Practice Success Depends on Scheduling
Course Number: 704
Procedural Times Studies
The first step in designing a new scheduling system is to truly understand how much time is needed per procedure. As previously mentioned, most dental practices operate more by habit than mathematical analysis, which means that they simply have a certain amount of time allotted for different services for patients and it has been that way indefinitely. However, with the advent of higher levels of efficiency, and new technologies and materials, many procedures can now be performed faster than they were in the past.
We always recommend starting with procedural time studies. These studies involve taking the top 15 practice services and timing them during the next 10 times they are performed to evaluate the composite average of time needed for each procedure. This will illustrate how much time is generally needed for each service and it can then be built into the schedule. Only by doing procedural time studies can you get the mathematical data that will allow you to know exactly how much time is needed. Interestingly, most practices find that they save a great deal of time after they perform the procedural time studies. Be careful not to rush or do anything differently. Otherwise, this may be built into the schedule, creating more stress rather than higher efficiency. Once the practice has determined how much time is needed for each procedure it can then go to the next step, which is power cell scheduling.
