Active Schedule Management

staceymcintosh848
Jan 23, 2022
5 min read

Updated: Mar 23, 2022

One Sentence Summary:

Doing the little things every day to make sure tomorrow and the next week are ideal with persistent and consistent effort.

Best Case Scenario If We Are All 100% Confident

We enjoy smooth, efficient, and productive days.
We understand what is a priority and move through the day with that in mind.
Not only do we know what to focus on but we know how - so the team is consistent.
It's easy to see where we've left off and what still needs to be done.

Worse Case Scenario If Some Of Us Are Not 100% Confident

Tasks don't get accomplished with persistency and consistency so the schedule falls apart.
We fall behind, patients wait and the staff gets agitated.
Open time is unproductive and we lose training opportunities for further growth and development.

What Does "100% Confident" Mean?

The daily active schedule managements checklist is being completed for Monday through Thursday every week, within a 2 day window.
We know and appreciate by being persistent and consistent it will help to increase production and revenue.
We can see by efficiently scheduling we can see more patients in less amount of time while staying productively busy.
We organically increase our internal office communication for optimal efficiency.

How Do We Know The Appointment Is Scheduled With The Proper Amount of Time?

The assisting department is help to ensure the proper amount of time is scheduled/provider.

Cheatsheet with provider times for types of appointments to come with some appointment types being standard across the board.

Should a provider request a time that does not fit with the "standard" a note will be made by the assistant on the appointment line. As well if the assistant requests additional time prior to or following the doctor's time, a notation will be made on the appointment line. This will help the front desk to understand what the clinic needs are and to ensure appointments do not get altered from the time requested.

Ancaster Office

Ashley - Dr. Ling & Dr. Mattina

Katherine - Dr. Bennett

Stephanie - Dr. Schneider

Note: This does not mean that the above assistant will primarily work with said doctor but they will help to be accountable for their schedule.

PRIORITIES & GOALS

Filling and confirming the Doctors schedule.
Filling and confirming the Hygienist schedule.

Followup should be customized for each patient/family. We have the information at our fingertips, it's important we take the time to enhance each and every patient interaction.

Attached you will find the Active Schedule Management Checklist with tasks listed in priority order.

Let's dive a little deeper into each task on the list...

Fill the Doctors Schedule

1A) Check hygiene patients for opportunities (Focus on the next 2 days out)

Doctors' schedules are the priority - we would rather have the Doctors productive and busy with hygiene downtime.
Audit the schedule to see if anyone scheduled for Hygiene has outstanding work to be completed.
How can we tell if patients have OS treatment to be completed?
- The week prior the hyg schedule is audited and appointments are marked with OPPORTUNITIES in the appointment line if applicable.
- OS night guards are easy add-ons day of in conjunction with patient cleaning.
- IF there is OS restorative, crowns, etc we want to call the patient to see if they are able to stay for this treatment as well or in lieu if time is an issue. Again, the Doctor's productivity and production is more important.

How to check for outstanding opportunities:

How to call a hygiene patient to see if they can also stay for outstanding treatment with the doctor:

1B) Confirmations 2 & 5 days out

The last thing we want to see is unconfirmed appointments. These appointments tend to have a higher last-minute cancel or no-show rate. We want to take the time to reach out and ensure the patients we have scheduled can make their appointment.

Reminder:

1. It's important when we reach out to confirm an appointment we make notes in the appointment line with the date, messages (this helps the next person in contact with them to know what has been done and where things were left).

2. The other thing that needs to be changed is the confirmation status. By doing this it changes the colour of the dot on the patient's appointment on the day sheet (this lets us know easily if the appointment has been confirmed)

1C) Check the ASAP list

This is a quick step on the list. Ideally, the ASAP list should be fairly short as it is fluid and constantly changing.

What makes the ASAP list work?

Being specific when adding a patient to the ASAP list.
Checking it daily for opportunities

How to add someone to the ASAP list:

How to check the ASAP list for opportunities

1D) Dental Intel follow-up

Things to keep in mind:

Patients that have OS treatment planned will automatically be entered into Dental Intel (not planned appointments but planned treatment)
Patients to be manually entered if/when canceled and not rescheduled (this prevents the patient from getting "lost").

Who enters them into DI? Whoever canceled the appointment.

When a note is created in Dental Intel, it will be added to the patient's OpenDental chart as well for easy reference.

Ideal follow-up sequence and verbiage:

Ideal follow-up letter regarding OS treatment: (to be printed to letterhead)

Dental Intel Basics:

1E) Moved booked patients up

Look out the next 2 weeks to see if any patients can be called and offered the sooner open time.

Things to keep in mind:

Let the patient know the Doctor was thinking of them and wanted to see if they were available.
Make a note on the appointment line if/when we reach out to offer this to the patient.
Also important to see if other family members are coming in or if the patient is double booked (these patients/appointment may not work to be moved up)

We don't want to continue calling the same person multiple days in a row - the only way we will know is by making a note.
If a patient requests a certain day or time - make a note on the appointment line as well - this way we know it was requested for whatever the specific reason (work, rbkd due to COVID contact, etc).

Now it's time to do the same for the Hygiene schedule!

Below you will find the same 5 areas of focus with just a few minor differences.

Fill the Hygiene Schedule

2A) Check Doctors patients for opportunities

Doctors' schedules are the priority - we would rather have the Doctors productive and busy with hygiene downtime, however, if the patient has time to stay for their cleaning - BONUS! If not we want to make sure we get an appointment on the books while they are in.
Audit the schedule to see if anyone scheduled in with the Doctor is due for their next cleaning.
How can we tell if patients are due for their next cleaning? Watch a few ways below

2B) Confirmations 2 & 5 days out

See 1B - the same protocol

2C) Check the ASAP list

See 1C - the same protocol

2D) Dental Intel follow-up

A few things to keep in mind for hygiene visits in Dental Intel.

If a patient is coming due and does not have a recall booked they will automatically populate in OD - 4 weeks prior to the "due date"
If a patient canceled their appointment and does not rebook they need to be manually added to Dental Intel (see how to manually add a patient to Dental Intel above, 1D).

Ideal follow-up sequence and verbiage for RC coming due:

Ideal follow-up sequence and verbiage for RC now past due:

2E) Moved booked patients up

Similar to moving a Doctor's appointment up, HOWEVER, the main thing is to make sure we are NOT offering patients to come in earlier than their "due date" (6 or 9 months as indicated in OD).