Chesterfield Family Dentistry Sees a 99% Patient Collection Rate with Help from Dentrix
Let the Numbers Speak
$19,302
Gross Production Per Day
99%
Patient Collection Rate
88
New Patients Per Month
Challenge
Chesterfield Family Dentistry, a family-based, multi-generational practice, has partnered with Henry Schein for decades. When Erin Silva, Chesterfield Family Dentistry Practice Administrator, and her husband took over the practice 10 years ago, implementing Dentrix seemed like a no-brainer. As the practice continued to grow, though, the team realized they needed more support to reach their goals.
Solution
When Chesterfield first turned to Henry Schein One's Dental
Consulting and Practice Advisor solutions, they immediately noticed a big difference in how they ran their practice. "That was huge for us. We didn't realize how much we didn't know until we started that process," said Silva.
The team would meet with their consultant and identify areas of opportunity, then schedule a study to really zone in on team training. Among other opportunities, they found they weren't utilizing clinical note templates and would benefit from changing their re-care process.
Results
Chesterfield Family Dentistry has seen dramatic results now that they're able to pinpoint specific opportunities they've identified with their consultant.
"Our industry's changed, and it's harder and harder to be a successful private practice owner. With reimbursement rates as low as they are, with wages as high as they've been, practices have no choice but to monitor the numbers," said Silva. "Most dentists don't know how to run a business. And if they do have a business mind, they need tools to help guide them to where to put their resources, both financially and mentally, to grow the practice."
Improved accounts receivable
The practice discovered their AR was not where it needed to be because it required a more personal touch. Their outsourced billers had access to the same information the staff did in Dentrix, but they didn't have the same understanding of patients' personal lives. "It seems weird to say patient AR numbers on an advisor report has actually made us better at offering better customer service to our patients, but that's the truth," said Silva.
Deeper insight into patient profitability
Staff also used Practice Advisor to identify where they were falling short on treatment plan acceptance. More specifically, they realized they needed to look closer at doctors' production per new patient outside of the patient value in regard to acquisition and referral source. They now look specifically at how much they're treatment planning for each new patient and comparing it doctor to doctor - all of which is trackable in Practice Advisor.
Increased hourly production
When the Chesterfield team told their consultant they wanted to focus more on increasing hourly production, their coach really started drilling into what that looked like and found their Practice Advisor settings were off. Once the settings and parameters were correct, it was easy to see they were working very hard but not as smart as they could.
One of the ways they've discovered to work smarter is by using Dentrix's block scheduling tool. This has helped them increase their hourly production across the board.
Smarter marketing spend
Before Practice Advisor, the team always knew their value per new patient, but now they can break down the value of each patient by referral source. Because they can compare acquisition cost in that same referral source, they can easily determine if that's a business relationship they want to continue from a marketing perspective.