mentally. Younger dentists don't care much (now, but they will). So take a blank schedule and "map out" what you want each day to look like. Then, strive to meet at least one day during the month. When achieved, try for two days, then three until you begin building the schedule the way you like to work.
Frank Spear said it best, " Give me the First 5 hours with procedures I truly enjoy doing on people I like being with...and then I'll deal with all the other stuff in the last 2 hours. That's a PERFECT DAY for me."
- Train your patients to VALUE your practice and VALUE your time. If your patients make the rules when they can come in to see you, you have no one to blame but yourself. A mutually beneficial relationships based on respect and trust is called. for. If you feel you need to work night and weekends to accommodate patient's wishes, my response to you is, "You haven't given your patients a good enough reason to comply with your work hours." Read that response again...several times. It's true.
Of course you need to stay responsive to patient's needs...but you must also be true to your own set of values. Too many practices are created to provide service to others for the fulfillment of their lives and end-up providing service to others at the expense of our own lives. Big difference.
- Don't give patients too much control over your schedule. Asking when they want to come in means you are abdicating your time to them. Your most precious resource is TIME. If you give-up control of TIME, what not just ask them how much they want to pay for a crown or a cleaning? Give up total control to patients.
- Make your scheduling simple - have GREEN time and BLUE time. GREEN time is for productive procedures you enjoy doing. BLUE time is for non-productive procedures. Patients only get appointed GREEN times and BLUE times....that's it! When the patient is handed-off to the scheduling coordinator, tell them to schedule 8 units of GREEN time to do the crowns the patient needs."
Whenever I visit a practice, the first thing I look at is their schedule. It tells me a lot about HOW you practice. HOW you schedule conveys YOUR attitude toward dentistry, toward patients, your team and yourself.
I hope this helps
Continued Success to you and your Team!
Sincerely,
Art Deden
Vista Practice Management
www.vista-practice.com
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