Having a Good Time at the Dentist

I recently had an excellent experience, at the Dentist. I switched from a small practice near my home to Windsor Dental near my office. Windsor Dental is a client, so I thought I should become their client.

My experience was excellent. The flow of the office moved very smoothly, prior to my appointment I received the medical questionnaire so that I could complete it more accurately and save time on my arrival. I also received a phone call the day before reminding me of the appointment time and requiring that I call to confirm. I liked this very much. I am used to waiting in an office being ignored and seen late. Not here. I was in the chair at 12:15pm being examined, the exact time of the appointment. The hygienist was friendly, helpful and thorough. When she was finished I was examined by Dr. Stern and got a quick tour of the office. It is not often that people report great trips to the dentist.

This had me thinking that there must be some kind of consulting group or place where medical practices could share tips to help the flow of their practice. There must be relatively simple things that can be done. After a little research I found and on-line magazine “Medical Economics“. On this site Medical Practice Managers, Doctors and consults can research ideas and seek help. This week and article was written by Tammy Worth called “Improve Scheduling to Eliminate Patient Backups“. The article discusses many of the problems facing medical practices and how to streamline operations and staff to meet the challenges of the patient load.

In the article she discusses making a plan by mapping the flow of the office. Determine what takes the most time and how to best improve the flow in each step. The Doctor or Medical Practice Manager should walk through each step and record the amount of time it takes. This will take a different amount of time depending on the number of patients on different days.

Staffing properly is also important. They mentioned that many times back-ups start at the beginning of the day because the staff arrives with the first patients to open the door. This means your 9:00am appointment is seen late automatically. The article mentions have some staff arrive 30 minutes early and leave 30 minutes early and have another part of the staff arrive 30 minutes later and leave 30 minutes later. This ensures the office is ready to go when the first patient arrives.
 
Another good idea is the one I mentioned earlier in my experience with Windsor Dental, send out preliminary paper work early so the patient doesn’t have to fill it out in front of you. If you are able to email this to the patient you can reduce your paper costs as you have transferred the printing to the client.

In all I thought the article had excellent ideas. Please let me know if you liked it, I have included the links to the article in the text. If there is siome way that I can assist you, please let me know.