You have been managing your daily and weekly systems according to plan and now you want to see how the month ended and how much your efforts paid off. If you are following a guideline, carving out time in your schedule to work the reports, and documenting your communication, you are on the right track for success. Like I mentioned in my last article, get into preventative mode and out of reaction mode. This is what we preach to our patients and you can treat the business side of dentistry exactly the same way.
This final article in my Practice Management “best practices” series is what to do on a monthly basis. The goal for your end of the month is to celebrate your success, review with your team, and report to the powers at be. Numbers tell a story and help you create, change or eliminate systems. Here is my recommendations for monthly reports and who on the team needs to review them.· All Team Members: In my last article, I gave some recommendations on which team member in the practice should work which reports, but the overall health of the practice falls on everyone. Of course there are team members who are accountable for different areas of the practice. However, every team member contributes to the success and demise of the practice.
o Practice Advisor Report: This report is my favorite report for your team meeting. It brings together multiple areas of the practice on one report and is laid out in a way that is easy to read and gives recommendations on how to improve the numbers if they are below your benchmarks. For more information on this report, CLICKHERE.
· Doctor/Practice Owner/CPA: There are certain reports that need to be forwarded to the office bookkeeper, CPA or banker. Also, there is one report that is reserved for the practice owner’s eyes only.
o Audit Trail: The Audit Trail report is a back end report that can be password-protected so the practice owner can see accounting edits, prescription deletions and login history. CLICK HEREfor more information on this report.
o Analysis Summary: This has been a popular report to give to practice owners who have a business loan. I have been asked “What is the best report to show production, collection, adjustments, new patients and A/R?” Here it is.
o Adjustment Summary: There are many summary reports you can generate as part of your month end protocol. However, I think this one in particular is important because it will break down the write-offs into categories. For example, if your office is using fee schedules in Dentrix because you are contracted with PPO dental plans, your practice would not have very many adjustments in the PPO adjustment category. If there was a lot of write-offs in this category, I would be a little concerned.
· Office Manager: In addition to the Practice Advisor Report, I would go through a couple of other reports in the marketing and customer service side of the practice.
o New Patient List: This report can help you identify that all your new patients have a referral source attached to them and a thank you/welcome letter was sent out. Remember that the new patients on this list are counted by first visit date not comp exam.
o Referred By Doctor/Other/Patient: These reports help you decide where your marketing efforts are paying off and gives you an opportunity to thank those patients or other business owners who are referring to your practice. You can read more about these reports by CLICKING HERE.
o Referral Analysis: You may know that you can attach a referral source to each patient, but did you know you can track gratuities? If you are using this feature in Dentrix, there is an analysis list that you can view by going to the Office Manager > Analysis > Referrals Doctor/Other and see the list in different date ranges. For more on this feature, CLICK HERE.
I hope that these last three articles on some “best practices” for your daily, weekly, and monthly systems has stirred up some interest in using Dentrix to completely manage the business and marketing side of your practice. Continue to read back on past blog posts and use them as a guide to help create better team meetings, morning huddles, and as a constant reminder to keep your finger on the pulse of your practice.
Best Practices for Your Team . . . monthly
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