Dr. Dean C. Bellavia

1-716-834-5857

BioEngineering@twc.com

SCHEDULING & Tx Quality Control Pearls

SCHEDULING & Tx Quality Control Pearls

 

If you want a Smoother, more Productive Schedule,

 

the “Scheduling Design & Tx Quality Control Kit” may be of value.


Do you find it difficult to stay on schedule daily when dealing with early, late and emergency patients? If so, the 3-Step Decision Process can help you. *  It helps to have more chairs than assistants to be able to do the 2nd step above. **  You will need 1-3 Unit (typically ½ hour) “Hold” appointments in your daily schedule that are not given out until the day before or…

Do you have a well-designed daily schedule?  Whether you do or do not, you can still create a better patient flow.  This pearl can show you how.   Using a Clinic Traffic Cop: Whether you have a lighting system or not, a clinic traffic cop is very handy to have, especially when directing the doctor coming out of an exam or during high-volume time.  This person is typically the Clinical…

Is your office availability discriminating against certain patients?  Are your treatment days clashing with your time away from the office?  Do you reschedule your patients more than they appreciate?  Maybe this pearl can help resolve that.   Most of my clients use a Vertical Calendar and Rotational Schedule to get the best office utilization (in a multi-office practice) and availability (in a single- or multi-office practice).  If you are always…

  Does your treatment seem to fall behind on non-cooperative patients?  Are your patients and families upset because they are in treatment too long?  Are your referring dentists upset with not knowing how treatment is progressing?  If so, maybe this pearl can help.     With the advancements in braces and archwire technology there is a trend to have appointments as many weeks apart as possible.  This is good because…

Do too many of your patients find it difficult to cooperate during treatment?  Do you have a specific program in place to deal with this?  Do you have at least one clinical team member properly trained to make that program a success?  If not, maybe this pearl can help.   In general, there are three types of patients: 1) the many who naturally cooperate 2) the few who are naturally…

  Do your SOS & Emergencies Failures seem high (more than 5/day)?  Do your Missed and Cancelled appointments seem high (more than 8/day)?  Are you, or are your patients the cause of this?  Maybe this pearl can help you figure it out.   SOS patients (who show up to their appointment with a problem) and Emergency patients (who have a problem, but no appointment) not only wastes time and resources,…

  Have you tried using Indirect Bonding?  Do you think that it might be a good Idea?  Do you think that it saves DR-Tx-Time in your schedule?  If not sure, maybe this pearl can help.   Indirect bonding isn’t for everybody—some do very well with it and some can't seem to make it work.  So let's look into what might make it work or not.  Most people get into indirect…

  Is your Tx mechanotherapy giving you the ideal Tx results you desire?  Are your cases being completed in the least amount of chairtime?  Are your cases are being completed by their ECD (Estimated Completion Date)?  If you need to get your cases under better control, maybe this pearl can help.   Lets face it, making system changes in your practice isn’t typically met with great staff zeal.  But if…

  Do your Emergencies just show up, or do they call first?  Do you have a means of determining what kind of appointment to bring them in for?  Do you have problems finding an appointment for them?  Maybe this pearl can help you reduce the frustration of emergencies.     There are numerous types of emergencies requiring more or less chairtime and doctor time.  It is foolish to waste chairtime…

  Do you have many run-on patients?  Are some of your appointment intervals greater than 10 weeks?  Do you like to try new Tx Mechanotherapies?  If so, dental monitoring might help…maybe not.     Dental Monitoring is a new way to keep track of your patient’s treatment.  In general, keeping track of most patients is part of your service, but sometimes that can get out of control.  If your appointment…

  Have your patient visit communications suffered because of the pandemic?  Do the family want more information at their visits than they are getting?  Maybe this pearl can help improve your communications.   Pandemic social distancing and crowd cluster restrictions is taking its toll on practicing orthodontics today. In the "good old days" patients would walk in, brush their teetha and wait on-deck to be treated as their families waited…

Have you considered doing Teledentistry (virtual dentistry)?  Are you aware of how much your patients might appreciate it?  Do you think that it would be too difficult to set up in your practice?  Well maybe this pearl will help you to decide.   Schools are not the only hybrid social entity today, much of the world’s services are now hybrid (both electronic & in-person).  Most orthodontic services need to be…

Have you designed your Ideal Schedule yet?  Is it great or just adequate?  Maybe the 4th part of this series will help.     Dream Practice Odyssey - Part 4     View more of Your Practice Odyssey Videos   Your Practice Odyssey - Part-1: The Perils of Staffing   Your Practice Odyssey - Part-2: The Perils of Hiring & Training   Your Practice Odyssey - Part-3: The Perils of…

  Do you appreciate how much orthodontics has evolved over the past 50 years?  You should!  Are you aware of the latest trend of self-manufacturing your brackets and aligners in your own office?  Maybe this pearl can help you put the pros and cons of the changing face of orthodontics into prospective.   Over the 50 years that I’ve been organizing orthodontic practices there has been many changes, some pros…

  Do you know that patients are doing their own orthodontics using aligners?  Do you see this as a threat to your practice? Would your practice’s bottom line improve if you could purchase your aligners individually? Well, maybe this pearl can help you put this changing face of orthodontic aligners into prospective.   Over the 50 years that I’ve been organizing orthodontic practices there has been many changes; some pros…

Latest Management Pearl

  • Mindfulness, Part-5, Understanding Strong Socializers
    Is your spouse/mate or anybody close to you a strong (joyful) “scatterbrained” socializer?  Are you mindful of the true motivations behind what he or she says and does?  Does it create discord when you misunderstand his or her true intentions?  If so, maybe this pearl can help you to better understand their motivations so that you can live a less stressful coexistence.   Part-5 of this mindfulness pearl series will…