How many active patients do you really have?

This number is at the top of your list when you’re buying or selling an existing Practice.  Why is that?  It is a value of the “possibilities”.  An accurate number tells you how much you can reasonably bank on in recall production.  An accurate number helps determine staffing levels, hours of operation, and a whole host of other data.  The assumption is that the number may not be accurate, because that is the norm in the industry.

Take a quick look at your numbers to determine how accurate they really are.  This won’t get your numbers accurate, but it will give you an idea of how far off you are, then the hard work begins.  Much like we preach to our patients, it’s all in the maintenance.  Keeping your data accurate will only happen if you work at it each and every day.

A rough number can be achieved in the following manner:

Example:  2000 “Active Patients” in your Practice Management Software

Many are on 4 month recall, but to simplify the process to get a snapshot only, multiply that number by 2 (2 recall appointments per year) which will be 4000 recall opportunties.  Some patients come in 3 times a year, and a few come in once a year.  On balance, estimating with 2 x yearly provides a reasonably accurate snapshot.

Days of operation and average number of hygiene patients per hygiene column- 4 days per week, with 1 full time hygienist, who typically sees 9 patients a day (4×9=36 per week) (36 x 51 full weeks assuming 4 business days closed=1836 hygiene appointment availability.  Edit the numbers based on how many hygienists you have, and how many days your Practice is closed.

Either you need 2164 hygiene appointments opened immediately, or your Active Patient number is highly inaccurate.  I’ll bet it’s the latter, and I’m sure you’ll agree.  What this tells you is that you likely have half the active patients your data tells you to. 

Why is this important? 

• Retention rate is determined by an accurate number and if you don’t know who you’re keeping and losing, none of the numbers are meaningful.
• An accurate number tells you if you are truly building your practice, or treading water without knowing it.  You may be increasing your production through treatment diagnosed and done, but if you’re losing your patients, that well will dry out and you’ll be left scrambling.  Most of the time the activity is focused on bringing in new patients, never pausing to stop the outflow of old ones. 
• Accurate data in this area gives you a wealth of information- what is your demographic?  If the majority of your actual active patients are between 10 and 14, would you market your practice in a different way than if they were between 45 and 60?  Would your website be different than it is now?  Did you lose or gain patients at a more rapid rate when you added or lost a Team Member?  Are patients voting with their feet in or out of your Practice?  How will you know if you don’t track it?

The very first thing that I do when I begin to work with a Practice is also the most time consuming part.  I take the mass of data and begin to whittle it down to accurate information, which can be worked with.  There will typically be dozens and dozens of patients who should have been inactivated or deleted a long time ago.  I begin this process before I make the first call because the data I will depend on to judge who to contact must be reliable.  Your Practice Management Software program will create inaccurate reports because the data that is being filtered is inaccurate.  This work in essence, is a freebie when I do it, because I don’t get paid on accurate data- I get paid on scheduled treatment.  Establishing more accuracy in your data is a bonus for you- maintaining it is crucial, and I will show you how to do that in-house at the end of my work with an office.

Inactivated because they moved, they requested their records to go to another dentist nearby, they broke the last 5 appointments at the last minute, and they no-showed to the 2 before that.  They took 18 months and 18 statements to pay that $25.00 balance.  They died.  Deleted because they called to schedule an appointment 2 years ago, never showed up, and didn’t respond to follow-up calls.  They were given a patient number and they’ve sat there in your Active Patient reports ever since. 

If your Active Patient data is inaccurate, your other barometers aren’t helpful.  One rule of thumb is this- if your Active Patient number is inaccurate, your Unscheduled Treatment is either not being followed up on at all, or as effectively as it could be.  The process of following up should be prompting inactivations or deletions as these names come up in reports.  If you have a huge Active Patient number and a large Unscheduled Treatment report, you do not just have cracks in your systems, you have caverns.  Fortunately, after a lot of hard work and research, this can be corrected and the data can be kept accurate from that point on.  Knowing how many patients you have, who they are, and if they are following through with treatment recommendations is one of the most important things you can do to build a foundation for accurate, trackable, and sustained growth.