Commitment To Retaining Patients Through Chart Audits

Every dental office should review the sales generated for the previous year. Often they are surprised to see that their sales are supported in large part by repeat customers. On average, repeat patients contribute 60% of annual revenue to practices but marketing campaigns are often focused on getting new patients. Many doctors spend one dollar attempting to retain patients for every $6 spent attracting new patients. Once you have secured a new patient what is your practice doing to convert them to loyal patients? Satisfied patients will leave. Loyal patients become the lifeblood of the practice. There are many tactics that make marketing to your repeat patients easy, affordable and effective.

The chart audit and reactivation is one of the most vital systems for the business. We have seen passive administrative teams helped by understanding the value of being assertive. The results are extraordinary both in patient satisfaction, who does not like to have someone check in on them? But the gross profits can double in a short period of time if you have a team committed to keeping track of EVERY patient.

A healthy chart audit system and reactivation process will allow your office to maintain those patients that have forgotten that oral health is an integral part of overall wellness. And it is an opportunity to get the level of oral health they deserve. Benefits to the business include profitability, and aiding in the cost of overhead. If you can maintain the customers that you already have, then the business will not have an increased need to solicit new patients at a much higher cost than maintaining your current patients.

We know of a practice that had 3.5 million dollars of untreated care. They decided to spend $8000.00 a month in external marketing. This practice was unwilling to take a look at their current reality and really become honest with their sales process. We practically begged them to look at their sales systems vs. throwing money into external marketing. Why throw money into bringing a bunch of new patients through the front doors only to loose most of them out the back door?

With a practice that has a lot of physical charts but a low number of ACTIVE patients mean that every aspect of the business needs to be looked at. No department should go unchecked. Are patients leaving due to your lack of communication, poor case presentation, fees, hygiene experience, poor financial agreements? The list can go on and on and cost the doctor their retirement.

The goal of a chart audit is to reactivate those patients that are coming back and inactivate those that are not. A chart audit is simply accomplished by utilizing a clip board with a chart audit form on it that is moved thru the charts as the clients are called. As an office you must determine who has the best influencing skills to accomplish the task, this individual can be responsible for the call, and the rest of the team can pull the charts and do the due diligence for the call. After two calls, if you have not heard back from the patient then the chart can be given to a designated team member to send out the first reactivation letter. This letter serves as a tool to eliminate those patients from the system that choose to get care elsewhere. If a chart is inactivated, the doctor must sign off on the chart that he or she is aware of the situation and agrees with the inactivation and archiving of the customers record.

Reactivation is simply getting those patients into the schedule that have missed an appointment or has treatment needs that were not scheduled. These calls can generally be preformed utilizing the reports from your software and making notes in the journal areas in regards to the phone conversation. It is important to make detailed notes in a designated area of the chart or software so that the next team member that works on reactivation will know the details of any contact that was made.

In order for the chart audit and reactivation process to be successful, you must decide who will be responsible for the system and how the team will accomplish the task consistently. An agreement must me designed for the chart audit and reactivation system. The agreement must contain the desired outcome.

1. Have a source person
2. A quantity of charts or calls to be completed daily
3. A way to track your results

Good luck and happy auditing!

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