Do's and don'ts for guiding patients

For practice leaders, managing your practice also means managing your patients and their expectations. Taking the lead on guiding your patient through their experience in your office can go far in helping to decrease conflict and enhance the doctor-patient relationship.

Determine your policies for late patients. At what point do you refuse to see a late patient? When they're 10 minutes late, 30 minutes late, or never? Some practices suffer from high levels of late patients, creating chaos in the daily schedule. Develop your policy and create positive scripting to make it effective.

Don't forget to get payment at the time of service.If you want to improve your collections, only give patients payment choices. For example, "Ms. Jones, would you like to pay today by cash, check, or credit card?" This phrasing limits the patient to the choice of paying that day and not later.

Dr. Roger P. Levin is CEO of Levin Group, a leading practice management and marketing consulting firm. To contact him or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit LevinGroup.com or email [email protected].

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