Although dental practice revenue saw an initial decline at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, dentistry is emerging from the downturn. Demand for dental treatments is on the rise. A disrupted routine of regular preventive treatments requires rebuilding. The 'zoom boom' also accounts for a surge in patients looking for aesthetic treatments.
This comes with an opportunity to join the up and to the right trajectory. Enhanced PPE and fallow time periods precluding a return to pre-pandemic activity levels have an ongoing impact on practices, but there is still potential for patient growth.
The Right Order: First Optimise Existing Workflows & Staff
In trying to improve things, the first thought is often: what can we add to make this better? But being dazzled by the temptation of addition overlooks the fact that a better solution might be to take something away, or to optimise what you already have to increase revenue. For dental practices, their current regular patients already know and love the practice. They are a fantastic tool to attract the right sort of patients to the chair. Any measures that enable the dental team to provide excellent, attentive service for the existing patient base should be implemented first.
Patients choose their dentist based on a variety of factors. But when attending a dental appointment boils down to seeking help, patients will always value having a supportive, caring dentist who listens to their concerns. Some patients form such strong bonds of trust and emotional attachment to their dentist that they will follow their moves to different practices. The more time dentists can spend talking with patients, the greater the patient satisfaction.
However, gone are the days when all the time during an appointment slot is dedicated directly to the patient. Notes need to be written. Dependent on treatment complexity, these can be lengthy, eating into your time previously reserved for patient interaction and carrying out procedures.
Kiroku takes the hassle and stress out of note-taking. It makes customisation for each patient seamless; Kiroku recognises and inputs which discussion points are relevant depending on what findings the patient presents with. With the ability to tailor it for how each individual dentist prefers to write their notes, it makes for a highly efficient workflow. Without sacrificing thoroughness and quality, using Kiroku can significantly reduce your time spent writing notes – for some users, it has reduced this time by 77%.
Working under the constant threat of complaints and litigation (see this article on Litigation, Complaints and How to Avoid Them), less stress on notes means that you can focus energy on doing dentistry and engaging with your patients. Dentists facing people rather than a computer screen will always make for a better patient experience. This creates a chain reaction of positive reviews, an increased number of recommendations, and establishing a good reputation for the dental practice in the community.
Increasing Capacity: Doing More Dentistry
Dentistry is a time-based revenue stream. You can only sell a finite amount of time. And more dentistry that is done per hour inevitably leads to greater revenue generated per hour.
This increased production for practices benefits both associate dentists and practice owners. But if your books are already fully scheduled to ensure maximum utilisation, any change in ways of working needs to fit within those time constraints. Automating communications such as appointment reminders and medical history updates prior to patients attending on the day saves on surgery time. Setting up these systems in advance to take care of these routine tasks also frees up staff to undertake activities that cannot be automated. This includes non-clinical administrative staff.
Because ultimately, what is generating the most profits? Time spent with patients. Upgrading systems to ensure a highly efficient workflow is the key to freeing up additional time to carry out more treatments. This time saved can then be used to see more patients, a benefit experienced by many dentists who use Kiroku.
Dental offices will not have the capacity to support an influx of new patients if their schedules and staff are already strained. Only after existing workflows are streamlined can dental practices then successfully focus efforts on increasing the number of new patients to increase annual income.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
For a dental practice owner, the biggest expense is people, so the staff pool should be used to its full potential. There is great potential for growth through harnessing skill mix and recruiting dental therapists and hygienists to undertake treatment within their scope. Having a list of active hygiene patients will ensure periodontal stabilisation. Complex periodontal patients and children can also be seen by dental therapists in settings with the right dental practice demographics, easing pressure on appointment books.
This shared care frees up dentist time to see more new patients. Overall practice appointment efficiency is improved and there is more time available for treatment appointments, which can increase patient satisfaction. In Kiroku, you can set up your workflow such that a prescription for dental hygiene appointments is automatically created based on a patient’s BPE scores or current oral hygiene routine.
As for other members of the dental team, the role of dental nurses can also be expanded. Each dentist-nurse combination will differ in the way they work together. During the initial history-taking and examination phase of each appointment, a lot of information is gathered.
While the overarching responsibility for record-keeping lies with the dentist, nurses can assist in helping make notes whilst dentists examine patients. This is made simple by Kiroku’s button functions – notes can be produced by clicks rather than typing out things repeatedly. There are numerous courses for dental nurses to increase their clinical duties, but training nurses to help with record-keeping is a low-cost, straightforward way to streamline each and every appointment. And then no one has to use their lunch breaks to catch up on admin or stay back after work to finish notes.
As with the introduction of anything new, there will be an adaptation period needed. But after initial activation energy, actual performance in practice will become seamless. Effective collaboration maintains a high-performing team and a positive working environment. No one enjoys running late.
Patient Empowerment: Shared Decision Making
So after optimising workflow efficiency to save time and see more patients, the next step to increasing dental services revenue is what happens after each appointment. Patients will spend more time out of than in the dental chair. That is why preventative care, oral hygiene instructions and dietary advice are essential, because maintaining a healthy mouth relies on the patient keeping up a healthy lifestyle and consistent oral hygiene routine at home.
So, our interaction must influence beyond the bounds of direct chair time to actually affect long-term change.
This same approach can be applied when it comes to patients who require active treatment. Although time should always be spent chairside to thoroughly explain all treatment options, patients may need more time after the appointment to come to a decision.
This is especially the case when it comes to complex, more invasive or expensive treatment options. People can forget easily – even more so when they are met with dental-specific terminology or completely new information. Kiroku’s patient reports enable automatic generation of post-diagnostic reports to send to patients directly from their notes. This can be customised to include an easy-to-understand summary of the discussion you’ve had with a patient, with the option of additional information if the patient is interested in learning more.
As dentists, we are to lean away from paternalist inclinations and move towards shared decision-making. Presentation of treatment options should always be ethical. Patients should feel like they can trust the information that is being given to them (and the manner in which it is given) and they will be deterred by upselling.
To genuinely engage with shared decision-making, patients need to be involved and feel empowered in choosing treatments. Patient-specific tailored reports make it possible for patients to read through and understand information about different options at their own pace. Patients cannot give valid consent or autonomously make decisions about treatment options in time-pressured situations.
For example, when patients are unsure about whether to choose amalgam or a more expensive composite filling where both materials would be clinically appropriate, a report sent after the appointment outlining the benefits and disadvantages of each material allows the patient to make an informed decision in their own time. This is especially useful in mixed practices where patients can choose between NHS banded treatments and private treatment alternatives that come with a higher average expense.
Even if a patient wants to postpone elective treatment for now – such as choosing to monitor a root canal treated tooth without cuspal coverage rather than proactively placing a crown – seeds have been planted and the options have been recorded for future consideration and acceptance. If patients do express interest later on down the line, patient reports make the options easy to refer back to for patients as well as and dentists.
In terms of revenue, an increase is thereby achieved with the same number of patients, but with a greater number of these patients electing for treatment needed or recommended. While this does not exactly generate passive income, it is a means by which dentists can passively build better relationships with their patients and increase care acceptance rate. This leads to additional income that may otherwise have been lost.
The Bottom Line
COVID-19 measures have highlighted the need for practice re-organisation to withstand economic impact. Increasing revenue is not the only path to profitability. But when patient growth, not just the bottom line, is the main objective, focussing on increasing average revenue will outpace the value of cutting practice costs.
For all practices – private practice, independent practices, mixed practices alike – driving long-term revenue increase requires a sustained approach that connects all actions to creating value for patients. Earning potential increases when you can choose to see more patients or spend more time with them.
Dentists that have used Kiroku for workflow optimisation save time. And when time is money, this presents an opportunity for a higher profit margin over the long term for both principals and associates.
