The dental practice has been regarded as a highly stressful and demanding profession. When running a clinic especially; there are several aspects that need to be taken care of simultaneously, which can be really difficult. While meeting the needs of the dental practice; focusing on increasing productivity is relegated behind due to excessive focus on fulfilling current needs. However, increasing productivity is something that should not be taken lightly. It can benefit your work practice in numerous ways.
With increased productivity, tasks are done faster with greater efficiency, thereby producing greater output for the lesser or the same amount of work. It can rid you of stress and keep you prepared for what may come.
But how exactly do you increase productivity in your workspace? Here we have collated a few ways to do so. Read on to know!
1. Ensure the office design facilitates enhanced efficiency
The layout of the workspace pretty much dictates the operations. Make sure the design of your clinic is not just aesthetically pleasing but also serviceable. When everything is arranged in a way that it offers the best access to required tools and helps carry out a task optimally, productivity will certainly increase.
Additional to this; the design is very important when it comes to dental services as patients are anxious about dental treatments. Even the sound of tools being operated and the overall clinical setting can stress them out and cause issues when you treat them, thereby impacting your productivity.
Therefore, make sure the clinic décor is such that the patients feel relaxed. Make the environment welcoming, put on soft music, have ample space, and avoid cramming. You can also custom design the space according to the requirements of your staff. Make sure you renovate from time to time.
2. Streamline patient intake process
In today’s world too, if you are stuck to using the paper-pen method to record patient intake; you are lagging behind the competitors and falling back on efficiency. It’s high time you incorporate modern technology and make use of integrated software solutions that undertake the manual task for you and work with greater accuracy while rendering you immense convenience. The data on software is secure and therefore, remains confidential. This will also prove beneficial when storing information on dental payments.
3. Work on telephone interactions and communication with patients
Communication is an essential part of every business. You need to communicate proficiently and maintain transparency as that will lead to impression formation in the patients, thereby laying the foundation for further process. Ensure your staff is well-trained and follows the telephone etiquette to convert a person into a potential patient. The better you communicate, the greater number of patients you can lure in and retain, which makes effective communication with patients a vital component to increase productivity.
4. Make use of automated billing
Manual billing is not an easy task; especially if you have a high patient inflow. It is prone to error and very laborious as well. This is why you need to adopt automated dental billing solutions. When the billing task is undertaken by dental billing software, your staff can actually focus on other tasks thereby improving productivity. Automation can significantly reduce workload by handling data of cash flows, member information and so on.
5. Ensure front desk and clinical staff members work collaboratively
For your business to achieve great heights, it is essential that the team works cohesively with comradeship. Differences of opinions cannot be eliminated, however; collaborative work can easily tackle and minimize the chances of disagreements.
To foster collaborative work, you can organize team-building activities, conduct morning meetings or weekly meets, offer training and so on. Transparency, communication and sharing of views among the team members are crucial components of productivity. With each team member aware of the shortcomings and requirements; many brains can come together to formulate strategies for growth and actually work together to achieve it.
6. Make sure you have all the necessary inventory
Without the required inventory, you will face complications from time to time. Therefore, it is always a good idea to equip your dental treatment rooms with all the vital instruments. Stay updated with the recent developments and bring in superior quality material as it is a worthy investment into your business.
7. Be open to patient suggestions and recommendations
The easiest way to improve productivity is to listen to what your audience desires and deliver them the best of it. For this, it is indispensable to be open to patient suggestions and recommendations even if these take up negative forms in terms of criticisms. You must take them as a valuable source of information to improve and work on them. You can voluntarily ask for feedback so you know your shortcomings and can work on them.
As production goes up, so does the practice. By skimming through the article, you must have understood that there is no one set way to improve productivity and you really have to focus acutely on every postulate of your dental practice. As long as you are determined to work hard and succeed, you are good to go!
