Virtual Assistants for Dentists? YES!

Ronald F. Arndt, DDS, MBA, MAGD, MCC

I know. I know. Most of you are probably asking yourself what is a virtual assistant? Is this another one of Dr. Ron’s “new age” ideas? And for those of you who know you are probably asking how on earth can virtual assistants support a dentist? I am here to tell you.

I myself have used a VA for over 9 years. She takes care of the things that I don’t want to take care of. Takes care of things that I don’t have time to take care of. This allows me to focus solely on my clients, their wants and needs and to continue to expand my horizons. Instead of listing what my requirements are for a VA you can obtain this list by contacting me directly. Let’s just be safe and say there isn’t much my VA, Donna, doesn’t do for me. From client contact to newsletters, website maintenance, correspondence, blog integrations, webcasts and video streaming; she does it all! If you would like a complete list of my VA requirements, please feel free to contact me. I would love to share it with you.

Let me explain exactly what a virtual assistant is. A virtual assistant is an “off-site” employee who offers administrative and office support services “virtually”; meaning through use of the Internet and email, phone, and fax. Virtual assistants are considered self employed contractors therefore there are no payroll taxes to pay, no vacations or sick time to worry about and no internal conflicts to work around. You are truly getting your money’s worth as a virtual assistant is paid by special project, or retained for a specific number of hours to complete a specific task. (Retainer fees usually offer you some type of financial break) Overall a virtual assistant saves you time and money. And here’s the great news. There are dedicated virtual assistants who have actual experience in a dental office and can provide you with unmatched patient service and personal support.
Dental Virtual Assistants (DVA’s) offer a wide range of administrative support and services aimed directly at increasing your production and collections and take a sincere interest in helping you grow your business. Most DVA’s utilize remote access software which allows them to work from your computer as if they were actually sitting right in front of it!

A DVA’s position would be to act as a direct extension of you; make your job easier and therefore make your life better. Allow you to go to work with a sense of confidence that someone has everything covered. Allow you to go in and do what you do best…. Your dentistry. Sounds good doesn’t it?

DVA’s talents can be used in many areas of your office:
• Recall – How is yours looking? Do you have more than 100 patients registered as past due on recall? A DVA can make these important contacts with your patients and get them back in your schedule!
• Undone treatment list – How much is sitting in your bucket? Let a DVA help move this to your production schedule. Letters, phone calls and emails to patients. Improving your patient contact on many levels.
• Confirmation calls – Are yours done in a timely manner beginning at least 2, but desired 3, days prior to the patient’s appointment? Do you have a short call list to fill in for last minute cancels or no-shows?
• Insurance submission and follow-up – If you have anything past 30 days in your reports something needs to change. A DVA can provide daily insurance support to get claims processed and paid promptly.
• Collections – A well versed DVA can help collect on past due accounts and save you from having to use a collection agency.
• New Patient Packages and Input – Do your new patient packages go out the day the patient scheduled? Do you even have a well designed new patient package? The DVA can input new patient information, obtain and input insurance information prior to patient’s appointment to get the most benefit from first appointment, order previous records, obtain pertinent medical information such as premedication, and send out the new patient packages immediately.
• Newsletters and direct mail campaigns – Does your office offer patient education in the form of newsletters? Newsletters are a fantastic, economical way to keep in touch with your patients, and advise them of new techniques and products available in your office. Direct mail campaigns can do the same and new patients can be targeted as well.
There are many more ways to utilize a DVA but this gives you a general idea. There are many things to consider for your practice:
• What does my payroll look like? It is between the 22-27% industry standard?
• Do you really need another full time front desk person, or could you hire a DVA to accomplish the “behind the scenes” tasks in a more efficient, cost saving way?
• What does your front desk look like? Are you satisfied with the way your schedule looks on a daily basis? Are you scheduling to goal? How about collections? Recall?
• Make a list of what you would like to have a DVA be responsible for that would include expectations and time tables.
• Try one on for size! If you are unsure of how this whole process works, yet you are intrigued, try just one task as a sample with the DVA to see how the whole process works. You’ll be glad you did! Go ahead. Contact MB and see just what she can do for your practice!

Dr. Ron

Chart Auditing

CHART AUDITING

Ronald F. Arndt, DDS, MBA, MAGD, MCC

Mary Beth Bajornas, VA

How much dentistry is sitting on your wall? What financial opportunities are you missing with your patients of record? What are you willing to do to “harvest the diamonds in your own back yard?”

Chart auditing is the review of charts to determine the status of idle patients. Chart auditing is done by the front desk staff, and should be done minimally on an annual basis. Although this task can be time consuming it can also result in the reactivation of numerous, otherwise lost, patients.

Chart auditing should consist of the following:

Review of patient’s last appointment including length of time since their last visit, what their last visit consisted of, what recommended yet undone treatment exists and has any contact been initiated with the patient prior to the audit?

It’s easiest to work chart by chart. After review a personal phone contact should try to be made with the following sample script: “Hello Mrs. Smith, this is Suzie from Dr. Arndt’s office. I am so glad to have finally contacted you personally! How are you doing? We have noticed that you haven’t been to our office in over 18 months, and realize that you are past due for your cleaning. Is there a good day and time for you that we could schedule you with the hygienist?”

If the patient for some reason states they are unhappy with treatment, dentistry, etc. you could say the following “ Mrs. Smith, I hope you can give us the opportunity to take care of this – I am sure Dr. Arndt would want me to schedule an appointment for you with him personally for a consultation. Is there a specific day and time that might work for you to come in and speak with Dr. Arndt?”

If no personal contact can be made, a reactivation letter can be sent. A reactivation letter should be short and to the point. It should state the patient’s last appointment, what they had done, any treatment that has been recommended, and what they are now due for.

At the bottom of the letter a request should be made of the patient to respond to the following: If they have moved and wish their records to be forwarded, if they will not be returning and why, they haven’t realized they were so far behind and wish to schedule an appointment, or the wish to schedule but will call when it is convenient for them.

A return envelope should be included for the patient’s convenience, and they are more apt to return the request this way. As each request comes in, the patient’s chart should reflect their response. Forwarding records and contacting patient’s for appointments should be done the day the response is received.

If after 14 days there is no response, a follow up phone call should be made with this sample script “Hello Mr. George, this is Suzie from Dr. Arndt’s office. How are you?! We haven’t seen you in a while and recently sent out a reactivation letter to you requesting you to advise us of your patient status. We haven’t heard back from you and are touching base to make sure all is ok! We really miss seeing you on your recall visits. Is there a good day and time for you to come in to see Dr. Arndt?”

If after multiple attempts there has been no contact, the patient account can be inactivated, with complete and thorough chart notes being added of “no response from patient”. Copies of the reactivation letters should be kept, and any attempts at communication should be recorded as well.

By doing chart audits annually, you an ensuring: Your patient base is active, no patients have slipped through the cracks, an increase in your production and the opportunity to “right” things that may be “wrong”.

How long has it been since your charts have been audited? How much production is just lying around in your office, waiting for someone to act upon it? There has to be a consistent method of patient tracking in place and your practice cannot afford to overlook the obvious.

To really make your system effective you will want to establish measurables to determine your progress. Set firm expectations of your team and create a protocol on how they are going to reach these expectations.

Establish a goal of 16 calls per day or two per hour and keep track of efforts and results. Share these results with your team weekly to keep everyone on track.

Are you utilizing external marketing but haven’t audited charts? Your practice has many, many internal resources for filling your schedule and your whole team needs to be on board to renew relationships with the patients you already have!

Remember, your practice is either growing or dying. There’s pretty much nothing in between.