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943: Metric Mondays: Active Patients & Active Hygiene Patients – Miranda Beeson

Do your patients value and trust what you're providing? There's an easy way for you to find out! In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Miranda Beeson, ACT’s director of education, to share a metric that shows how many patients are truly connected to your practice and what to do if your numbers are dwindling. To learn the low-cost way to boost your active patient and active hygiene patient count, listen to Episode 943 of The Best Practices Show!

 

Learn More About Miranda:

Learn More About ACT Dental:

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Episode Resources:

Main Takeaways:

  • Use value-building language when re-appointing patients.
  • Create a reactivation system or patients going inactive system.
  • Actively recapture inactive family members of your active patients.
  • Over 85% of your patients should be re-appointed for their next hygiene visit.
  • Always re-appoint patients for their next hygiene visit before they leave your practice.
  • Your hygiene re-appointment shouldn't be 100%. Free up patients that aren't a good fit.

Quotes:

“It's really important to make sure that we're tethering our patients to the practice and we're building that longstanding retention — loyal patients year over year, months over months. The more we're able to maintain our existing patient base, the less effort we have to put into bringing new patients into the schedule. So, we want to make sure we're doing everything we can to support not only their continuing care regimen but also our practice safety and security.” (2:43—3:10) -Miranda

“The other thing about [hygiene re-appointment percentage] is it helps you to understand if your patients really value you and the care that you're providing. Do they really trust you? If they're not willing to reschedule and make that next visit, there's probably a reason. So, what happened within that experience that is going to make them not want to come back the next time? Now, occasionally, you have a snowbird, you have someone in college, this, that, and the other. I would argue that you could still schedule that patient for the next visit. It might be next summer when they're back, or next winter. But most of the time, if someone is not willing to reschedule and they're not providing a real valid reason, you'll have an idea of how much they value or don't value or trust your care.” (4:51—5:32) -Miranda

“It used to be, years ago, you didn't even necessarily pre-schedule the next visit. You just mailed out postcards when somebody was due, they'd call you, and they'd schedule their appointment. That is not how life works in the dental office anymore, so we need to be doing everything we can while the patient is in the chair to secure and reserve that next visit. It's going to be less cost in terms of investment and time when it comes around to their “due date”. When their customized program of care comes upon us, they're already there. They're already ready, they've reserved that time, and we've built value around that appointment.” (5:34—6:12) -Miranda

“When we have a high re-appointment percentage, we know we have a steady stream of patients that are going to be coming back. So, we have the predictability around the revenue of those hygiene visits. It gives your schedule some structure. It gives your team and you peace of mind that your bottom line, there's a little bit of breathing room there because we at least know that we have, say, 90% of our hygiene patients coming back in three months, four months, six months, whatever it may be, versus having this wide-open schedule and hoping that we are able to fill those holes.” (6:24—6:57) -Miranda

“Practices with that higher hygiene re-appointment percentage, naturally, you're going to retain more patients. They're going to stay plugged into their care cycle. They're going to be less likely to fall off the schedule. The language that we use when we're re-appointing, really using value-driven language and basically confirming that appointment from the moment they set it up, is going to help them to stay with you and not go seek care or treatment elsewhere.” (7:01—7:29) -Miranda

“Hygiene is what really fuels the practice. It's that lifeline for most practices. It's where you're pulling the majority of your treatment from, shared with those new patient experiences. But the bulk of it is our existing patients, and our hygienists are doing a lot more than just cleaning teeth. They're there to work alongside you, the dentist, to look at treatment risks within the patient's mouth, help you to — we talk about being a restorative partner, looking at treatment that's undiagnosed, or even treatment that has been diagnosed and hasn't been completed, and helping to nurture those relationships so that you can also help to support your restorative schedule.” (7:39—8:18) -Miranda

“It's more efficient for your team to not have to be tracking down patients if they're already in the schedule. When you think about your practice, you might have an office manager and an administrative patient care coordinator. Maybe there are two people in your front office team. If they're spending the bulk of their time calling, texting, emailing, trying to get patients to come in, it's really not the best use of those resources. Instead, those people should be focused on the patient experience, case presentation, and building value and trust. If they're scrambling to fill holes because we didn't do a good job of re-appointing when the patient is already there, it's going to be a lot harder for the team. So, it also helps with team efficiency, keeping those hygiene re-appointment rates high. It's less work on the back end to try to fill the schedule.” (8:25—9:14) -Miranda

“The easiest thing is to develop the expectation in your practice that, ‘This is what we do.’ It's not an option. It's not a, ‘If you have time, try to schedule their next visit.’ It's, ‘We reserve the next appointment while the patient is here. It's what we do.’ You mentioned earlier there are dentists out there who really struggle with holding people accountable. Well, guess what? You don't have to hold anyone accountable to just this personal relationship if you have a system or an expectation to measure against. When we've all agreed that what we do here is schedule the next hygiene visit before the patient leaves, now we can talk to that expectation or that system when we're addressing it with our team and saying like, ‘I've noticed this trend with our data. What can we do as a team, collectively, to improve this? What challenges are we running into? Is it that we just don't feel comfortable or know what to say? Is it that we live in a tourist area and there are a lot of snowbirds and we're just not scheduling those patients, but maybe, could we?’ and really working on it as a team. But you can address it around that system or that expectation versus this you versus me and, ‘I think you're not doing a good job.’ No — let's look at that expectation together and measure against that.” (10:31—11:46) -Miranda

“Generally, 85% or more of your patients should be re-appointed for their next hygiene visit before they leave. Now, I have a real high bar, so I like for it to be at least over 90%. But 85% or higher, you're in a pretty good place with that hygiene re-appointment percentage. Start by measuring where you are now, and then set a realistic monthly goal. If you're only at 70%, let's just try to get at least 5% more over the next month and see where we're at, celebrating those small wins with every little improvement that you make.” (14:04—14:36) -Miranda

“You should never have a hygiene re-appointment percentage of 100% because you have some crazies that you should free up. You should never. There are people in your schedule that are better served in another practice. This becomes the perfect filtering mechanism to say, ‘Hey, I got one crazy,’ or, ‘I got two crazies today. Can I free them up?’ You don't put them in the schedule, and now you know why.” (14:56—15:17) -Kirk

“Improving this key metric is a very low-cost to no-cost way for you to get a lot of high impact back on the other end. So, check it out. If you don't know what your hygiene re-appointment percentage is, go learn it.” (16:21—16:34) -Miranda

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:36 Hygiene re-appointment percentage, explained.

6:12 Why this is an important topic.

10:24 Ways to impact this metric.

16:37 ACT’s BPA.

Miranda Beeson, MS, BSDH Bio:

Miranda Beeson has over 25 years of clinical dental hygiene, front office, practice administration, and speaking experience. She is enthusiastic about communication and loves helping others find the power that words can bring to their patient interactions and practice dynamics. As a Lead Practice Coach, she is driven to create opportunities to find value in experiences and cultivate new approaches.

Miranda graduated from Old Dominion University, and enjoys spending time with her husband, Chuck, and her children, Trent, Mallory, and Cassidy. Family time is the best time, and is often spent on a golf course, a volleyball court, or spending the day boating at the beach.
ACT Dental Team

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