In the field of dentistry, production goals can help individuals and practices stay focused and motivated. Planet DDS delivers two solutions, Denticon Practice Management Solution and Apteryx Imaging XVWeb, to help practices in quantifying, defining, and reaching production goals. Through our integrated solutions, clinicians and staff can work towards clearly defined goals and focus on tasks that help them reach their individual and team goals.
Why Specific Goal Setting Works
Curiously, asking individuals to simply “do their best” is not the ideal way to spur employees to perform at their best. Instead, employees who are given clear goals are far more likely to outperform those who had no goals or were given vague goals. In fact, organizations that helped employees set clear goals were four times more likely to score in the top 25% of business outcomes.
By setting quantifiable goals (measurable goals) and defining tasks to achieve goals, employees have a clearer picture of their work. In setting goals, employees should be involved in the goal-setting process so they can commit to their goals. Employees must also believe that they can attain the goal as they will lose motivation if goals are unrealistic and therefore unachievable.
Another benefit of goal setting is that it drives accountability for individuals and across teams. Both at the individual and team level, clear goal-setting helps focus attention on tasks that lead towards achieving the goal. And lastly, visibility among employees helps team members work together towards unified goals.
Planet DDS Solutions Help Practices Reach Production Goals
Once you’ve set individual and team goals, there are multiple ways Planet DDS solutions can help you reach attainment.
1) Morning Huddle Dashboard
The Morning Huddle Dashboard in Denticon helps practices hold effective and invigorating morning huddles. In a single dashboard, team members can quickly visualize where goals were exceeded, areas of improvement from the day prior, view today’s schedule, and see how team members are tracking towards their goals.
Within the dashboard, you’ll first see the speedometer graph for the office, which shows you how the office is tracking towards its monthly goal. This high-level overview provides all team members with quantifiable goals for the team. It’s important for the entire team to see how their individual goal contributes to the office’s overall goal.
The Morning Huddle Dashboard also helps office managers track team member productivity and contribution to production goals based on role. They can see clinicians, including general practitioners, hygienists, and specialists, as well as receptionists, treatment coordinators, and more. Clinicians will be working towards their individual goals while treatment coordinators and receptionists are ensuring that patients are boosting acceptance rates and consistently scheduling recare appointments.
In the Yesterday’s Performance tab, teams can pinpoint what things went well and what areas could use improvement. For example, in the visual above, 17 patients were seen but only 11 were scheduled for treatment and three left without a next appointment. Here, it would be helpful to investigate what caused the missed opportunity and how the office can improve next time. Questions to ask include, is there a way to improve the case presentation and are we making sure that every patient is scheduling their next appointment?
In the Today’s Schedule tab, teams can quickly see what opportunities exist in today’s schedule with new patients and continuing care patients. This way, every staff member and clinician can prepare thoughtfully for their day. Additionally, it also shows scheduled production numbers for the next day and the day following. So as teams view these numbers, they can plan accordingly, filling gaps in schedules as needed to support goals over the upcoming three days.
And lastly, on the Where We Stand tab of the dashboard, you can view how the office is tracking month to date so team members know how they are performing based on various metrics such as new patients, continuing care exams, etc., compared to last month and year to date.
2. Automated Reminders
Coupled with the morning huddle dashboard, Denticon’s patient communications tool provides a powerful way for practices to reach production goals.
To revisit the above example, we see that two days from today is scheduled to be a high production day. Of course, this is an excellent opportunity for clinicians to exceed their daily goals, but because the appointments scheduled are likely more complex and time-intensive, it’s imperative that these appointments get confirmed in advance. The last thing you would want is to have 2 hours of the dentist’s time set aside, only to have that patient cancel at the last minute or not show up.
With Denticon’s patient communications tool, you can reduce cancellations and no-shows with automated reminders that go out based on customizable event triggers.
3. Integrated Imaging
Another way practices are better able to hit production goals is with our cloud-enabled Apteryx Imaging XVWeb. With imaging fully integrated with your practice management solution, the entire imaging workflow is streamlined for a better experience for patients and a more straightforward process for your staff. Once captured, images are viewable across offices or just across the hall depending on the size of your organization.
With faster imaging workflow, patients can receive case presentations immediately following their time with the dentist, increasing the odds that they will accept same-day treatment or at least make an appointment for the treatment.
And with XVWeb’s secure sharing portal, practices can seamlessly collaborate across offices, so patients have a frictionless experience even if they visit different offices. Images are available across locations and anywhere in the world via XVWeb.
The XVWeb integration allows practices to streamline portions of the patient appointment that were previously cumbersome to help boost case acceptance and production.
4. Smart Scheduling
Denticon also helps practices by defining what tasks should be focused on and completed to reach production goals.
One way that Denticon defines what tasks need to be focused on is through reports. An example is the treatment plan report, which allows practices to quickly see who has an outstanding diagnosis and accepted treatment but hasn’t yet scheduled an appointment. It’s helpful to run this report regularly since appointments may have fallen off schedule. Along with the patient communication tool, practices can quickly get patients back on the calendar.
To help practices stay focused throughout the day, Denticon also provides interactive checklists via SmartAssist. This ensures that all tasks that need to be completed (including scheduling next appointments and collecting payments), are checked off for every single appointment.
With robust scheduling tools such as online scheduling, multi-office scheduling, and family scheduling, Denticon helps offices not only keep schedules full, but also helps ensure that offices don’t experience feast or famine when it comes to appointments. And to make sure that next appointments are scheduled and payments are collected during each appointment, SmartAssist helps teams stay on track with a real-time checklist.
Hit Production Goals Faster with Denticon and Apteryx XVWeb
By utilizing Denticon and XVWeb, practices can stay focused and engaged each day.
The Morning Huddle Dashboard keeps all team members informed and motivated for daily and monthly goals. And with automated reminders, practices can reduce last minute cancellations and no-shows and avoid losing any scheduled production. Our integrated imaging solution XVWeb provides a streamlined experience to increase and accelerate case acceptance by patients. And lastly, with Denticon reports and SmartAssist, team members can stay focused and prioritize tasks to boost production.
With Planet DDS solutions, teams can stay motivated through the clarity that dashboards provide and goal-oriented by leveraging streamlined processes for reporting, reminders, imaging, and scheduling. Contact us for a demo to learn how our solutions can help you reach production goals faster.