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Business analytics for dental practices

We have re-imagined business over the past two decades. What used to be human-centric has now become data-driven. You will notice this difference when you walk into any bank. But, why has this change happened in every industry across the world? Data-driven decisions and analytics have produced results in increasing the efficiency of almost every industry it touched. Thus business analytics for dental practices comes into the picture.

Are Dental Practices an exception? Dental practices are no exception, but the industry has been facing problems so far due to the lack of standardized systems and technology that are integrated enough to capture data from every point in the operating cycle. Most legacy systems are software installations at each workstation that work independently of each other.

Parameters like check-in to check-out times, claims-to-payment time, collection efficiency, and revenue from marketing campaigns help you improve gaps in practice efficiency, but analyzing this data becomes difficult with independent systems at each department. This is why practices who want these details need to make use of 3rd party analytics and data consolidation platforms.

There is vast room for improvement in the way data is handled in dental practices.

How can new generation practice management systems help? New practice management systems are cloud-based and work with every device, whether it is a pc, tablet, or mobile device with the same functionality and convenience. This increases the number of points in your practice where the practice management system is implemented, exponentially increasing the amount of data collected and the inferences that can be drawn from them.

Always choose a cloud-based practice management system that caters to all functions of your practice and has integrated customizable analytics, with features such as:

Data mining and extraction Data is available at every point of your practice. It has always been there. However, it has never been utilized because of a lack of a system to collect, organize, and report this information. Newer cloud-based practice management systems running at every terminal in your office make this process simple. Regular tracking of data points and necessary feedback naturally brings efficiency.

Custom reporting Not all information is relevant to everyone. Displaying the right information to the right person at the right time goes a long way in achieving meaningful results. Custom reporting allows users to decide the parameters for generating custom reports that cover all the different and complex aspects of the practice. Such statements can also be automatically generated on a weekly or daily basis.

Personalized dashboards It is not only crucial that the right information is available to you and your team, but also equally important to ensure the information is presented simply that every member of your team can understand and track. With modern practice management systems, you can create personalized data-rich visual dashboards to keep users focused on their goals and metrics.

KPIs and drill-downs So, what do you do when some metric you are following is not performing as expected? The first step, just like with a dental patient, is to understand the problem and its etiology. Drilling down into the components of these metrics allows you to understand the root cause of the problem and know where to look to find a solution. Practice management systems with advanced analytics capabilities allow users to drill down to multiple levels of granularity to enable them to understand their KPIs better.

Trends If you follow the number of patients visiting your practice daily, it shows you how you are performing now. But, how will you know what to expect going ahead? To predict the potential gains and losses in the future, it is necessary to track how these metrics are changing over time. You should identify trends and patterns influencing patient behavior at multiple locations over a period and fine-tune practice workflows accordingly.

Goal setting and tracking Finally, every operation in your practice is run by people and not numbers. Human beings need motivation and aim to work tirelessly. Create goals and accurately measure employee and provider performance against the set goals to improve actual performance and convert your number based predictions into real results.

Key insights For strategic decisions on where to invest extra cash you have in hand, you may want to look at how improving one function will affect the bottom line or patient satisfaction. These high-level decisions require insight into how each metric is co-related and how they work together. Use advanced analytics integrated practice management systems to gain insight by understanding the correlation between the data related to financials, patient demographics, scheduling, and treatments.

Conclusion Business Intelligence and data analytics are known to provide a boost to any business. The dental industry is no different. Research has indicated that business analytics for dental practices can increase their revenue significantly.

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Practice management for group practices

Ever since the economic slowdown in 2008, group practices have seen a steady rise throughout the United States. This trend occurs when practices strive for efficiency in a competitive landscape. However, during this transformation, even when accounts have collaborated, and marketing efforts have coordinated, most group practices still work on systems inherited from their stakeholders. This means a set of non-compatible solutions have to be organized, and measures are taken for practice management for group practices.

There is a reason why an individual outlet of Walmart functions more efficiently than a consortium of local businesses — they run a uniform system across their locations, that is built for efficiency at scale.

How does a system that is built for scale help a dental group practice?1) Customer Experience

A coordinated system shows visible improvement in customer experience. Patients become less frustrated when they know what to expect from all your locations. This means they will try to stick to your brand, even if they relocate or if a provider changes. We all know what to expect in any Starbucks. We walk into an outlet with full confidence in knowing what to expect. It makes our decision to walk into a Starbucks easy.

2) Better use of human resources

Another significant improvement is in human resource management. There is a steady and well-tracked utilization of human resources from both dental providers and support staff. This is the most considerable header for costs at any dental practice.

3) Increased Production

A well-coordinated system and a single database ensure faster processing of patients pre and post-treatment. This increases production and directly increases your revenue.

4) Better Cash-flow

A central billing office and dental claims management center will allow revenue to come in faster and cash-flow cycles to be shortened. This increases available cash, which can then be used to expand further. Group practices need to expand at their fastest possible pace in the current market, and establishing a system built for scale goes a long way in helping you get there.

What are the key features any group practice should look for?

It is difficult to narrow down to a specific set of features that group practices should look for, as requirements vary based on the organization. Requirements mostly fall into three main functions – centralizing control, streamlining operations, and automating tasks. Some of the features to look for under each of these areas are listed below:

Centralize Control:

Monitor and manage all operations across sites through a central console. A few examples of functions that can be centralized are:

Marketing and campaigns

Appointment Scheduling

Billing & Financial Reporting

Document management

Compliance

Access control and data security

Administration and business management

Analytics and Business Intelligence

Claim scrubbing and denial management

Streamline Operations:

Standardize administrative, clinical, and financial workflows across locations. The following are some of the solutions to usually mismanaged areas to ensure better streamlining and integration into the system:

Slot finder, wait-list and ASAP list management

Charting and treatment planning – with easy templates

Care notes with clinical decision support

Template-based communication for patient engagement

Custom forms for capturing patient conditions or allergies

Business rule manager for standardizing operational workflows

Automate Tasks:

Perform tasks automatically based on pre-set triggers and conditions. Automation is the next level of streamlining, where you eliminate the need for manual intervention in repetitive processes and thus free up your employee time. Features to keep an eye out for include:

Rule-based workflow management

Campaign management

Conclusion

Group practices must adopt a system that is built for scale. A cloud-based scalable practice management solution that features workflow automation and streamlining, along with integrated marketing and back-office functions, will be the ideal fit for the practice management for group practices.