November 13, 2018

What to Do When Your Dental Practice Is Too Busy

Is your number of active patients — those who have visited the office in the last 18 months — more than 2,500 when 1,500 active patients is considered full capacity? Are you booked 80% of the time with a six-month advance? Then it may be time to implement a plan of action for a more manageable workload. Here are some suggestions to help get you started.

Manage your schedule

The two most common areas of stress are too many patients and booking patients too far in advance. The answer is to consolidate your appointments. Try treating patients in as few appointments as possible, perhaps by planning to do a querent or half mouth an appointment.

Delegate

Doubling as a business owner, it’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day responsibilities that are, in theory, easier for you to handle than to delegate. Leave the high-level tasks to yourself while passing off other responsibilities to your staff.

Raise your fees

Raising your fees in increments of 10% will go unnoticed by most patients. Those patients that are lost by the increase will be offset by the revenue gained.

Bring on an associate or partner

If the workload is still too much to manage, consider enlisting help. However, bringing on an associate or partner should never be done to build up a business. Only then should you consider whether or not your office has the physical space to accommodate another doctor.

Reevaluate insurances

When all else fails or isn’t enough, it’s time to shop for different insurance companies. Compare the list you accept, and measure based on which generates the most revenue.

What’s next?

Read up on more strategies for better managing your practice on the “Insights” blog, then contact the experts at Professional Transition Strategies to help implement a plan.