3 keys to executing your dental practice's optimal schedule

Do you fill your schedule first before you have any type of plan for your success? Most dental practices mistake their schedule for their business and fail to realize that it's simply a pathway. It's important to define your vision and plan first. Then you can integrate it into your schedule so that you can cultivate the profitability that you deserve.

Scott J. Manning, MBA.

It's all about optimizing your schedule and making room for growth. You want to create demand first and then orchestrate a schedule to absorb the value-based production that will allow you to double your practice. So how do you accomplish this?

3 keys to executing your optimal schedule

1. Get the most out of the morning huddle.

In your morning huddle, every person on your team should have a goal for that day (relevant to calls, exiting patients, treatment coordinating, etc.). Then at the end of the day when you look at your scoreboard, it isn't production -- it's not even collections -- it's how much was scheduled.

Remember, what you collect today, you will use; spend it and pay your people. But to build a business model for the future, you need to ensure that more dentistry is scheduled every day than what is produced.

Understand that if you are negative, if you did more than you scheduled, you took money out of your bank account. It's important to get your team to understand the impact and role they play. It's always patient-centric, but it is quantitatively accountability. They can create whatever bonus they want if they own the daily outcome and have set goals.

2. Track patients.

So many practices are set up for the doctor's convenience for the day, or they're set up for the team's convenience. Instead, they should be set up for the flow of the patient and the productivity of the schedule.

Have team members who are accountable for columns of patients so that they can be prepared. You can't ask them to do things if they don't go into the day knowing what to expect. There are always going to be surprises, but if you want them to make the most of every patient's experience, they have to know what those experiences are going to be and plan for each patient's outcome.

Team members need to know how to contribute, educate patients, ask more questions, help patients be curious about how dentistry impacts their lives, and understand how to communicate when they do the hand offs to ensure everything is managed accordingly.

3. Finish strong.

Finally, you have to conclude the day. We try to produce every second of the day and then at the end of the day, everybody closes up shop and leaves. If you huddle at the beginning, shouldn't you huddle at the end?

Conclude the day properly. Start focused, finish focused, and repeat the process. And, yes, the team should be paid for these kinds of things; that's just part of the deal. It's the way it's supposed to be in an organization.

The formula for success is simple

The daily creation of dentistry equals your scheduled production, divided by the number of team members. You have to decide how much dentistry each person is going to be responsible for daily.

In great practices, that should be no less than $2,500 a day; in elite practices, it should be $5,000 a day, but you can start wherever you want. If you're currently averaging between $5,000 to $7,000 a day and every team member contributes an extra $500 a day and you have eight people, that's $4,000 added to what you would normally do.

This is what each person has to be accountable for, and this is the way to shift their mindset from showing up and doing what's in the schedule to create what's going to be the schedule in the future. It's time to rethink your practice for ultimate success!

Scott J. Manning, MBA, is an author and public speaker. For almost two decades, he has coached dentists on building wealth and lifestyle-based practices. To learn more, visit Dental Success Today.