You can't produce what is not scheduled. It is as simple as that.

Your schedule has a greater impact on production than anything else. Inefficiencies in scheduling can cost a solo practitioner anywhere from $200 to $400 per day, which is roughly $40,000 to $80,000 on an annual basis.

When scheduling is done without proper organization or thought, it has the potential to induce enormous amounts of stress. If the schedule is overcrowded, the doctor is under duress and the patient experience and quality of work may suffer. On the other hand, if there are too many gaps in the schedule, or if you are not seeing as many patients as you could, there is financial stress from lost production and revenue.

Scheduling is a delicate balancing act. Since your business staff are dealing with people, there are all sorts of factors they cannot fully control. Patients are unpredictable and finicky. Scheduling will therefore never be perfect, but you can increase production and save yourself significant aggravation if you proactively design your schedule, using the process described in this article.

One Glove Doesn't Fit All

A schedule which is ideal for one doctor or one practice in one part of the country will not be ideal for another. Only you can determine what is optimal for you.

Your individual clinical skills, the speed and efficiency with which you complete procedures, the skill level of your staff, the number of dental assistants, hygienists and front desk staff you have, and the availability of chairs, all have an impact on what the ideal schedule might look like for your practice.

State regulations can also have a great impact on scheduling. In some Midwestern and Southwestern states, a dental assistant without an RDA designation is allowed to pack cord and do temporary crowns. And a hygienist can administer anesthesia. Under these circumstances, it would be possible for the practice to see many more patients than a practice in the Northeast, where expanded-function assistants are hard to find, and only the doctor can administer anesthesia.

Develop Your Optimal Schedule

Adopt the following process to arrive at a schedule that will work for you.

1. Set Clear Objectives for Office Production and Customer Service
   1. Production Goals: Set targets for daily production.

      The schedule should be filled to meet or exceed daily production targets, keep the doctor and staff fully engaged, and take full advantage of the equipment and facilities you have.

      In an increasingly tight job market, many patients cannot take time off from work. Consequently, there will be a much greater demand for before and after-work hours. The mid-day slots are much harder to fill.

      Your front desk staff should try to steer patients into desired time slots, but this won't work in all cases. Patients are likely to cancel appointments scheduled at times that are not truly convenient for them.

   2. Customer Service Discuss the following objectives with your staff:
      1. Seating Patients On Time: Decide how important this is to your office and communicate your objective clearly to all team members. An example would be: our objective is to seat all patients within 2 minutes of their appointment time. Discuss with your staff a protocol to deal with situations where you are running behind.
      2. Accommodating Emergency Calls from Existing Patients: How much of a priority should this be? How responsive should the practice be? What is your goal here? Same day availability? Availability within 2 days? How would you deal with special or extraordinary emergencies?
      3. Responding to Emergency Calls from New Patients: How would you handle an emergency call from a new patient? What would your staff do if your office had no openings at all? What would they do if the caller was a referred patient?

2. Develop Guidelines for Your Schedule

   Take stock of the total number of staff and the talent you have available in your office. How many staff (other than the hygienist) can take X-rays? How many of them can take impressions? How many front desk staff do you have? Is the bottleneck generally at the front desk or in the clinical area?

   Determine how much time the doctor needs for each procedure. This should be actual clocked time, not a rough estimate. Develop a game plan to deal with emergencies and new patient appointments.

   Create a simple scheduling template, then refine it after seeing how it actually works in the office.

3. Use Down Time Effectively

   No matter what you do, your practice will experience some down time. So, it makes sense to have a game plan for effective utilization of this time. Use down time to relax, train staff, develop new protocols, organize a short staff meeting, or read a journal article.

   Excessive appointment cancellations and no-shows may indicate shortcomings in other areas such as diagnosis, doctor case presentation, or financial presentation at the front desk.

   With efficient scheduling, your office runs smoothly and your patients have a more positive experience, which leads to higher treatment acceptance and more referrals.

If you are interested in improving your office scheduling procedures, we invite you to request a confidential practice assessment. It's free. Request a practice assessment.