Sally
McKenzie's Monday Morning Management Memorandum
#4
Print this Memorandum, distribute to your team, discuss at your morning meetings!
March 25, 2002
WEB: | http://www.mckenziemgmt.com
This issue is sponsored in part by:
McKenzie Management and Associates -
A full service, in-office dental
management consulting company specializing in the business,
clinical,
and hygiene areas of practices nationwide. Their clients
include thousands of dental practices
in over 40 states throughout the U.S. Sally McKenzie,
President founded the company in 1980.
You can find McKenzie Management at http://www.mckenziemgmt.com
More than 30,000 healthcare practices
nationwide use CareCredit as an alternative means of
helping
their patients finance treatment. You can find CareCredit at
http://www.carecredit.com
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benefits to your patients
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treatment capabilities, visit us at http://www.laresdental.com/products/lsc/default.asp
or
call and schedule an educational presentation by calling
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Is your practice operating at peak performance? Take this test to find out.
Tasks aren't getting done. Collections
aren't being made. Recalls aren't happening.
Scheduling is out of control. Your front desk clerk looks
like she's on the verge
of a breakdown. You need more help, right? Not necessarily
says Sally McKenzie,
founder of mckenziemgmt.com.
"Doctor's are quick to look at the
obvious and determine that if employees
appear frazzled or things aren't getting done the office
must need more staff.
After all, throwing more people at the situation is quicker
and easier
than pursuing alternatives such as streamlining duties and
evaluating the
time spent on tasks."
But before you place that ad in the
classified section or hire the office manager's
daughter in-law, first check a couple things out.
1. Wages. Examine wages paid in your
practice excluding the doctor's.
They should be no more than 18% to 22% of gross income,
before payroll
taxes and benefits. If the gross salaries are hovering
around 22%, adding
another person will boost that to 27%. Open your wallet,
doctor. You'll be
bankrolling the additional 5%. But if the new hire is a
patient coordinator who
will increase revenue by ensuring appointments aren't lost
or if the individual
is a hygienist who will enable you to meet the demands of a
growing hygiene
schedule, the negative financial impact should only last for
about 60 days.
2. Front-end Backlog. Check-in and
check-out takes approximately
10 minutes per patient. There are 480 minutes in an
eight-hour workday.
If your practice is seeing 15- 22 patients per day, which
would total 150-220
minutes of patient contact, one person should be able to
handle the front desk
duties effectively. If the receptionist is spending more
than 240 minutes handling
patients, the practice should consider hiring an additional
staff member.
Just checking out the numbers in
a couple of areas is going to give you
a much better idea if this perceived need for staff is real
or imaginary.
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