Latest From Laura
Read the latest news & tips from Laura on how to improve your Dental Practice
DentistryIQ: Why Office Manuals Do Not Work
As Originally Published in Dentistry IQ on February 9th, 2021. Here is the problem with the idea of buying an operations manual “off the shelf”: Every office is different. Every business does things differently. Each task is done specifically the way that particular...
The Best Way to Train A New Dental Hire
When a new person is hired, typically the team is excited as it not only offers a new, fresh face to add to the team but it means additional help. The issue with the new fresh face is that when it arrives at your office, most of the team has not prepared for the...
How to schedule new patients when the schedule is booked out for months
QUESTION: My front desk team is having a hard time scheduling new patients right now because we are booked out so far. What can they say to these patients? ANSWER: Typically, we like to get new patients in as soon as possible. This is because we want to let them know...
I have never filed a medical claim, what steps do I need to take?
QUESTION: I have filed a claim with Delta Dental for an impacted wisdom tooth and they denied it because they want myself, the dentist, to file a claim with medical first. I have never filed a medical claim and I am not what necessary steps need to be taken. Please...
When should we hire back or replace team members?
Q: When should offices replace team members that have left because of child care, or other obligations, due to the effects of COVID 19 even though production/profits are down? A: Add team members as needed.... just like when a practice grows. There is no need...
How Do You Handle Patients with COVID Contact?
Q: We had a patient (nurse ) get very upset . We asked the COVID-19 screening questions when she came in and she answered that she saw a COVID-19 patient yesterday. We told her we couldn’t see her for the prophy until after 14 days or if she tests negative. She thinks...
Pre-Covid Schedule and 6 Months Out
Question: We have added about 4-5 hours per week, per hygienist to fit in urgent patients who missed an appointment while we were closed. I'm wondering if you would recommend that we schedule in 6 months with our pre- COVID 19 schedule, or plan on keeping this...
What should my team do during downtime?
Question: What should I have staff do during this down time? The office is slow staff has done a lot of cleanup of supplies and rooms already. Answer: If your team has opportunities (I don't like using the word down time) available during the day and you feel all...
How to still manage and monitor employees away from the office?
Question: "I'm an office manager. I want to see if Laura has a suggestion or a way to keep track of staff when the office manager is not on site? How to still manage and monitor away from the office?" Answer: If you have proper systems in place you should be able to...
New Patients During the Pandemic
I understand that right now we are all trying to survive and we are just in the moment trying to push through. We are hoping for things to get back to normal soon! You don't want to change the way we would handle our patients and the care that we provide for them....
How do I collect membership plan fees and keep my books organized?
Question: We have an in-house membership discount plan for patients without insurance where the patient pays $400 per year to get 2 cleanings, exams, etc. and 10% off dental work. We need to create a fee schedule for this plan so our books aren't all out of whack. As...
When calling a patient to confirm their appointment, what should I be saying?
Question:When calling a patient to confirm their appointment, what should I be saying? Answer from Coach Missy: Even before the pandemic, we had specific skills we used when confirming appointments -the type of appointment scheduled, repeating the date and time at...
Help: I’m afraid to ask my employee for feedback
Ask Laura: Help I'm afraid to ask my employee... Help! I am a doctor and I am afraid to ask my employee how she feels about certain things at our office, and with her job honestly, because I am afraid of what she will say. How do you suggest I have this conversation?...
Part 2: 6 Things To Consider Before Reopening Your Dental Practice
As dentists prepare to reopen their practice, there's going to be challenges. One thing you can control is how you plan to run your schedule. This post is a continuation from last week. If you missed tips 1-3 you can catch them here. I have outlined 6 things that we...
Post COVID19 Front Desk – What does it look like?
*** Special Edition *** Every week we answer individual questions from offices, but the below answer is a result of multiple offices asking about what a re-open looks like at the front office. Things will not be “typical” in the dental office when we ‘re-open’ our...
6 Scheduling Tips You Must Consider Before Business Returns to Normal: Part 1
How to Set Up the Dental Office Schedule For Opening Back Up Wow that elevated quickly, didn’t it? One week we are up and running with a very successful start of the year and the next week we are closed and not seeing any patients or very few, depending on the...
How to Explain “Out Of Pocket” & Limited Exams to Patients
Question: How can I explain to patients to pay for their limited exam out of pocket so they don't use up the periodic exam? I would like some tips on how to approach patients when it comes to paying out of pocket. Answer: It is important to know and understand your...
Sending Patient Statements: Tips for Collecting on AR and Balances
How to Send Statements and collect on Patient Balances - Without being the bad guy? In the dental office, we work really hard to do our best to verify patients' benefits. We enter the insurance correctly in the system. We get the most accurate estimate for the...
Do you have scripting to use when rescheduling patients?
Question: Do you have scripting to use when rescheduling patients? ANSWER from Laura Hatch: We are in a weird time where we are having to cancel a weeks worth of scheduled patients or they are cancelling on us, depending on the status of your office.
What Would Laura Do First
What Would Laura Do First? I have been an office manager during the good times and the bad times, and I can tell you that we always come out of it.
How to WOW dental patients with amazing customer service!
How to WOW dental patients with amazing customer service! Have you ever taken the time to see how differently your team members define ‘good’ customer service?
Dental office checklists: Your key to systems optimization!
Dental office checklists: Your key to systems optimization! Checklists in the dental office may not be the newest of ideas, however, we do see many teams implementing the use of checklists ALL wrong!
Before You Print Another Dental Office Training Manual Try these 5 Alternatives
Before You Print Another Dental Office Training Manual Try these 5 Alternatives. I was recently asked “Should office managers have a training manual?” when chatting with one of our members who was looking to hire their first office manager.
How to create amazing newsletters
How to Create Amazing Newsletters! I had a member recently ask me about communication with patients and what we should be communicating in letters and emails. It made me think about the value of sending newsletters to our patients and how important regular communication really is.
Is Craigslist a viable option to post a hiring advertisement for a new hygienist?
QUESTION: Is Craigslist a viable option to post a hiring advertisement for a new hygienist? ANSWER from Laura Hatch: Yes, you can still use Craigslist to post your job announcement; however, it shouldn’t be the only place you look for new employees when hiring.
What is assisted hygiene and does it really work?
QUESTION: What type of schedule have you seen work where the doctor incorporates assisted hygiene into their schedule? The reason they want to do this is because they are having trouble finding a good hygienist willing to see eight patients a day. They are in San Francisco and have a super competitive market for new employees. ANSWER: What assisted hygiene means is the hygienist works with a dental assistant so they can see more patients per day. In this type of schedule the assistant is doing part of the duties during the appointment.
Dividing Up Front Office Duties
Dividing Up Front Office Duties. What makes a great front office team member? The number one attributed skill is multi-tasking.
We want to offer something to parents/kids for referring friends to our office. Any great ideas you can share?
Question: We want to offer something to parents/kids for referring friends to our office. Any great ideas you can share? ANSWER: I will start by saying that since I have never worked in a pediatric office, I am not going to claim that I am an expert in this area, however, I do have some thoughts. What I am about to say on this subject pertains to all offices that are running some sort of a patient incentive program.
If I have two front office team members how should I divide the duties?
QUESTION: If I have two front office team members how should I divide the duties (receptionist/scheduler) and (treatment/insurance/financial coordinator)? ANSWER: How you divide those tasks can really be done in a couple of ways. Begin by identifying where each team member shines.