How Effective are you at Getting Treatment Plans Accepted?
Do your Tx Plans Fall Through the Cracks?
A major way to improve your patient care, production and net profit is to improve your Tx presentation and acceptance. The necessary skills are not taught at dental school, as you know. The skill of your “Treatment Coordinator” has everything to do with your success rate. Time spent improving just this one area of your practice will pay off greatly.
It is not just a matter of improving the efficiency of your practice: When you improve Tx acceptance you are also providing better care to your patients.
Patients with unaccepted treatment plans face the possibility of ending up as an emergency in someone else’s office. Or in the case of cosmetic Tx, they may wind up doing the work elsewhere (possibly with inferior results).
The Uncertainties are What Hurt Tx Acceptance
When I ask doctors to compare their clinical skills with their Presentation/Acceptance systems, I often hear questions such as: “Am I talking too much or not enough?” “What exactly is a Treatment Coordinator and what are her duties?” “Will patients be blown away when I present full Tx plans?”
What about the doctor who is confident and presents Tx well only to send patients up front with an unknown result? Will they be able to discuss and work out finances, or will you hear another, “they want to go home and think about it/wait till next year/talk to their husband/ etc., etc?”
Smooth systems keep your patients (and you) happy
In short, it’s the uncertainties that keep your systems from flowing. You want systems that are reliable and workable, not something that you have to put back in place with each and every patient. That’s why doctors get cross when their systems fall apart.
What about your Presentation/Acceptance system? Does it flow? Is it as reliable as your clinical systems? What if it stops working? Do you have holes in your schedule because of missed acceptance? How do you train a Treatment Coordinator (even in a practice with one person up front?)
Certainty is the answer. Regardless of your production range, there are specific answers for your practice, please let me know your specific questions, or help you need. Leave a comment of message me directly.
We'll be providing weekly tips about how to improve your practice's Tx acceptance. You can also get our free ebook, “17 Tips to Improve Your Treatment Acceptance”