Do You Have Enough Patients?

DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH PATIENTS?
By Mark Diekmann, D.D.S.
Ask one hundred general dentists in the first 10 to 12 years of their career and at least ninety-nine of them will tell you “NO, I don’t have all the patients I need.” In fact, since we began assisting dentists in 1988, we have not met any general dentist (at any stage of their career), who really thought their practice had enough fee-for-service patients.

There is no way around it… the dental profession is all about patients. Nothing else matters unless you have a solid patient base. You can obtain equipment, office space, staff and supplies easy enough, but none of the above guarantees a steady flow of patients into your practice.

Not having enough quality patients causes many young dentists to keep their office doors open 5 days each week even when they really only have enough appointments to adequately fill 2 or 3 days each week. A growing dentist must remain open because that new patient may just call in with an emergency. If the dentist is not in the office and ready for business that new patient may call the next doctor listed in the phone book or the doctor next door. Remaining open for business is just merely a cost of doing business - an “Opportunity Cost”.

Of course you could pick up more patients by signing up for the various managed care and capitation programs. Actually these programs capitalize on unsuspecting doctors who have full-time overheads and part-time patient schedules. Those who do sign up find themselves much busier. They also feel better that the staff is working harder. But it doesn’t take long to discover that these types of new patients will not allow you to escalate to the income levels you desire. You are busy but not very profitable… a bad trade-off! And once you enter the managed care trap, it is quite hard to get free!

Let’s assume that you have not made the managed care mistake and fall into the category of spending money to increase your patient flow. You remain open every day because you are investing in your future - an “Opportunity Lost”. Let me explain. If your office rent is $1,500 per month and you really only need the facility 50% of the time right now, then it is like you are investing the additional $750 each month into your future growth. If your receptionist is being paid $1,400 per month and you really only need her 50% of the time, then it is like you are investing the additional $700 each month into your future growth. If your assistant is paid $1,200 per month and you really only need her 50% of the time, then it is like you are investing yet another $600 each month into your future. This $2,050 monthly investment will eventually pay off, but it will be very slow! Your monthly investment will gain you an average of 3 new patients each week… possibly 150 new patients each year… and maybe 1,500 new patients over the next 10 years.

A BETTER INVESTMENT! Seems to me that a better investment would be to invest that same $2,050 per month to receive 1,500 new patients TODAY! And I am not talking about managed care patients either… these are high quality, fee-for-service patients that are already accustomed to regularly visiting a dental office in your area.

You know that there are a lot of different ways to do everything. Some are good and some are not so good. But as far as building a base of quality patients, it really does not make a lot of sense to spend the time and the money it takes to build a mature practice over the next decade when you could be exactly where you want to be THEN… NOW!

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