Just like all of you, I am a lifelong learner and continue to grow my knowledge through online courses, podcasts and blogs. Keeping my brain active and staying current is important to me. However, I understand how hard it is to find time to take continuing education. I am sure you struggle to find time to advance your knowledge of your software, automating tasks and taking care of patients. This is why today’s article is so important because you must get your time back with automating tasks in your dental practice.
Recently I was watching one of my video courses and the speaker, Rory Vaden, said something that really resonated with me and I had to share it with you. He said . . .
“Automation is to your time, like compounding interest is to your money.” ~ Rory Vaden
WOW! Now, if that isn’t a smack in the face, I don’t know what does.
In my own business, I have created many systems that are on autopilot and run automatically, which reduces the amount of time I need to spend on certain tasks. This is the same process that you can create in your practice. There are several automated tasks that will save you a ton of time in your daily workflow while also helping to give your patients a more seamless experience.
In today’s article, I want to talk about the three most important automated tasks that you can put in place that will compound your time savings and allow you to spend more time on the important things . . . like patient care.
Over the past couple of months, we have been talking a lot about annual planning and the possibility that you will be adding on to your practice, hiring an associate or even making some staffing changes. During your annual planning meeting, you might also have talked about the option of implementing a third-party software for tracking practice numbers, social media management or patient communications. When looking at third-party software for patient communication, there are three very important automations I would recommend.
- After-hours patient scheduling is the hottest subject right now. In fact, according to several dental practice surveys, more than 60% of patient appointments are booked after hours. The problem is that only 2% of dental practices offer online booking. Now, I am not talking about the patient requesting an appointment. I am talking about true online booking where the appointment actually drops right on your Dentrix appointment book. That’s an automated time-saver and what patients are asking for right now.
- When your new patients book an appointment, you can have your patient communication software automatically send out a welcome message along with the instructions to fill out their new patient forms online. This automated system will be a huge time-saver for your practice and a huge convenience for your patients.
- The third, and one of the most important, piece of automation that you can put in place with your patient communication software is prompting existing patients to update their health history information. This would include informing you of new medications, medical diagnoses and/or any recent surgeries. Having this information ahead of time using an automated system will be a game-changer for your clinical team and your patient. Say goodbye to paper and clipboards!
Let me know how I can help with your implementation of automation and new technology. I would love to share with you some of my favorite trusted partners. CLICK HERE to book a call with me.
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