Episode 699: Are You Diagnosing? 

 If your practice isn’t meeting monthly goals, it might be a sneaky factor as to why: You’re not diagnosing enough! Tiff and Dana explain how to go about tracking diagnoses, what numbers to aim for, timeline, and more.

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Reach out to Tiff and Dana: [email protected] 

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Transcript:

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0:00:05.8 Kiera Dent: Hey everyone, welcome to the Dental A Team podcast. I'm your host Kiera Dent. And I have this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives. I've been a dental assistant, treatment coordinator, scheduler, filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner, and I have a team of traveling consultants where we have traveled to over 165 different offices coaching teams. Yep. We don't just understand you, we are you.

0:00:34.5 KD: Our mission is to positively impact the world of dental. And I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams grow VIP experiences, reduce stress, and create A teams. Welcome to the Dental A Team podcast.

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0:00:52.0 KD: You guys, I'm so excited for Consultant Takeover. Guys, that was me attempting to sing into this microphone for you and I hope you loved it. Today, Consultant takeover, grab your pens, grab your notebooks, bringing in the heat today. And as always thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team podcast.

0:01:09.2 Tiff: Dana, thank you so much for being here. I know, Fridays, we always do these on Fridays and I feel like I love and hate that they're on Fridays. And I think it hits your, like, I don't think it's donuts with Dana anymore, but that's fine. But I think it's all in the same line, like you're just back to back to back. So thank you for always being here with me on these Fridays and busting these podcasts out. I have so much fun with you. How are you today?

0:01:32.7 Dana: Doing good. Yes. Consulting Q and A falls on Fridays, but getting to do this with you is much more fun.

0:01:39.6 Tiff: Touche, touche. I guess consultant Q and A. You're kinda like standalone, just talking to the world and like, yeah. Yeah, I like that. Okay, good. Thank you. One thing that we, we were just talking about, I think it's so funny that I think I've said this before, but I feel like sometimes we progress, progress, progress in life and then like we go backwards. So it's like so funny to me that podcasting is now video because YouTube so long ago did what podcasting is doing, but they did it on the computer, like you had to go online to YouTube and they called it vlogging. And basically that's all podcasting is, is a giant vlog where you interview each other. But I mean, people have been doing this for years, so it's just so funny to me like how we get so far and then somebody's like, "Oh my God, I had this brilliant idea." And it's like, "Oh wait, we've been doing that for so long." So anyways, I think it's funny. I had to like get dressed this morning and I like just fixed my highlighter. You know, we were talking about you got to like be ready to podcast. We used to be able to do it from our pajamas. It's fine.

0:02:41.3 Dana: Whole new level.

0:02:41.4 Tiff: It's fine.

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0:02:42.6 Tiff: I love it. Well, you know, we always like to talk to you guys. We like to bring you information, what's hot, what's happening, what we're seeing in the practices because as traveling consultants, you guys, we are seeing hundreds of practices every single year. And Dana honestly talks to more practices I think than anyone that I know because not only is she traveling to some practices, but she's also talking to practices who don't have that in-office visit. They just do coaching calls and video team training and things with Dana. She has more of those kinds of clients than most of us do. So Dana actually, like, she has so much more communication with so many more people than any of us.

0:03:16.8 Tiff: So we've got that experience and we've got that piece that we can see. And I think one thing that has been coming up for a while, and I think it's because we had this huge rush of production and collections and we had, we had all of these people, these patients that were like ready to get into the dental practice which we couldn't figure out post shutdowns and like it was so great and then all of a sudden things started dying down a little bit and becoming more of what our normal pre-COVID was. And I think we're back in that space right now. So really diving into what does it take to reach our goals is something that I've been working really heavily with a lot of practices. And Dana, I know you have as well.

0:03:57.4 Tiff: We've talked about this quite a few times and I think, I mean it makes me feel so smart, because... And I love feeling that way, that's why I love consulting, right? But it just makes me feel like, oh my gosh, this is so fun to dive into. And I can feel so smart to look for these pieces because I think something that a lot of people miss when we're tracking things and when we're looking for things is the actual root cause and the actual root cause in a lot of cases of not meeting our monthly goals are production and collections. It's not always sell more cases. TC call more people like where are the patients? Sometimes we're actually not diagnosing enough and I think that's something we're not always tracking. And a lot of practices will track their case acceptance, if they're even doing that. A lot of patients will track their new patients, but if you're not tracking what you're diagnosing on those patients and then what the case acceptance is of that diagnosis, I feel like you're missing the mark on something. Dana, do you feel like you see that a lot as well?

0:05:03.8 Dana: Yeah. And this is what I call kind of like that hidden sneaky number. I feel like we look at collections an awful lot. We look at case acceptance in a lot of practices and diagnosis rate is the one thing that we just don't really put a focus on, but yet is the pillar of how we get both of those things. So I do think that it's kind of that hidden number and I think if you track your case acceptance, it's super easy to look at diagnosis rate. I just don't think that we do.

0:05:33.0 Tiff: I totally agree. I totally agree. And I have a practice right now that they're really struggling to fill their associate's schedule and they're like, gosh, like he sees all of the new patients, they've got online scheduling and he's constantly like last minute filled with online emergency scheduling, which is fantastic, but he's got gaping holes tomorrow, right? Or next week he's like not gonna hit goal whatsoever. And so what I did right away while I was there is I thought, he's a fantastic man. He is so sweet. He's very conservative, which I do love conservative dentistry. But there's some things not right, because this man is making friends with everyone like they should be buying his treatment like hot cakes, right?

0:06:16.7 Tiff: And so I implemented our treatment tracker and something that I think is different about our treatment tracker is that we're tracking the actual diagnosis amount, we're tracking the numbers. So you can do it both ways. We've talked about that before and you can, you can look at how much of the money was accepted, so get your percentage that way, what percentage of the actual dollars was accepted, or you could do what we call one for one scheduled, not scheduled.

0:06:44.7 Tiff: The reason that I really like, you could do both of them even, but the reason I really like, diving in more to the actual diagnosis numbers is because you can tally that and see at the end of the week, at the end of the month how the day, however you're tracking it, you can see the actual diagnosis amount. And what we did is I implemented this just last week and the doctor and I, we had a chat this week and we looked at it and he was like, "Oh my gosh, he diagnosed less than a third of what owner, doctor diagnosed, but he was seeing all of the new patients." So owner doctor tripled the diagnosis easily on recare and he was like, okay.

0:07:28.6 Tiff: But prior to that it was how come the cases aren't selling? How come the patients aren't scheduling? Now we can see, guess what? It's not that they're not scheduling. He actually has really high case acceptance when he diagnoses. It's like he's not diagnosing. So Dana, how do we reach the goal? Like how do we know, right? 'Cause we can track the diagnosis and be like, great, you're diagnosing or owning, you're not diagnosing, let's calibrate. But how do we know that we're gonna hit goals next month based on our diagnosis? How does that work with the tracker?

0:08:01.5 Dana: Yeah. So I think a couple warning signs that maybe it is the issue is if we have high case acceptance rate and we're not hitting goal or we're barely making goal and we have holes in our schedule, right? I think that's kind of that warning blare of, ooh, ooh, maybe let's check diagnosis. So if you have that going on in your practice, take a look at the diagnosis rate and then I think once we know it's knowing what that benchmark is to hit. So a couple things that I would usually say is know what your diagnosis rate should be. And typically, right, if we're sitting at 65, 70% case acceptance rate, our goal, we have to triple that in what we diagnose.

0:08:40.1 Tiff: Got it.

0:08:40.3 Dana: So three times your daily, weekly, monthly goal is what we have to diagnose. And then I would say to try to keep yourself consistent or to know what that feels like or looks like in your practice. Take the number of patients that we're seeing into that triple and that gives you average treatment plan, right? So the average amount that your treatment plan should be for your patients, then we'll give you that daily kind of pulse on, am I diagnosing enough? Yes, we want you to look at the numbers and look at that tracker, but I think it gives you a goal too on how to apply it with each and every patient.

0:09:14.0 Tiff: Oh, that was brilliant, Dana. That was like the next layer to that. I loved it. So three times your monthly goal, right? Or weekly, daily whatever. So if our goal is a hundred thousand, right? We wanna make sure that we're diagnosing at least 300,000 this month to fill next month. And I think, I'm gonna point out a couple things you said and then I'm gonna go back to that diagnosis again and I'm make... I'm making so many notes over here 'cause you know my memory. So, high case acceptance doesn't always mean we were gonna hit goals, right? So this, in this doctor's case in point, he had $4,000 that he had diagnosed of one week and he had 85% case acceptance. Well, $4,000, I would hope so, right? So three times the goal, making sure we're tracking it.

0:10:03.0 Tiff: And then something you said was taking into consideration the number of patients seen to find the average case diagnosis amount. I think that's huge because then, you guys, that's gonna clarify for you on, is it like a bi-patient? Are you waiting for these monster cases to come in? Are you miss... Like what's your average? Knowing your average of anything is your baseline and then it takes, it will tell you where you can take it. So I think that was a huge, huge thing to say. Thank you for mentioning that, Dana.

0:10:30.4 Tiff: And three times your goal. Something that people misconstrue here and I got it yesterday, that's why I say this because I say, two to three times your goal, three times is my goal for you, but I wanna at least two times because if you only have 50% case acceptance at the end of the day, you know you can reach your goal. You also have to take into consideration that some of your diagnosis is coming into this month. It's not all going to next month. So a percentage of that diagnosis you won't see next month.

0:11:01.5 Tiff: Now, something that I heard was, okay, yeah, my goal is a hundred thousand, but 20 to 30% of that is hygiene, right? But I don't know about you guys. I would much rather be prepared than to rely on my hygiene schedule staying full, my hygienist diagnosing and getting case acceptance on SRP that's on that tracker, that's part of your diagnosis. All of that is encompassing. So your diagnosis amount and your treatment tracker is not just your crowns, your bridges, your dentures, your all in four cases, your fillings, it's everything. So it's also including anything that's been diagnosed over there in hygiene. So you're two to three times your goal.

0:11:40.0 Tiff: I really, again, I like three times your goal. This hits a marker so that you can guarantee that you guys are set for success. So, if there's bonuses in place, fantastic. I don't think that they're necessary to hit goals, but like, great, more power to you, use it to your advantage. But hitting those goals means we're helping more patients, right? Where we've properly diagnosed the people who are coming to us for their dental care. We have put aside their pocket books, we have put aside our own issues, our own fears. We've stopped putting fears into their mind and we've said that your health is more important than the fears that we have holding us back, and that's really freaking cool.

0:12:20.1 Tiff: So I think there are so many things you guys can ask us or say, but that three times is what we've seen work. If you wanna be prepared, you wanna make sure you are ready for success for that next month, look for that three times the goal. Now Dana, what do you find is the best way to like track this, to really make sure that we're looking at it and how often should they be looking at it?

0:12:46.3 Dana: Yeah. And I think if you are using a manual treatment tracker, I think that that's the best place honestly to look at it and truly, right? Diagnosis rate is going to be total presented treatment. So if you're like, I don't even know what to look for on my manual treatment tracker, it's going to be the total amount of treatment presented for the month. So that's going to be your diagnosis rate 'cause it's everything that you've diagnosed on each and every patient should go on there. So if we're putting everything on there, then that's gonna give you your diagnosis rate and that is something that we should at least be looking at weekly.

0:13:19.2 Tiff: Okay. I love it. I love it. Awesome. Awesome. Okay, you guys. So, Dana and I have have spoken, this is like straight from our hearts because I know to both of us this is really important. This is like you guys just saying, you know what, we're doing a crown, we might as well do a root canal and not having the need for it, right? This is the looking for that root cause. And what we often do in life, whether it's in practice or at home or anywhere, when I find people do, human nature is to see a problem and then just shower it with possible solutions and then see how it sticks, right? It's like the spaghetti on the wall, like let's just throw this at it, see how it works, and then change if it doesn't. If we actually dive in into the trends and the numbers, the black and white of it, we can figure out what actually needs to be addressed rather than just saying make more calls, find those patients and we're stressing our team out.

0:14:11.2 Tiff: It might not be that... It may not... You may... Or excuse me, you may track your diagnosis and see the money's there but we're not getting acceptance. Great. Dive into why are we doing handoffs? Is the team bought in, right? Is the front office working really hard to get those cases sold before they leave the door? Are they calling and following up? Are we making sure that our patient's health is our top priority? You could be diagnosing two to three times the amount and that's freaking fantastic. If you're not getting the case acceptance on top of that, we dive into there.

0:14:42.7 Tiff: So takeaways, action items, you know, we're full of them. Number one thing to do is to get a tracker in place, if you don't have it. If you need help with it, if you need ideas, if you're like, "Tiff, this sounds great. Dana, I think your tracker sounds amazing but I can't visualize it." Reach out [email protected]. We will send you ones. We tell you guys all the time, we've got all of the things. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Reach out, let us know if you need it. We've got it here for you. So track it and make sure whatever tracker you're using is going to track the diagnosis rate for the whole practice. Like Dana said, not just doctor, hygiene included.

0:15:17.4 Tiff: And then I want you to track your case acceptance on top of that. Make sure and look at, like Dana said, if your case acceptance is high then and your diagnosis is low, fantastic. But you're still not gonna reach goals. So if your case acceptance is high, you're not still not reaching goals, dive in deeper. Try to get everyone on board with three times, diagnosing three times the full goal, okay? Don't remove hygiene, just do three times the full goal. Why not go big or go home? And then I really loved you looking at the average case accept or the average case diagnosis. Dana, that was really cool. I love that idea. So once you start tracking it, start looking at that. Divide the amount that you diagnosed by the number of patients you saw and look at what your average case presentation is and see if it's where you want it to be. I think those are fantastic. Dana, is there anything else you can think of actionably that we can act on?

0:16:07.3 Dana: The only thing I wanted to say is when offices are struggling with this, I often have doctors ask like, well how do I do that? Right? How do I push myself? I know maybe I'm more, a more conservative diagnoser, so how do I get there? How do I see improvement? And I always say, ask yourself, is this the best treatment to get the patient the best outcome? And if your answer is yes to those two things, your diagnosis rate will be where it should be.

0:16:31.9 Tiff: Beautiful. That was a wonderful piece of information to wrap this call on. I love that. Thank you, Dana. Thank you for being here. I hope you guys see the value in that. I hope that you see it for what it is and that you track it and that you see it working for you. And that if it's not working for you, you turn it around right away. And please, please, please, we tell you all the time, I tell my practices all the time, text me, like reach out you guys. We are here to help you whether you're a current client, a future client, or you're never gonna be a client. You are a family member of ours and we want to be here to help support you in the best ways that we know how. So [email protected]. We can't wait to hear from you.

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0:17:11.0 KD: And that wraps it up for another episode of the Dental A Team podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.