Sustainability of Dental Office Operations: Navigating a Patient-Centric Approach

 

There is a difference between service from the customer’s perspective and service from the provider’s perspective.

The patient’s perspective is considered when making decisions for a patient’s dental health care. Service quality, communication, personalization, problem resolution, and relationship building drive dental care productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency.

This article explores the critical aspects of running a dental office from the patient’s perspective. From service quality to cost considerations and insurance coverage, each component is carefully examined to ensure sustainability and patient satisfaction.

Seeing the Dental Patient’s Point of View

• A. Quality of service. Patients expect equality among patients, too. A great dental office must remind itself that costs do not comprise Quality. By being transparent with the patients, they can decide the kind of dental care that fits their budgets.
• B. Communication is essential. It is even crucial. The patient must understand the issues, concerns, inputs, and outcomes of the dental care that may be needed in the situation at hand. Using clear and courteous language is critical in articulating with the patient. Timely feedback is also essential. The communication process is geared towards understanding the patient rather than vice versa. It is empathy and genuine concern for the patient and his needs.
• C. Personalization, which is tailor-fitting the services according to the patient’s preferences and circumstances, is also essential. When patients are satisfied with the services because they answer their needs according to their affordability, they will keep returning for other future needs. Thereby, patient loyalty starts to grow.
• D. Problem Resolution is what a patient expects when visiting a dental office. Promises that may be broken have no place in dental care. The patient expects the most minor pain when undergoing dental treatment. The patient expects a beautiful smile when signing off for aesthetic dental care. In other words, patients expect to realize the goal they decided to take at the onset of the dental consultation.
• E. Efficiency and effectiveness of dental services are measures of dental performance and problem resolution. One unresolved dental problem would be one village of patients away from that dental office. Word of mouth moves faster than the TV ad. Word of mouth through social media even has more moral ascendancy. Therefore, efficiency, which is doing the right things right the first time, drives effectivity, which is the achievement of expected outcomes.
• F. Relationship building does not sprout from thin air. It comes with the trust that the dental office earns from the patient experience that one had.

So, what adds value?

Consistency.

Dental care is not a matter of a dentist’s moods. It is not a matter of the dental office’s strategies. Dental care is performance consistency from the patient’s perspective.

The patient says, “I like that dental office because it always addresses my concerns.”

Reasonable Costs

Quality service and reasonable costs seem poles apart. When one wants quality care or service, that is equivalent to high costs. However, as cited in the first article, cost management is essential in a dental office.

Lowering the cost without jeopardizing quality service creates a good patient experience that translates into patient loyalty. After all, every dental office aims to make its patients return for future dental needs.

Costs and cost controls, as discussed in the first submission, are critical factors in the success of a dental office.

1. Efficient staffing. Lean is clean. Staffing is proportionate to the dental schedules, and the dental office must complete it according to its projected timelines.
2. Optimized scheduling. When the appointments for the day are too varied, they require different sets of preparations. Wastage may be high if schedules are made that way. To optimize materials, equipment, and other resources, dental processes, and needs must be grouped according to workable categories.
3. Inventory management. Ordering must be efficient. Maintain optimal dental supplies and materials to avoid excess inventory and associated carrying costs.
4. Streamlined processes. Standardize clinical and administrative processes to minimize inefficiencies and reduce wasted time and resources.

Costing from the Patient’s Perspective

Patients have the right to know the costs of dental care. They would want to understand the coverage of their dental insurance. They may also like to see dental services being affordable for their families.

We consider our patients’ capability to afford dental costs commensurate with their budgets. To be able to project annual operational funding for the dental office, one must first understand the demographic composition of its patients.

A good analysis of our patient’s insurance coverage and historical claims records would be a sound basis for projecting the annual needs of those in the demographic profile.

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Insurance Coverage

1. As Practice Administrators or Chief Operations Officers, we must understand the coverage of every insurance policy that covers dental care and dental services. Every insurance coverage is unique in some ways.
2. We must understand the details of the patient’s dental coverage. Verification includes the type of plan, benefits, limitations, and network status covered by the insurer.
3. There is a need to familiarize ourselves with the specifics of each patient’s insurance plan, including covered services, exclusions, co-pays, deductibles, and annual maximums. This is very important. At the onset of dental consultation, the patient is made to understand the coverage and any out-of-pocket costs that may be incurred, if any.
4. There are instances when a patient has a pre-formed idea regarding the services covered by the insurance policy. If this matter is left unattended, the patient will leave with unattended dental needs and unaddressed doubts about his dental insurance coverage.
5. A dental office has to ensure accurate, timely, and verifiable insurance claims for dental services while adhering to company guidelines and requirements. Billing and coding procedures must be well understood.
6. Like any other business, the life of the dental office is the efficient return on investments (ROI). We get paid with insurance claims. So, we need to know the insurer’s performance metrics, such as claim acceptance rates, denial rates, and average reimbursement amounts, to assess effectiveness and identify opportunities for improvement.

It is essential for a dental office to build good business relations with insurance companies. The dental office thrives on the dental coverage of our patients.

We let them see how professional our dental office is as it caters to the needs of the insurance companies’ clients by providing excellent quality service to their clients, who are our patients.

A business thrives when its vision and mission continuously evolve to meet the changing needs of its customers. We prioritize serving our patients above all else. We believe in the importance of the insurance coverage our patients rely on, and we trust both our patients and the insurance companies we work with.

With integrity at the forefront, we are committed to providing exceptional dental care and service.

 

 

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About the Author

Estela Go, MAADOM

Estela L. Go is a Chemical Engineer from the Philippines. After taking all the major accounting courses at UCLA, she worked as a general accounting manager in mortgage corporations for 15 years.

Dr. Robert Y. Go and Estela founded Go Family Dental in 2007 after decades of experience in dentistry, accounting, and operational excellence in Anaheim, CA. This led her to her simple guiding principle: “Patients First.”

Estela has been an AADOM member since 2022, when she joined AADOM’s Dental Spouse Business Network. She received her AADOM Fellowship (FAADOM) in 2023 and her Mastership (MAADOM) in 2024.