Cambridge Dental Consultants
Cambridge Dental Consultants
Dental Practice Management Articles
Blog By:
Kevin Tighe
Kevin Tighe

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Code of Conduct
All dental practice staff must, at all times, remain level headed, polite and positive in all patient dealings, whether the patient is right or wrong. If the patient is wrong, you can correct him/her and work it out in a polite, professional way. It is not necessary to be rude, uncaring, angry,...  Read More
Confidentiality
Dental patient information, both written in the chart and verbal, is absolutely confidential. Practice and dentist’s business affairs are also to be treated with the utmost confidentiality. The above subjects should not be discussed outside of the office. Office matters must be kept in the...  Read More
Cell Phones, Office Phones and Computer Use
If you haven't already done so many top dental consultants advise that you include in your general dental office manual an up-to-date phone/computer policy. This is the phone/computer policy I recommend: CELL PHONES Cell phone use (including texting, checking Facebook, etc.) at your dental practice...  Read More
Stay Positive With Your Patients
1. Patients' needs are top priority. The practice owner and all staff should leave personal issues and opinions outside of the dental practice. Patients visit your office to improve their dental health and eliminate pain. An atmosphere of warmth, cheerfulness and caring must be conveyed....  Read More
Acceptable Conduct
While it is important to understand what is unacceptable conduct for your dental staff, it is equally important to understand what is “acceptable conduct” in a dental practice so you can concentrate on the positive not the negative. In order to create a positive working environment I...  Read More
Unacceptable Conduct
Groups of people who work together for any purpose require guidelines. The same is true for the management of your dental practice. The purpose for these guidelines is to improve staff relationships and to enhance production. They should be enforced in a constructive manner. It is important to...  Read More
Staff Meetings
Office meetings should be held either weekly or monthly depending on the size of the practice. Over lunch is generally a good time. Whether you hold your office meeting during lunch or not staff still must paid - even if you have the meeting outside of the practice during normal lunch hours. Check...  Read More
Why Do You Need Policy?
Can you imagine baseball without any rules? Or, driving in rush hour traffic with no laws or guidelines governing what to do when the lights turn green or red? The obvious result would be confusion and chaos. This same logic applies to every organization. If there are no guidelines and rules for...  Read More
Confirmation Protocol
  CONFIRMATION PROTOCOL  Auto-Pilot: Do not put confirmation on auto-pilot. Services such as Lighthouse are useful when used smartly but, when you put confirmation on auto-pilot, front desk can sometimes abandon responsibility for the schedule because, “Lighthouse is handling it”.  Customize: Find...  Read More
"How much do you charge for a cleaning?"
When a patient calls your practice asking for a price (“How much do you charge for a cleaning?”) you of course want your receptionist to answer their question(s) but the receptionist will need to ask the patient some questions first in order to give a proper answer. Here's an example...  Read More
Dental Employee Cell Phone Use
Cell phones, Facebook and the like are here to stay. The basic policy you should have in your general policy manual should be that cell phones, checking Facebook, etc. can never be done at the front desk or in front of patients. Staff should use their break time, etc. to do so. Staff should be...  Read More
More on No Shows and Cancels
Any systems comes down more to WHO is doing the job then the “system” itself. Don’t get me wrong - systems are vital - but there are tons of good systems out there. What is more important is how well trained the people are on implementing whatever system you use as an untrained...  Read More
Correcting Dental Employees
The key to compliance is having a Dental Office Manual with all policy put together in a format that requires written attests that each policy has been read and agreed to.  Then when policy is not followed a system to correct people is as follows:   1. When a policy, procedure or system is...  Read More
Confirmation Protocol
Auto-Pilot: Do not put confirmation on auto-pilot. Services such as Lighthouse are useful when used smartly but, when you put confirmation on auto-pilot, front desk can sometimes abandon responsibility for the schedule because, “Lighthouse is handling it”.  Customize: Find out from patients if...  Read More
Protocol for Calling Patients Who Did Not Schedule
1. Review the patient’s chart before calling so you know the last treatment they received or what that they need as well as what family members might have been seen. 2. Use the information in #1 when you call to show them that an effort was made to know about them and their family. Show them...  Read More
Collections - Past Due Dental Accounts
The sequence of steps used to follow up on past due accounts are as follows: 1. Statement 2. Patient Call 3. 2nd Statement with note or letter 4. Patient Call 5. Past Due Letter 6. Patient Call 7. Last Notice – Demand Payment Letter (If no response after last notice, send memo to the doctor for...  Read More
Vacation Policy
The following is the vacation policy I recommend for your . As with all HR policies check with your attorney or a local HR pro to ensure your policy is complaint for your state and federal laws as they often change: VACATIONS Annual paid vacation is a benefit provided by this practice for...  Read More
Case Presentaion Pointers
In a previous entry, I talked about percentage of staff pay and how to get that lowered by making your staff more efficient. The other way to get your percentage of staff pay into an acceptable range is to increase collections by increasing the percent of cases that are accepted. If your case...  Read More
Case Presentation Percentage
What is a good case acceptance percentage? Depends on what the 75% represents. If the doctor routinely presents abbreviated treatment plans then of course the percent will be higher. It's like quarterback with a very high "passer rating" who plays it too safe and mostly throws very short...  Read More
The Secret to Dental Practice Stat Management
The real secret of stat management in your dental practice is to concentrate on actions that are easier to control by the individual employees as opposed to the "bigger" numbers that should be monitored but are the END RESULT of the "smaller" numbers.This may sounds a bit complex but it is...  Read More
Chronic Appointment Breakers
Good management of your dental practice includes a scripting protocol for your Scheduling Coordinator (SC) to handle chronic broken appointment patients (at least three broken appointments or is not sorry after the second broken appointment).  Something like this: SC:  “I’m sorry but I just...  Read More
Bonus Systems & Dental Office Payroll Percent
1. Set either a monthly or quarterly goal. 2. The goal is based on what is commensurate with 25% or less payroll percentage. Example: Let's say your payroll is normally around $20,000.00. Collections must be over 80K per month for there to be any kind of bonus. 3. If the goal is exceeded, a...  Read More
New patient scheduling tips
1. The key to a high percentage of appointments kept is your  to ensure they understand what will happen If they do not move forward. They must understand that the condition will worsen not because you say so but it's just physics. They also need to understand the effect that will have not just on...  Read More
Block Scheduling
BLOCK SCHEDULING  Your practice will be rushed, hectic and stressed without a schedule that is well designed.The purpose of blocking scheduling  is to decrease stress, keep production on an even keel from one day to the next while maintaining or increasing production. These are the steps for...  Read More
Actions to take to fill up your dental schedule, cut down on no-shows/cancellations.
1. For those who take insurance get in "end of year" insurance out. 2. Have a short call list 3. Make sure that every patient has their next appointment scheduled before leaving 4. Follow-up on unscheduled treatment and missed appointments. The person doing the calls must have excellent...  Read More
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