Keep Your Back Door Closed - Goldstein Management

I began working with a young dentist several years ago who seemed to be doing very well. He had a busy Hygiene Department, with two dental hygienists working 32-hours per week each. They were very busy. During the previous 12-month period, his practice added 1,100 new patients. All of these patients had a Code 0150 Comprehensive Exam, and entered the office recall system. Based on this increase, how many extra days of hygiene do you think he added for the following year? The answer is zero!

The implication here is that while he celebrated 1,100 patients entering in the front door of his practice, he quietly ignored the 1,100 patients who exited out the “back door.” With it getting more challenging to recruit quality new patients, it’s more important than ever to close the “back door” to your dental practice.

Five Steps to Closing Your Backdoor:

Monitor your active patients. How many have future appointments on the book? How many don’t?
Use positive scripting and benefit statements to reinforce the reasons for a patient to return for recare visits. Give specific “areas of concern” that will be closely rechecked at his/her return visit.
Have a continuous patient reactivation process in place. Consider hiring a P.R.O., or “Patient Retention Officer,” who will continually work to keep current patients active, and to reactivate older patients.
Keep in contact with your patients between visits. Use social media, such as regular emails, blogs, newsletters, etc. to keep in touch.
Monitor again.

Dr. Mike Goldstein
Goldstein Management