How's Your Hygiene?

"My hygienist is producing around $1,200 per day and getting paid around 35% of that. We never have cancellations or no-shows, and they have most of my patients sold on a treatment plan before I even walk in the room." - Seymore Green, DDS

If your practice is like most others, you probably can't relate to doctor Seymore. In general hygiene programs are not functioning at optimal levels, and thus neither providing the collections for hygiene you need, nor supplying you with the referrals you should be getting out of them.

Hygiene is an under-used and sometimes misunderstood tool. A good hygiene program really has two aspects: the mechanical (utilization) and the clinical (professional).

Mechanical: According to Linda O'Grady and Valerie Williams of Advanced Hygiene Concepts hygiene appointment cancellations (one per day per hygienist) can cost you anywhere from $20,000 to $80,000 per year, depending on how many hygiene days you have in your office. This is pretty alarming, and a pretty good reason to give your hygiene department all of the attention it needs.

Another thing to consider, speaking of utilization, is how many hygiene days you actually need in your practice. O'Grady and Williams have come up with this simple formula:

(click image to enlarge)

This is based on a four day work week, four weeks of vacation and active patients being those seen in the last two years. This chart may seem optimistic, but it's possible!

Clinical: This is the aspect of your hygiene program that can really boost the profitability of your practice as a whole. Are your hygienists routinely probing pocket depths on each visit? Do they feel as though they need to do more than the “standard of care” during a normal prophylaxis because they finally got the patient in and have to do everything they can? Do they educate the patients during the appointment so that your treatment planning is better accepted? Are you diagnosing the periodontal health of your patients regardless of their insurance? If you answered no to any of these questions, your hygiene department can be doing more to help your practice.

One huge key to success in your hygiene program (as well as your practice) is patient education! If patients really know the ramifications of letting periodontal disease go untreated, they will be happy to accept (and pay for) the appropriate treatment they need.

So, don't let your hygiene program go by the wayside! Use it to its fullest potential and you will enjoy a lot of success in your practice!