8. Continuous Care

In dentistry, we have the opportunity to access "repeat business." This is done through a comprehensive continuous care program that provides several wonderful opportunities:

• To excel the level of care for patients.
• To help patients understand the "how" and the "why" of excellent home care.
• To expand the dental education of patients.
• To repeat the need for restorative dental treatment.

The key to learning is repetition. Each and every time a person comes to the practice for continuous care, the restorative needs that have been left untreated can be reinforced. It is critical that several different teaching methods be implemented. Different people learn in different ways. Therefore, during each continuous care visit, reintroduce the need for the restorative care - and use a different approach, a different "sense," a different teaching aid.

An excellent computer program that enables you to retain your continuous care patients lets you gather and retrieve the following information:

1. Basic Data (name, birthdate, home phone, work phone, address, guarantor)
2. Insurance information (if appropriate)
3. Interval between appointments
4. Length of time necessary for the appointment
5. Hygienist providing the care
6. Date of last appointment and date due, or
7. Appointment date and time (if pre-appointed)
8. Comments

All of the above information is critical for excellent hygiene retention. However, the last item, "Comments" is, perhaps THE most critical marketing tool when it comes to retaining patients in your hygiene program and in your practice.

Included in the paperwork that is completed by the hygienist and delivered to the business staff should be a brief note stressing an area of concern or a specific need. This will give the person making those hygiene retention telephone calls (or appointment confirmation calls) relevant data that will help them to "individualize" their communication with the patient. For example: "Bleeding on the lower left," or "Co- therapy needs more attention," or "Inflammation between #11 and #12," etc.

With this information at her fingertips on the computer screen, the person making those all important calls will get a better response, a better acceptance rate. The patients will recognize that she is not merely calling a bunch of names off of a list, but rather that she knows something about them and is calling with a specific purpose. The ability to make these positive "tele-relations" calls will generate more productive results.

9. Insurance Marketing

We so often hear about "patients falling through the cracks." This does happen and all these marketing suggestions will help to plug those cracks. However, one such "plug" that is often overlooked is tracking the information of patients who have dental insurance.

Many dental software programs will provide not only the benefits available for a particular insurance plan, but they will also track such information as: (1) The patient's deductible - has it been paid; (2) Maximum benefits per year; (3) Remaining benefits per year per patient; and (4) Patients who have 100% coverage for preventive care. (These patients can receive specific types of marketing letters, notices, and telephone calls encouraging them to utilize this fantastic benefit.)

In addition, pre-determination of benefits needs to be tracked, so that the length of time since submission can be monitored. Careful follow-up on these pre-determinations could make a difference as to whether or not a patient proceeds with treatment. Only 50% of the people who receive a predetermination go ahead with the dentistry. Therefore, do appropriate follow-up on these patients.

Comprehensive insurance management in your software program is essential. Modern programs like Dentrix, Eagle Soft, IDT, Practice Works, and many others will track the amount of available coverage and will keep a running total of used and available benefits per patient. Valuable information!

Another way to market your insurance patients via your computer is to do the following: (1) In October, write and send a letter to your patients who have dental insurance and remind them of the fact that the end of the year marks the end of their insurance benefits for that year. Encourage those patients who have needed or desired dentistry to call the practice to schedule an appointment to proceed with that treatment so they do not lose that year's benefits. (2) Then, in January, notify your insurance patients - either through a newsletter article or through a special mailing - that January marks the beginning of the new year's benefits. Encourage them to proceed with a treatment plan that may have been on hold awaiting the new opportunity for insurance coverage.

10. Diagnosed Dentistry

It has been said that there is more dentistry sitting in the charts than most dentists have performed in their practicing life. Therefore, tracking, monitoring and following up on those treatment plans is, without question, the single best thing your computer can do to help your practice grow.

Most systems allow you to enter treatment plans. Do this without fail! Then you will be able to do search routines that will identify patients who need treatment but who have that diagnosed treatment sitting in the charts waiting to be done.

You can be very specific with these search routines, i.e., patients who've had crowns diagnosed within the last two months and who have insurance that covers approximately 50% of the investment. When the names, addresses, telephone numbers and recommended treatment appear on your print out, you can begin a very concentrated telephone campaign to these patients to further educate them and to encourage them to schedule that appointment.

This is only one example of the type of treatment plan that can be accessed. You can imagine numerous other opportunities. Gathering this type of vital information will give you access to patients who want and need the treatment but may have been delaying it because of insurance, time, family obligations, and so on. Not only will this information make it possible for your scheduling coordinator to "engineer" your days to a specific production goal, but it will give her a wonderful resource to fill voids in the schedule.

Filling one void in the schedule per day can have an overall impact on your practice that may be better than any other marketing task you can do. Broken appointments and no-shows or other types of "voids" in your schedule can prove financially devastating and can cause a tremendous amount of stress for everyone on the team. The opportunity to fill those voids is right within your own files.

Earl Nightingale said, "Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity." So, be prepared! Create your own opportunities. Successful marketing can be obtained through careful, precise use of a dental computer, it all depends on how you use the system. It can be a powerful marketing tool.
Now - JUST DO IT!