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Greater adherence to recommended care, better clinical care, and health care quality outcomes are associated with positive patient care experiences. It applies to all forms of health care including dental. A patient should have access to dental care when it is most needed. In that way, the patient scheduling process gains importance as it contributes to patient experience and overall satisfaction. Patients will stick on to a dental practice only when they get prompt appointments and needn't have to wait for long periods. Otherwise, it will lead to negative responses and reduced revenue.

The handling of patient scheduling has a direct impact on the overall performance of a practice. A hassle-free patient appointment process boosts the reputation and helps the practice gain more patients through the reference. Technology tools can be used to make scheduling an easy and smooth process for the patients.

• Online scheduling: Patients should be provided with the facility to book their dental appointments online. It helps them choose the most convenient time for consultation. Online booking can be either through your patient portal or through a mobile app. As all the patients won't be using an online booking facility, the practice staff has to make sure that online appointments are synchronized with appointments booked offline, i.e, through phone or in person.
• Digital intake form: Online booking can be accompanied by a pre-check-in facility to fill in details like patient health history, allergies, medications, insurance, and method of payment, etc. A digital intake form for the patient to key in all these details is a must in a comprehensive care system. This will considerably reduce the waiting time while the in-office visit happens.
• Appointment reminders: Patients need to be reminded of their scheduled appointments from time to time. For this pre-scheduled auto-reminder systems can be used to send out appointment reminders to patients via text or email. This system ensures the presence of the patient for consultation as per schedule eliminating no-shows. These no-shows have several adverse implications on a dental practice including poorer health outcomes for patients and disruption in your organizational workflow. Auto-reminder systems save precious time your staff otherwise have spent manually notifying patients through text or call.
• Automated recalling: All patients who require periodic appointments may not reschedule. For patients who require recurring or regular appointments, automated recalling systems are great. This can also be used to make the best out of healthcare-focused national observances by reaching out to patients to get their various screenings done, with some waivers and offers. This is done by sending automated emails and text to your patient base.

A practice needs to develop a scheduling policy that contains all the details like what happens with a missed appointment, canceling less than 24 hours prior, no-show fees if any, etc. The policy should be communicated to the patients in advance. The staff at the dental office need to be given advanced training to use and manage the technology used. The staff should also be thorough about the policies implemented so that they can explain it to the patients easily.

Recent studies have found that 44% of patients prefer online scheduling and paperless onboarding. This has encouraged dental practices to go for technological innovations that will boost their patient experience. The CS Enterprise from CareStack is one such example, purpose-built for dental enterprises to maximize efficiency through centralization, automation, and analytics. It is an enterprise-grade cloud-based practice management software with capabilities for centralization that will help to achieve the full potential inherent in scale. Its usage among practices results in lower no-show rates, increased capacity to see patients, better patient adherence, and above all higher revenue.

With dental practices getting back to business navigating through the effects of COVID-19, the change that was brought in a matter of months has been found quite hard to adapt with. But the only way to figure out this change is to get deep into it, step with the times and make a successful recovery. 

After COVID-19 transformed the way dental practitioners perform, many of you certainly have a lot going through your minds right now from your patients’ safety and convenience to the retention and acquisition of patients and practice revenue. With the new protective guidelines laid out, you would be hesitant to apply them in your practice as you might not really be sure on how they are going to affect your practice; both financially and professionally. But, the best way to be ahead of the curve is always to phase out and finish with assurance because the next normal in dental care is definitely not going to be the one we are leaving behind us. 

 Outlining the recovery plan for your dental practice

 With 93% of dental providers expecting the changes in the dental industry to be long-term, a new strategic recovery plan is of great importance to your practice’s survival. According to ADA, strategic planning is usually created to review the practice history and to use the relevant information to identify what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how it needs to be done to ensure a successful future. Thus, the strategic recovery plan should be kept simple and focused to prioritize the three core players in your practice journey: Patients, Staff, and you; the dental practitioner. 

• Patient Management

With the safety of your key stakeholder at bay, the disruption of the dental industry is real and long-standing. The reduced patient visits to dental providers are a raising concern. As a solution to this, dental providers are shifting rapidly to telehealth platforms to offer routine dental services. 27% of the dental providers are currently consulting their patients through telehealth platforms while 13% of them are soon expected to take up teledentistry. 

The increased interest in teledentistry is not just concentrated for the providers. With the very low upskill time for using this alternative, around 44% of patients are preferring online scheduling and paperless onboarding to face-to-face appointments. With an all-in-one telehealth software, you can fix your practice hours and allow patients to schedule their appointments, collect their medical history and every other relevant information digitally without much hassle. You can also engage with your patients through high-quality video conferences, documenting the clinical notes using odontograms and smart notes. With the curbside check-in feature that teledentistry offers the patients can check-in for appointments and fill out intake forms from the safety of their vehicles, making the front desk tasks contactless and convenient. 

For these reasons implementing a telehealth platform as a part of your recovery plan is an excellent step to maintain patient retention and appointment volume in these challenging times.  

• Safety practices for your staff

It has always been important for dental practices to have a requisite number of PPE, gloves and surgical masks. With COVID-19, these items have gone high in demand, reserving them more for the dental practitioners. But, the guidelines insisting PPE protocols for the front-desk staff is making it hard to get hold of enough supplies. At the same time, the safety of the staff are cornered as they have to be in direct contact with patients coming through the clinic doors.  

Implementing virtual scheduling addresses all of the above challenges in no time. With improved communication in real-time and pre-planning the appointments, you can schedule to minimize the visits of your patients, thereby reducing the amount of staff-patient interactions. (and of course the unnecessary use of PPE) 

Virtual scheduling can also help the staff to answer the patient's queries via text messages; whether it’s a follow-up on the treatment or a change in the next schedule. They could efficiently handle them with a few taps on their tablets or PCs. This reduces the number of pointless patient visits to the clinic. 

• Revenue Cycle Management

As the owner of the dental practice, your revenue goals play an important role in the recovery plan. It’s time that you focus more on your patients and overhead cost control than worry about claims management and patient collection. Do away with the traditional ways of conducting your practice and shift to a cloud-based dental practice management software; your all-in-one solution to maximize revenue, growth and operational efficiency.

Dental practice management software offers a multitude of remote features that includes HIPAA compliant billing, online forms, electronic pay per claims, analytics and much more, and all you have to do is take advantage of these practice management products available to help you navigate smoothly through the turbulent times. 

As you lay the last phase of your recovery plan streamline your workflow with efficient practice management systems to reach the maximum potential of the practice owned. Implement the best products available in the market and optimize your practice to be super-efficient to quickly recover from any unexpected downturns. Set targets to increase the practice capacity, case acceptance, and patients appointments to double your revenue as the synergistic effect of these works magic on your profit. 

There is no “return to the normal” 

It’s not the first time that a global pandemic is affecting the dental industry. If it was AIDS in 1980, it is COVID-19 in 2020 and maybe some other contagious disease in the coming years. But the opportunity that they present still remains the same for you. The key is always to keep your dental practice resilient and future-proof that it doesn’t get attacked unexpectedly. As former President Barack Obama had once said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.” It’s just a matter of time and getting hold of the right products that would seamlessly integrate your practice workflows into a flawless well-established model.