Is Your Hygiene Schedule Full 'til September or October?

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/3w_SIdNcetA

I want to talk about what is happening in our world today. Yes, you all know there has been a pandemic and we were shut down and we're all struggling.

Many dental offices are thriving and those that have dental hygienists seeing patients report they don't have any openings until September/October.

I created a special process to help you get patients back on your schedule sooner than later. If you want the easiest path to create this type of success please schedule a no-cost Revenue Recovery Call with me: https://bit.ly/R2RAssessmentCall

What's happening is that you don't have available appointments in your hygiene schedule until September or October at this time.

1st, run a report of all your overdue perio patients. There are perio patients who have completed or need a CDT (ADA) 4000 code. If you have Eaglesoft, Dentrix or Open Dental when you schedule the revenue recovery call I can click a button and show you exactly who these patients are.

As I am viewing the perio patients with doctors what I am seeing are many of these patients also have unscheduled restorative care that is unscheduled.

Run the report of all patients who have completed or need a 4910, 4341, 4342 code.

2nd is to look at these patients you see on the report and first reach out to the patients with perio diagnosis and who also need restorative care.

3rd call these patients and express concern, Example:

"Doctor is concerned because of this world pandemic we have not been able to see you and we don't want you to have a serious problem with the (Example) fracture in that tooth, or whatever pertains to the care they need."

If the patient have a need for perio treatment, mention that doctor is concerned about the health of their gums because inflammation in their mouth can contribute to other systemic diseases.

Tell these patients that we want them to return so doctor can re-evaluate the situation.

You will schedule at least 30 minutes for doctor and the assistant to see the patient. The assistant will update necessary radiographs: BWXs or FMX and doctor can now re-evaluate the outstanding-unscheduled treatment.

Next thing, is that doctor will re-evaluate the patients gum health. Does the patient have active disease or are their gums healthy?

We know that perio is cyclic and episodic so many of these perio patients will require 1-3 teeth SRP or one quad, half mouth of 4 quads of SRP and you will now add these patients to the hygiene schedule in September or October when you have your next opening on the hygiene schedule.

Because these patients have unscheduled treatment and most doctors today have openings in their schedule, the patients will return ASAP to begin restorative care on doctors schedule.

Now that you have the patients on the schedule for September or October ask them,

"If we have a change in our schedule before September (or October) can we call or text you and move you to an appointment sooner than September (October)?"

It's important that you have one of the patient engagement systems such as Solution Reach, Revenue Well, etc.

Now when there is an opening in the hygiene schedule before September (or October) these patients who can come in sooner are in a "Group ASAP list" and you can text these to come in when there is a change. This will help you keep your hygiene schedule full even when there is a change in your schedule

For more information on this please do schedule a no-cost Revenue Recovery Call: https://bit.ly/R2RAssessmentCall

Allow me to help you create success during 2020.

ABOUT DEBBIE SEIDEL-BITTKE, RDH, BS

Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS, has been an industry leader since 2000. 

She graduated from USC with a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene and soon after graduation worked as a clinical assistant professor in the hygiene clinic and co-taught the senior dental students Practice Management course for many years.

Since 2000, Dental Practice Solutions has served dental practices around the world to optimize their hygiene department. Dental Practice Solutions creates highly productive hygiene departments because they take a holistic approach when working with each dental practice. They work with doctor and the entire team to create a highly productive hygiene department. TEAM is an important piece of every productive hygiene department.

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