Five Departments
Dragging
Your Practice practice management
There . I said it . Underproducing departments are dragging your practice down . There are five main departments , along with a host of other small departments , that need to be running well in order for your practice to continually be successful year after year . Let ’ s look at the core five .
DOWN
by Bethany Petty , MS , MA
1
Marketing plan . First , you must have a marketing strategy in place that yields results . Marketing should be a regular part of the budget , and time should be invested in it every month . Your plan can be simple or it can be extravagant , but either way it needs to occur consistently and creatively . Marketing plans should include a healthy mix of external print media , internal referral strategy , professional referral strategy , and social media content . New patients are essential to the livelihood of your practice .
2
Treatment presentation . Second , you must have a robust treatment presentation strategy . No matter the specialty , you need patients to accept and move forward with treatment . Most practices fail to study patient personalities , current consumer marketing strategies , economic trends , and internal branding . It is worth the time it takes to study the current marketplace and to study your own beliefs behind your treatment recommendations . I don ’ t ever like to see treatment acceptance fall below 75 % acceptance , no matter the specialty . I challenge you to do the math – see how much your practice could benefit from these numbers . It just might astound you .
3
Patient retention . Third , you must have a patient retention strategy in place . There is no sense spending time and money to pursue new patients if you cannot get them to accept and follow through with treatment and then maintain some residual relationship with you . In some cases , the post-treatment relationship may only be positive reviews and referrals . Either way , the office should be monitoring its ability to keep a positive relationship with patients . For general and pediatric practices , the goal is an absolute minimum of 90 % retention , meaning 90 % of the patients due for regular recall each month make appointments and keep them . For the remaining specialties , the measurements of success in this department vary .
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