This episode will take a look at your schedule, most importantly how to make your schedule hum with productivity and not business!
Let’s start with a quote from Stephen Covey…we all know him from his best-selling books, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, First Things First, and Principle-Centered Leadership.
Stephen says…
"The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."
I, you, we are constantly bombarded by marketing messages vying for our attention and clicks.
These are commonly presented with email subject lines like the following I received over the past week…
* How to help your practice emerge from the Pandemic…
* Dentists' biggest practice challenges…
* Steps to Take for an All-Star Practice…
* Positioning your practice for Growth…
* How to Turbocharge your Practice…
* Marketing Ideas that will take your practice through the roof…
Our Team here at OmniStar DSO is all about "Simplifying the Complex!"
I can think of no better or more productive area to focus on than your Scheduling Framework or Template.
Our Subject line will be… Scheduling…are you hitting your Target?
Get your scheduling meme right, and everything else will flow.
Yes, there are many essential and critical KPIs to monitor and track; we coach and teach our clients. The beauty of designing a scheduling framework is that it is easy to tell how well your Team is meeting spec. If your block booking is set up correctly, it should be obvious how well your Team is doing just by looking at the scheduling screen on your computer.
Yes, there are other important tasks and goals your practice must monitor and achieve. You must collect patient payments, keep receivables low, manage your employees, control operational and administrative expenses along with clinical supply costs. And last but not least, you must provide exceptional dentistry.
With that said, getting your scheduling dialed in should be a high priority.
For me, “dialed in” means…having all of your chairs full with the optimal mix of ideal procedures, patients, and treatments.
Let's work through some Scheduling Axioms that we use in my practice and coach our clients on.
Remember, get your scheduling meme right, and everything else will flow.
I use the following Axioms as my scheduling foundation.
Axiom 1: Being Busy is NOT the same a being Productive.
Busy people; work at a frantic pace, are rushed, work harder, micro-manage, are fueled by perfectionism, multi-task, prioritize simple and mundane tasks and say "yes" by default.
In contrast, Productive People; prioritize the most important tasks, work at a steady pace, are relaxed, work smarter, are fueled by purpose, focus on essential and complex tasks, delegate the simple, mundane, and repetitive tasks, and can say "no".
Remember, it's ok to say "no." You are not the Coast Guard or US Military; you do not have to go out and rescue everyone. “Stay in your lane, bro…” as the AT&T commercial says.
along with “Just Ok, is not Ok!”
With these ideas in mind, one can begin to see that a jam-packed schedule may or may not be a productive schedule.
So let's get productive…
Axiom 2: Prioritize your Schedule for Productivity
Categorize and colorize your new patient exams, consults, and procedure mix on your schedule. Determine for yourself what your ideal procedure mix is. This will be different for everyone.
What do you enjoy most in your practice? There should be lots of time for these appointments.
What do you enjoy least? There should be very little time, if any, for these procedures on your schedule. As you become busier, these may be procedures you will refer out or cease performing completely. Remember from Axiom #1- it's ok to say "No."
Let's make some business comparisons to help drive home this point.
Your New Patient Exams, Consults and Treatment Presentation appointments are like Inventory in a manufacturing or merchandising business. It is an Asset waiting to be converted into a Product, your Dentistry.
Your Procedure or Treatment Schedule is analogous to your Production Line, where you covert that asset into your dentistry, and in the process generate revenue.
If your Inventory of New Patient Exams, Implant Consultations, and Treatment Presentations is low, your conversion of these assets into Implants, Crowns, and Bridges, or Restorations will be low too.
Put another way…
You can't schedule the production if you don't schedule the patient exam.
So, you need to balance the availability of a precise mix of new patient exams and treatment presentations to keep your treatment schedule full.
It's a balancing act; too many new patients will delay care without sufficient treatment appointments, keeping patients waiting. If patients have taken the time to visit you and your office, they are highly motivated. Please don't make them wait!
A sidebar here…the lag time between diagnosis and treatment is a critical KPI. As this time lengthens, the practice owner may consider expanding hours, expanding the physical plant, or adding a provider.
This can be a Blind Spot for a practice owner.
A Profit Leaks Analysis by our experienced Team at OmniStar DSO can help identify if you have a bottleneck in your practice that needs to be corrected.
Axiom 3: Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand
Time is a finite resource. Use a Block Scheduling Framework to allocate your time and schedule. I like to use the Rock, Pebble, and Sand analogy when designing a maximum productivity schedule.
Rocks are your anchors, your most enjoyable, productive, and profitable procedures. These will tend to be longer appointments. They should be added to your schedule first and always have the highest priority. These treatments should be scheduled at your most productive time of day. Remember, this is unique to you. Your Rocks are the cornerstone of meeting your daily production goals.
After Rocks comes Pebbles, smaller, more limited treatments with shorter appointment times that are used to fill in around your Rocks.
Finally, add the Sand; short appointments, post-op checks, limited emergency exams, and very brief restorative appointments. These are scattered to fill your gaps between the Rocks and Pebbles.
Sometimes it helps to think of Rocks, Pebbles, Sand in reverse. If you start with the Sand, you will never add enough Pebbles and Rocks to make for a productive and profitable schedule. You will have created BUSY, but NOT productive and violated Axiom #1- Being Busy is NOT the same a being Productive.
Next…
Axiom 4: Block Opportunity and Emergency Time into your schedule every day.
I want my schedule to be on autopilot. I do not want to be tracked down in a treatment room or in a hallway, or at my desk and asked what to do with a patient or referring office that is on the phone. After all, I have hired people who should be scheduling for me. I have found that "on the fly", “in the hallway” and "armchair" scheduling is not productive. It is paramount that you empower and train your staff exceeding well, and hold them accountable so that they can make these decisions for you. They will know and should know, more about the schedule than you. Your scheduling staff should be the ones micromanaging this.
When they do make sound decisions and hit the Bull's Eye with a full and productive day, make sure to praise and recognize them for their achievement. After all, it will not happen every day.
The one thing that can throw a monkey wrench into the best schedule is Emergencies and Urgencies, so we must plan for these eventualities. These are excellent sources of new patients and new referrals for your practice and should be accommodated.
To make this easier for all, earmark the best time slots for these patients on a daily basis. This can be determined in your morning huddle, where open slots for emergencies can be identified. Bingo, they no longer have to ask you! Let’s get these patients in and triaged.
A side note here. As a specialist, I recommend that our referring dentists see their emergencies immediately before and/or after lunch. If a referral is needed, there is still time in the day to accomplish that.
The veritable 4 pm emergency slot will unlikely have time to be seen by you, referred, and treated by a specialist that same day. There is nothing more frustrating for everyone; the patient, the referring dentist, and the specialist to have to appoint an emergency patient the next day.
Finally, in addition to emergencies, identify an opportunity slot every day. This can be a highly productive treatment and one that you enjoy. For our oral surgery practice, we will always have time to see a patient with a painful, infected wisdom tooth; that's what we love to do!
And last, but not least…
Axiom 5: Keep Score
If you don't measure it, you can't manage it…especially your schedule.
I know there are countless reports your Practice Management Software can print out to monitor your scheduling. By the nature of reports, they are historical. The schedule is so critically important that I monitor it daily.
I prefer a real-time assessment and visualization of our scheduling efficiency. To accomplish this, I do the following.
Daily, the doctors, and our administrative staff scan the schedule several days ahead, identifying available appointment times at each of our locations. If one location is booked full, they are aware that appointments can be scheduled in the other locations.
Next, I briefly meet with my Treatment Coordinator at the end of every day. I want a summary of every new patient; did they schedule? do they need to check with family? do we need to verify a secondary insurance? do they need to apply for Care Credit?
If they did not schedule and treatment was recommended, there is a follow-up plan for each patient. We start by doing whatever we told them we would do, and reach back out to them once the required information is obtained. If they indicated they would call us back, a reminder is put on the schedule to call them within a three-day window if they have not called us.
Every month, our Scheduling Coordinator assembles a report that tracks every appointment category for each doctor. The doctors monitor and track this report for any changes.
I hope these Axioms, guidelines, and guardrails will help assist you in engineering your "Perfect" schedule. After all, it's like Yogi Berra once said….
"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."
While working towards your Perfect schedule, you will have numerous "near misses."
Remember, don't panic!
Avoid the temptation to throw your guidelines out the window and fill the schedule with Sand and Pebbles. It is very easy to do. Be patient. Resist being swayed.
At least until 24 hours before an open appointment.
In our practice, we have the "24 Hour Rule". Everyone knows it and quotes it! We keep to the guidelines until the day prior when the "24 Hour Rule" kicks in. Scheduling is easy here. Our motto is "book 'em Danno!" for those of us that remember Hawaii 5-0!! Said another way; schedule patients who can come in today or tomorrow; some work is better than no work. You can never recapture the lost time once your day is done. Those empty slots and lost appointments are gone forever!
Remember the old dental adage…”Consider yourself unemployed for the time that your chairs are empty!"
' Nuff Said.
Excellent…
Time to wrap this up with a quick summary…
Our Axioms are…
Axiom 1: Being Busy is NOT the same a being Productive.
Axiom 2: Prioritize your Schedule for Productivity.
Axiom 3: Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand.
Axiom 4: Block Opportunity and Emergency Time into your schedule every day.
Axiom 5: Keep Score.
I know that if my schedule is kept full, I will meet or exceed my production goals every time with the correct mix of appointment types.
Try it… you'll like it!
