Formula 1.  # of periodic exams past six months 2.  # of active patients past two years #1 divided by #2 as a percentage Benchmark 70-80% The key to keeping patients active is educating them on what can happen if they do not proceed with their treatment or stay on their re-care schedule. Kevin Tighe, Cambridge Dental Consultants, Senior Consultant, got bitten hard by the business and marketing bug during long summer days working at his dad's Madison Avenue ad agency. After joining Cambridge as a speaker in the mid-1990s, Kevin went on to become Cambridge’s senior consultant and eventually CEO. Cambridge...

Practice owners often worry they will lose patients when dismissing certain staff. You may lose a few patients but concerns over patients leaving is almost always a red herring. If you do dismiss an employee, you and your staff should come up with a united and diplomatic way of informing patients who ask what happened. Do not say anything negative. Keep it simple such as, "Mary is on to new opportunities. We've found a wonderful replacement. Her name is Sally. You will like her very much". When dismissing an employee always preserve all written communication including texts and ensure you change...

1. Typically practice owners do not have or do not follow an effective hiring protocol as they are often in a hurry. Many successful practice owners follow the maxim “Hire slow, fire fast”. By doing so you increase the probabilityof hiring a “good employee”.  2. Hire for ATTITUDE is hiring Golden Rule #1. The right attitude cannot be taught. Everything else can be.   3. Interviews only give you an “outer-view”. You won’t really know if you have a winner until you see the employee in action over a period of time. If the employee does not meet expectations within 90 days, dismiss...

There are a lot of variables, but I think you'll find these numbers close to average plus or minus a few percentage points (based on collections): Staff: 25%Rent/upkeep, cleaning, etc: 5%Lab: 5%Dental Supplies: 5%Marketing, phones, etc: 10% Typically there are not too many places to cut costs other than payroll when it comes to the management of your dental practice overhead. In general payroll is the one area where the percentages are often too high. On top of that most practices are only producing at about 60% of what they could be doing. Consider this: A $10,000.00 monthly increase equals $120,000.00 per...