Ways a Dental Office can Improve Patient Flow

September 18, 2019, All Smiles Family Dentistry

Ways to Improve Patient Flow for Your Practice

Whether you're a chiropractor or simply offer medical services, the last thing you want to hear is that you're losing patients because they are finding your office to be disorganized and the wait times unbearable. If this has become a problem, there are a few ways for you to improve patient flow within your practice.

Patient Check-in
First, you need to streamline patient check-in, which means that you need to understand how long you expect to work with each patient who comes to see you. If you schedule too many patients in a short period of time, you're going to have a lot of frustrated patients seeking medical services who are waiting to be seen for possibly hours.

Decreasing Wait Times
You also need to decrease the amount of wait time that your patients have. This could mean losing a bit of work per day, but it results in happy patients because they are being seen on time. When you over-schedule, you leave yourself no time for longer appointments or emergencies. Especially as a dentist, you should still expect to have people who stay longer or come in for an emergency appointment.

Layout of Your Practice
Believe it or not, the layout of your practice can hinder or help patient flow. If there aren't enough chairs available, people are going to be left standing, which can be even more difficult if there is a long wait time to be seen. Make sure that the layout is conductive to patient flow and provides a homey experience.

Using Technology
There are tons of technology apps and programs that you can make use of for yourself that will help with both scheduling and patient flow. These programs can be opened so that you're able to view the patient's chart right then and there without finding paperwork. The scheduling software comes in handy to prevent you from seeing too many people in a short period of time.

Identify Problems
It is your responsibility to identify bottleneck problems in your practice and make adjustments accordingly. If you're noticing that on days you schedule a lot of patients, many of them are frustrated because of long wait times, you need to consider cutting back on the amount of people you're scheduling for that day. By doing this, you're ensuring patient satisfaction and true quality of your dental patients care as well.
 

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