Have you ever had any problems or doubts about how to manage your dental clinic's diary? Often, this is due to a lack of knowledge or organisation.
That is why Teresa Boronat, Co-Founder of Experience Consulting Dental, tells us about the problems that dental clinics usually face when it comes to managing their diaries, and gives us some advice and solutions to tackle them and create a more organised clinic.
TIPS to improve the management of your dental clinic's diary
➔What role does the diary play in a dental practice?
The diary in the dental clinic has a fundamental role. In fact, we could consider it the key to the day-to-day success of the clinic.
However, we usually find that dental clinics, either due to lack of training or lack of emphasis on it's importance, fail to manage the diary. For this reason, employees in clinics must change their mentality and begin to understand calendar management as the basis for the efficient functioning of the dental clinic.
➔What are the most common mistakes dental practices make in diary management?
The most common mistake is that the diary is not reviewed and planned sufficiently in advance. Usually, dental clinics start their day-to-day work without knowing what tasks they have to do for that day. Therefore, reviewing the diary in advance and making sure that everything is well coordinated is the basis for a correct management of the diary in the dental clinic.
Secondly, many clinics do not have clinic staff who are suitably trained to carry out efficient diary management, making the task much more complicated. Moreover, in many cases there is a lack of knowledge regarding the types of dental treatments that are carried out in clinics, the times required for each treatment and the procedure that must be followed for each treatment. This lack of knowledge makes it much more complicated to correctly schedule the dental procedures that are carried out in the dental clinic.
In short, it's vital to establish protocols in order to correctly manage the clinic's diary.
➔Why is it that whenever we talk about diary management we also talk about time management?
This is because diary management and time management are completely related. In fact, in most dental clinics the phrase "I don't have time" is very common, but time is the same for everyone, the difference lies in how time is managed, setting priorities and knowing how to organise tasks according to the time available to them.
Thus, if the clinic's diary is managed correctly but the time available is not well managed, it will be impossible to correctly carry out those tasks that have been scheduled.
➔In conclusion, what recommendations does Teresa give us so that dental clinics can have a well managed diary?
Each dental practice should know what kind of diary it wants to have. This should be done with the patients in mind, not the clinic.
On the other hand, and as we have already mentioned, correct training of the clinic team is also essential, especially the case for the reception staff, because if there is no training available, it's impossible for these employees to know how to optimise the dental clinic's diary correctly.
Of course, we mustn't forget the need to create protocols that control all the dental times and procedures that are carried out in the clinic.
Thus, only once this advice that Teresa has given us has been implemented into our clinics will it be possible to operate an efficient diary.
Also, if you want to expand your knowledge when it comes to managing the diary in the dental clinic, at Experience Consulting Dental they are offering a management course in which this topic and many others are covered in depth, with the aim of helping clinics in their day-to-day work and in managing their diary.
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