Monitoring the Schedule All Day

One of the most important aspects of scheduling is recognizing that there will be changes almost every day. In many cases, administrative staff members simply accept last-minute cancellations or scheduling alterations as the normal course of business without taking any further action to address the daily goal. Although the daily goal is reviewed in the morning meeting, that may be the last time it is thought about that day. Unfortunately, this often results in missing the daily goal rather than exceeding it.

Throughout the day there should be check times in the schedule to consider the following: available open time, how to fill open time, and what effect the open time will have on the practice achieving the daily goal. For example, if there is open time, there are options that can be immediately put in place. Putting an emergency into that time, contacting an elderly patient who may be more flexible to come in sooner, and a hygienist identifying potential treatment that can be handled in the open time if the patient is willing to wait. These are options that can be taken throughout the day when monitoring the schedule to ensure reaching the daily goal. However, most practices do not focus on this as administrative staff are extremely busy, and people focus on their normal daily checklist. Taking further action is a key to achieving the annual production goal through regularly achieving the daily production goal. Only by monitoring the schedule throughout the day can this happen.

We recommend having daily check times for the schedule and always looking to see what the daily goal is, based on that check. For example, check times could be at 10 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm. In each case, the schedule could be monitored for any open time or opportunities, as well as where it stands regarding the total production for the day versus the daily production goal. This habit alone will have a dynamic effect on creating a strong focus on the daily schedule, which is how you end up with an excellent year.