Directory Image
This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Dental Practice Analytics and Business Intelligence

Author: Harsha Madhu
by Harsha Madhu
Posted: Jun 25, 2020

Business intelligence and analytics solutions, enforced in a multitude of industries, compares the company’s internal data using tools and techniques such as reporting, performance monitoring, data mining, and benchmarking in an effort to improve decision-making and recognizing new business opportunities. In a decade, the U.S. healthcare industry is converting rapidly to business intelligence and data analytics. In return, medical organizations have been able to improve clinical quality and effectiveness, reduce healthcare costs, and make increasingly well-informed decisions. This work-frame is emerging in the dental industry; dentists have been able to attain sustainable financial and clinical improvement by implementing software solutions that extract and analyze data from the clinic’s practice management system(PMS).

The business intelligence and data analytics solutions, which use data from the PMS to provide valuable insights and advice about the clinic’s performance, encompass tools and techniques such as business analytics, reporting, dashboards, and national benchmarking. For example, these solutions allow the dentist to monitor in real-time hundreds of different KPIs such as Accounts Receivable, Gross Production, Number of New Patients by Referral Source, and Gross Production per Visit. In addition, the solutions provide relevant financial, clinical, and administrative reports like profit and loss statistics, return on investment, trend analysis, recommendations, and procedure analysis to the dental practice software. Most importantly, dentists are able to do real-time clinical and financial benchmarking with practitioners in other specialties or geographical regions, which could help the clinic to identify areas of improvement. Such business intelligence solutions are also able to greatly improve a clinic’s collections by focusing on areas such as fee optimization, reactivate inactive patients, and minimize no shows. For instance, vital inputs from the clinic including procedure revenue, frequency, and time units are combined with external census demographics and cost of living data to optimize the fee schedule.

To keep your business profitable and flourishing, it is important to know your key performance indicators (KPIs), such as:

  1. Active patients
  2. Unscheduled patients
  3. Scheduled production
  4. Unscheduled restorative treatment
  5. Unscheduled hygiene treatment
  6. Cancellations
  7. New patient reappointment
  8. Hygiene reappointment

Data Analytics to Improve Patient Experience

Here are ways to compare the following information to improve your patient experience:

  1. The most/least frequent reason for a patient "no-show"
  2. The most/least frequent cancellation reason
  3. The most/least frequent reason for patient complaints
  4. The most/least successful front desk coordinator
  5. The most/least popular dentist
  6. The most/least successful conversation script
  7. The most/least frequent patient problem

Data Analytics to Enhance Your Pricing Policy

Ways to compare the following information to improve your pricing policy:

  1. Which offer brought you the highest number of patients
  2. Which season works better for special offers
  3. Which season works better for price increases
  4. How medical merit offerings impact your patient flow
  5. Which insurance companies are most frequently requested by your patients

Data Analytics to Improve Your Referral

Ways to analyze the following information to improve your referrals:

  1. Who brings you the biggest part of your referred patients
  2. Which compensation formula works better with your referrals
  3. How often you engage a new referral
  4. Which approach to referral engagement works better
  5. Which approach to referral engagement works less efficiently

Consumer Satisfaction and Analytics Enhances Business Performance

In an effort to gain competitive merit, dentists are increasingly implementing business intelligence and data analytics solutions. These solutions enhance the clinic’s financial performance and enable the dentists to gain control over profit margins, overhead, and performance. For example, research proves that business intelligence and data analytics solutions can increase a clinic’s revenue by more than $50,000. In addition to ameliorating financial performance, business intelligence solutions can also help the clinical performance by allowing the dentist to spend less time on administrative duties and more time treating patients.

With the rise of business intelligence and data analytics, dentists no longer need to manage the delicate trade-off between financial performance and patient satisfaction. These solutions will greatly benefit the practice’s financial performance while increasing patient satisfaction through improved clinical quality and effectiveness. Further, the growth of business intelligence might initiate an irreversible transformation of the dentistry. More specifically, this data revolution will increase the dentist’s focus on real-time monitoring of KPIs, business reporting, and financial optimization.

About the Author

CareStack is an all-in-one, cloud based dental practice management software with built-in scheduling, clinical charting, patient financing and analytics.

Rate this Article
Leave a Comment
Author Thumbnail
I Agree:
Comment 
Pictures
Author: Harsha Madhu

Harsha Madhu

Member since: Feb 26, 2020
Published articles: 18

Related Articles