AADOM LIVEcast – 3 Ways Dental Assistants Impact the Bottom Line
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Video Description:
In today’s economic environment, dental practices need to be highly focused and efficient to maintain maximum profitability. Not only do practices need to address rising operating costs, staffing issues remain a top challenge. On average, dental practices look to fill at least one dental assisting position each year, and most report that it is very challenging to do so. But what does this cost your practice exactly?
New research uncovers the specific costs of open dental assisting positions, including the impact on revenue and productivity, and provides guidance on strategies dental leaders can take to reap positive financial returns.
The results of the research reflect responses from dental team leaders responsible for the staffing, scheduling, billing, and overall financial management of dental practices, including dentists, office managers, and practice administrators – including many AADOM members.
Join us for this info-packed session to be among the first to get the results. You’ll learn about the true costs of turnover, including the lost time and revenue associated with hiring and onboarding a new dental assistant. You’ll also learn what you can do to mitigate dental assistant turnover, reduce associated hiring and training costs, maintain productivity levels, and preserve at-risk revenue.
We’ll also share the toolkit we’ve developed to help you make sound recommendations for your dental practice based on your own practice’s financial data. And, we’ll hear from a practice administrator who has helped build a positive work culture at her clinic, which has led to strong employee loyalty and high retention.
This session will be full of data, resources, and real-world advice. Don’t miss out!
Course Learning Objectives:
By the end of this webinar, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the financial impact of dental assistants on the dental practice
- Explain how patient visits are addressed when the dental assistant is out of the office
- Cite the average time for a practice to hire and train a dental assistant
- Calculate turnover costs and at-risk revenue
- Analyze the costs and returns related to dental assistant wages and turnover
What does an open dental assistant role cost?
Dental assistants are an integral part of dental practices and clinics, but until now, there’s been no data on the financial impact of dental assistants.
But now, thanks to new research from the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) and the DALE Foundation, there’s meaningful data that dental practices can use to improve their bottom line.
DANB and the DALE Foundation worked with a research company to collect information from dental team leaders responsible for the staffing, scheduling, billing and the overall financial management of dental practices. We surveyed dentists, office managers, and practice administrators – including many AADOM members.
Here are 5 key things the data showed.
1. Dental assistants make a meaningful impact on dental practice productivity
The research reveals that dental assistants bring tangible, financial value to dental practices and clinics, and 94% of respondents state that dental assistants help improve patient retention.
“Dental assistants are vital to a well-running dental clinic,” shared one dentist in Missouri who participated in the research. “Dental assistants are patient-facing and can make or break a patient visit. Consistency in dental assistant staff can greatly improve patient satisfaction and retention.”
Office managers agreed. “Dental assistants enable doctors to focus entirely on the patients,” said an office manager in South Dakota. “Having a dental assistant in the room not only makes the patient more comfortable but allows the dentist to be more efficient.”
2. Dental assistant turnover impacts the practice for months
The average dental practice hires 3 dental assistants every 2 years, either to fill a vacant role or to grow the team. The time to recruit and train dental assistants is significant. According to the research, dental practices spend approximately 5 months hiring and training a new dental assistant.
Office managers and practice administrators are typically responsible for hiring a new dental assistant, representing significant time spent on staffing issues that could otherwise be spent on tasks that could directly impact the practice’s revenues.
“We have hired several assistants that had no prior experience and it takes so long to train them that it’s almost not worth hiring anyone without experience,” noted an office manager in Washington.
Some practices have gotten creative to minimize vacancies. One practice administrator in Georgia explained, “We hire to have an extra assistant at all times to cover absences and at-will termination. The market is very tight in our area and we would be waiting weeks to hire when needed.”
3. There are significant costs related to dental assistant turnover
When the dental assistant is out of the office, almost one in four dental practices decrease or reschedule patient visits, resulting in a 6% decrease in daily average revenue. For public clinics, the impact is more significant, with almost half decreasing or rescheduling patient visits.
The research revealed that each open dental assisting position costs the practice more than $10,000, or 25% of the dental assistant’s annual pay. The at-risk revenue from reduced patient volumes comes to more than $21,000, or 1.2% of the practice’s annual revenue.
If the dental practice had an open dental assisting position for a full year, it could potentially lose out on nearly $110,000 in revenue and incur $30,000 to almost $60,000 in additional labor cost due to other team members taking on additional tasks.
One dentist in New York explained: “The dental assistant to dentist ratio is limiting factor to dentist productivity. With only one-to-one or if less when dental assistants call out, then dentists are less productive.”
Practices with higher assistant-to-dentist ratios realize greater productivity and other benefits. “Having two assistants for the solo doctor has been amazing,” said an office manager in Pennsylvania. “We used to have it as a one-to-one relationship, but having one-to two, while it costs a bit more, has added to production, made the doctors life so much easier and made workflow better.”
4. Increasing dental assistant pay will reap financial returns
There are clear financial costs to vacant dental assisting positions, and hiring for open roles is even more challenging due to the ongoing shortage of qualified dental assistants. Specialty practices and clinics in rural environments face even greater challenges. But increasing dental assistant pay by can reap financial returns.
Salary is a top job factor for dental assistants, and dental assistants with higher wages also report higher job satisfaction. Additionally, insufficient pay is the top reason for dental assistants’ dissatisfaction at work and the number one reason assistants leave the profession.
“Benefits and bonuses are extremely important for dental assistant retention,” noted an office manager in New Jersey. “Our practice has had a lot of dental assistants over the years and a key factor was that they wanted ideally $25+ an hour, as well as sick days, PTO, and some sort of bonus.”
By increasing wages, dental practices can:
- Mitigate dental assistant turnover
- Reduce associated hiring and training costs
- Maintain productivity levels
- Preserve at-risk revenue
Increasing dental assistant pay by 15% can increase retention while offsetting the costs of turnover – ultimately resulting in increased productivity for the practice and higher revenues.
5. Resources are available to office managers
DANB and the DALE Foundation have created a toolkit for dental leaders to help them fully understand the financial picture of the impact of dental assistants on their practice.
Visit the resources page to explore the retention calculator and other tools to help your practice evaluate your practice’s financial data. Go to www.danb.org/financial-impact.
Learn about the presenters:
Jen Hawley Price, M.S., MAS, is the Chief Learning and Engagement Officer at the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) and the DALE Foundation. She oversees DALE Foundation educational products and supports DANB and DALE Foundation strategic initiatives. She earned a Master of Applied Science in Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality from Johns Hopkins University.
Hanna Aronovich is the Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at the Dental Assisting National Board (DANB) and the DALE Foundation. She has been with DANB and the DALE Foundation for more than 15 years. Previously, she worked at Edelman on public relations and communications campaigns for numerous healthcare clients. She began her career as a writer and editor for business publications and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sandra Garcia Young, CDA, CDIPC, RDA, FADAA, FAADOM, of San Antonio, Texas, is the Practice Administrator for CentroMed, one of Texas’s largest nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Centers. She has over 20 years of clinical experience and has worked in a variety of specialties. Previously, Sandra was the Dental Assisting Program Director at the Academy of Health Care Professions in San Antonio, Texas, where more than 300 students graduated from the dental assisting program during her tenure.
