By tracking key metrics, you can identify trends and gain valuable insights to enhance the success of your dental practice. Here are the key categories to focus on:
Patient Acquisition and Retention
Keep track of your number of new patients each month to see seasonal trends and measure the effectiveness of your marketing and front-desk lead conversion. What marketing campaigns are most successful? Should you increase marketing? Do you need to change your marketing messages to attract patients more in alignment with your ideal persona? Should you try different modes of marketing to learn which is most successful? Are so many patients requesting appointments that your schedule is full far into the future? Should you reduce or cease marketing for now?
The cost of patient acquisition can also be tracked to monitor marketing ROI. To do this, calculate each month’s total marketing expenditure divided by the number of new patients that month. If there are significant variations month to month, examine when marketing campaigns start, stop, and are modified. Also, examine who is answering the incoming calls. Has there been turnover on your front desk? Does someone need to be coached in optimal phone conversations with prospective patients?
On a rolling basis, track how many patients have scheduled recommended treatment. How many have not? How many have returned for regular dental care or a new problem within six months? How many have not? How many definitively left your practice? Look into the reasons for patient churn. Surveys, evaluation of patient reviews, feedback conversations, and documentation of patient complaints and reasons for not rescheduling will help you identify chronic issues causing patients to leave. By addressing issues early, you can correct problems before they escalate, enhancing patient loyalty and long-term retention.
Financial Performance
Financial performance is tracked by charting production (total revenue generated), collections (actual revenue received), and accounts receivable (revenue to be collected). Many dental practices forecast treatment revenue based on scheduled treatment and possible revenue based on treatment that has not yet been accepted by patients and scheduled.
Overhead costs are tracked against the budget to measure the need for cost reduction, gauge profitability, and inform future budgeting. Tracking monthly and annual profitability helps practice managers predict seasonal variations and trends. Based on profit growth, a practice may expand its facilities and team, invest in new technology, increase team compensation, and so on.
Appointment Efficiency
Appointment efficiency also plays a key role in practice success. Metrics such as no-show rates and appointment utilization (the proportion of scheduled appointment slots filled) can improve productivity and patient satisfaction. Automated reminders can help reduce no-shows while tracking utilization highlights peak times and ensures appropriate staffing. These efforts improve productivity and contribute to a more positive and stress-free experience for patients.
An important metric to track is the monthly average number of days between when a patient requests an appointment and when an appointment is available. This is referred to as the “appointment lead time” or “average wait time for new (or existing) patients.” Tracking lead time separately for recare, restorative, and new patient exams enables a dental practice to adjust its patient and staff schedules to balance the needs of new and retained patients and meet production targets. It also allows for timely adjustments to marketing activities and expenditures.
Curve Dental® has designed its all-in-one practice management platform to optimize scheduling. The software boosts patient appointment efficiency with features like 24/7 self-scheduling, automated appointment reminders, and SmartFill to manage cancellations. It allows easy drag-and-drop scheduling, uses pre-selected appointment durations for quick bookings, and offers digital intake forms to minimize front desk workload. Additionally, the Sidekick Navigation provides instant access to patient information, streamlining schedule management and enhancing overall practice efficiency.
Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction and experience are at the core of any thriving practice. Collecting satisfaction scores through surveys and reviews provides valuable feedback, while the Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures patient loyalty and their likelihood to recommend the practice.
NPS is widely used by companies to gauge customer sentiment and identify areas for improvement, and it is becoming a popular tool in dental practices. Ask your patients: "How likely are you to recommend our dental office to a friend or colleague?" Patients can respond on a scale of zero to ten, with zero being "not at all likely" and ten being "extremely likely." Patients who respond 9 or 10 are considered promoters. Those who respond 7 or 8 are considered passive, and those who respond 0 to 6 are considered detractors. To calculate your NPS score, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. The resulting score will range from -100 to 100. The higher the score, the greater your customer satisfaction is.
The time a patient waits in your office waiting area before being escorted to an operatory can improve or detract from the patient’s satisfaction. Similarly, wait times in the dental chair affect satisfaction. Periodically track wait times for a day and log that day’s average wait time. Over time, you might see the daily average wait time going up or down. You want it to go down to increase satisfaction. Some dental practices develop a reputation for always running late, which injures their retention and growth.
Curve Dental’s software offers digital intake forms and streamlines dental workflows, which pleases patients and saves time for your team to have important value-added conversations with patients.
Clinical Performance
Clinical performance metrics encompass case acceptance rates, treatment completion rates, and clinical outcomes. High case acceptance rates reflect patient trust in treatment plans. Tracking treatment completion rates ensures improved health outcomes and enhances patient satisfaction. Evaluating clinical outcomes supports maintaining exceptional care standards and identifies opportunities for targeted clinical training.
Staff Performance
Metrics like staff productivity and turnover rates help you assess team efficiency and satisfaction. The metrics can be the basis of performance conversations that lead to greater engagement, performance goals, next training, and clear envisioning of career objectives.
Automation of Metrics
Dental practice management systems that automate the tracking and reporting of key metrics guarantee that the data is captured and usable. Analytics dashboards provide insights into trends and the achievement of target numbers.
Curve Dental’s cloud-based software tracks several key metrics to help dental practices manage operations effectively and make data-driven decisions. These metrics include accounts receivable, collections, production, new patient acquisition, recare scheduling, and treatment plan value. Curve Dental's platform includes analytics dashboards that provide real-time insights into these metrics, allowing practices to identify trends, spot opportunities for improvement, and make informed decisions. By consistently monitoring these metrics dashboards, your dental practice can enhance operations, improve patient care, maintain financial health, and achieve targeted growth.
See how Curve Dental® can transform your practice into an engine of efficiency and growth. Schedule a personal demo and consultation today!