Is Your Practice Performing?

I've had the priviledge of working with many dental practices: pre-startup to multi-location decamillion dollar operations. A common theme of any healthy business is understanding the numbers.

In this article, we are exploring the "ideal" private practice numbers based on U.S. averages for general dental practices. Continue reading for opportunities to gain access to practice benchmarks, fee analysis per zipcode, and more. Think of these numbers as a potential indicator of practice success and not as a limitation. Practice success can look different based on various factors such as geographical region, offered services, and types of revenue streams accepted (PPO, HMO, fee for service, and state funded programs). Feel free to reach out to discuss unique situations regarding practice numbers.

3 Key Metrics for Discussion

Note: The following benchmark numbers and hygiene calculator are courtesy of Patterson Dental.

Hygiene

• Hygienists can see 800-1,000 patients on a full time schedule every six months.
• Hygiene production should be 1/3 of total practice production
• 30-33% of hygiene patients should have periodontal needs
• 80% of patients should be seen on time, not overdue
• 96% of patients should be rescheduled before leaving the office

Below is an example of a hygiene calculator that can determine how many hygiene days required to support the patient load and/or the number of patients required to support the hygiene schedule.

Please consider subscribing to access the free Practice Hygiene Calculator

Doctor Production

• 900-1000 patients in hygiene can support one doctor
• 60% of patients should have some diagnosed treatment need with doctor
• 75% of patients with treatment needs should be scheduld in office to keep the schedule full
• Case Acceptance is typically 70%
• Doctor schedule should not exceed 3 week bookings
• Average hourly production is $350 in the U.S.

General Practice Numbers

• Each operatory can produce $250K
• Collections should be 96%+ of net production
• Accounts receivable (AR) should not exceed one month average practice production
• AR over 90 days old should be less than 10% of total AR

Know Your Numbers

Discussing challenges with colleagues and local business resources can be a great method for improving the practice.

We always recommend pulling the folliwng reports:

• Active patient base
• Overdue hygiene patients
• Accounts Receivable totals
• Procedures by provider (evaluate current procedures and potential to add)
• Production
• Collections
• Adjustments
• Fee schedules

If open to discussion, please consider completing the Practice Profile. Based on this we can provide suggestions and a UCR fee analysis based on the practice zip code. We help boost practice production by evaluating the numbers, setting goals, and providing the necessary resources. There is no charge for this service since we participate in growth only when our clients succeed. Below are instructions to pulling reports from various practice management softwares which will help with the Practice Profile. Thank you for reading and consider subscribing to access the free Hygiene Calculator.

Contact

Ben Holguin
Call/Text: 714-560-3472
Email: contact@thedentalrocket.com

Thank you for subscribing to The Dental Rocket! Below is the Hygiene Calculator that can help when considering hygiene days required to support patient base or number of patients required to add more hygiene days.