Step-by-Step Outline: Preparing Your Orthodontic Practice for the Summer Busy Season

Departmental Audits, begin by March

Goals: Assess each department for areas of improvement, bottlenecks and patient pain points

Some items on the checklist include:

Phones/Front Desk:

• Do all phone team members follow a practice-recommended process to encourage efficient scheduling of new and existing patients?
• Do all front desk team members follow the procedures for greeting, check-in and proper hand-off of patients?
• Establish a training plan based upon any team members and areas that could benefit from improvement.

Clinic:

• Are all applicable team members X-ray certified?
• Do all team members display proficiency and efficiency in all procedures (banding, debanding, attachment procedures, etc)
• Do all team members understand how and when during an appointment to request assistance from the doctor?

Marketing:

• Is your marketing team directing new and existing patients to self-scheduling options, when available, to free up your phone lines?
• Does your marketing department have their marketing messaging and plan set prior to the months leading up to and during the busy season?
• Have all marketing automations and scheduling links been tested to cut down on lost leads due to decreased team capacity.

All Departments:

• Do all team members understand the patient flow within your office to decrease wait times and bottlenecks between departments?
• Do all team members understand the practice procedure for handling disgruntled patients
• Do all team members understand the practice procedure for appeasing patients when the office is behind schedule?

Train Team Members, begin by March/April following departmental audits

Goals: Prepare new hires and existing team members for the demands of busy season.

Some items on the checklist include:

New hire training progress:

• State required training
• Online training resources for job proficiency (find a complete list of recommended training courses at trapezio.com/orthodontic-job-training/
• OSHA and HIPPA (when necessary)
• Office-specific procedures and equipment

Re-training existing team members:

• New equipment or office operating procedures training
• Online training refresh by department to ensure proper and efficient protocol
• Annual OSHA certification (when applicable)

Perform a Schedule Audit, begin in April

Goals: Evaluate the current scheduling to see if time blocks can be better used, or if you and your team need to revisit best scheduling practices

Some items on the checklist include:

New hire training progress:

• Check for inefficient gaps in your schedule.
• Discuss with team members how to maximize the time and team available.
• Dedicate 30 minutes per week to reviewing and improving your schedule prior to the busy season. This can help you have a more clear picture of scheduling blocks to offer and how to maximize your available chairs and team members.