2 Steps to Get Your Hygiene
Investment to Pay Off Instantly
Rachel Wall, RDH, BS
Whether you buy a practice, start from scratch, or join an existing practice, questions of hygiene profitability will never be far from your mind. Believe it or not, that’s a good thing! Being familiar with certain hygiene profitability benchmarks and tracking them will keep you from straying too far from the mark. In general terms, a hygiene department that is profitable is producing three times its salaries, including bonuses and benefits. That’s one way to measure the ROI of the investment you made in hiring and supporting your hygienist. But there’s a hidden gem that an empowered, well educated hygienist can deliver that’s often overlooked. And it can multiply your hygiene investment ten-fold quickly.
First, let’s look at the obvious way to ensure hygiene is operating at the 3:1 profitability point. If all you did all day were single surface fillings, you’d be busy and tired at the end of the day, but you wouldn’t be very productive. The same is true for hygiene. If your hygienist does prophies all day, he or she isn’t going to be building a profitable department. If all patients are receiving prophies, chances are he or she isn’t going to be delivering the very best care for your patients either.
Developing a clear, written, progressive perio program is critical to creating an environment where your patients are well cared for and your hygiene department is actively contributing to practice profits. The same hygienist can produce at least 50% more if he has a protocol and scheduling system that allows for perio therapy to consistently show up in his chair versus a frantic schedule of prophy patients all day. Would you rather have a hygienist that’s making $350/day produce $750/day or $1750/day? The difference lies in making sure perio care and other high level procedures are part of your hygiene service. Make it easy for patients to say “yes” to perio care by presenting it as a package that includes all treatment, adjunct therapies, and homecare products.
The hidden gem is your hygienist’s ability to enroll restorative care and fill YOUR book! Imagine how quickly your hygiene investment will pay off when you’re seeing two, three, or four thousand dollars of care being scheduled from hygiene every day. There are a few key steps to create this type of environment. The good news is that almost any hygienist can be taught and empowered to support restorative enrollment and really enjoy it in the process.
Here are a few tips to jump start this process:
• Give your hygienists permission to observe, educate and enroll restorative treatment.
• Set up a system for reviewing treatment plans each day to determine which patients have outstanding treatment.
• Clearly communicate your treatment philosophy to your team-in detail.
• Create a bonus system that rewards team members for helping you grow the practice.
I learned years ago from one of my mentors, Vicki McManus, that we must present three times what we want to produce. If you’re goal is to produce $100,000 of dentistry per month, then you need to present $300,000. That’s a lot of pressure for you to shoulder all alone. What if your team were supporting you? Here’s what it might look like in a practice with two doctor assistants and two hygienists:
$300,000
Doctor’s presentation goal = $5000 from each operatory
Hygiene 1 presentation goal = $5000
Hygiene 2 presentation goal = $5000
When most teams look at this, they realize it’s very reasonable. You can break it down even further by determining how many crowns, fillings and other procedures it would take to achieve your daily presentation goal. Then track it!
An empowered, knowledgeable hygienist can build your practice quickly by supporting your efforts for high quality care and productivity. The potential for return on your hygiene investment is endless. Tap into this source for practice profits and you’ll never look back.
We’re happy to offer our CD “Secrets to Increasing Hygiene Co-Diagnosis” to you at no cost. The CD is great to share with the entire team. Just go to www.InspiredHygiene.com to get your free copy today. ■
As owner of Inspired Hygiene, Rachel helps dentists tap into hygiene’s profit potential. In addition to coaching, Rachel draws from her 18 years of experience as a hygienist and practice administrator to deliver to-the-point articles and speaking programs. She has spoken across the country, including the AACD annual session and the popular The Profitable Dentist seminar in Destin, FL. Rachel’s articles have been published in numerous industry journals including The Profitable Dentist, Dental Practice Report, Dentistry Today, RDH, and Modern Hygiene. Inspired Hygiene’s programs include in-office coaching, a free weekly e-zine, the High Performance Hygiene Mastermind group and the new High Performance Perio webinar series. Inspired Hygiene is the preferred hygiene coaching group for the Productive Dentist Academy.
To contact Rachel, email her at Rachel@InspiredHygiene.com or call 877-237-7230.