Busy season is approaching for orthodontic practices. 

Prepare your team and your office.

When is the busy season for orthodontic offices?

The busiest season for most orthodontic offices is June, July, and August, coinciding with the time most kids are out of school for summer vacation. This allows parents to schedule their children’s appointments without worrying about missing classes. This is also a popular time for starting orthodontic treatment because with most kids home for the summer, it’s easier for parents to monitor their child’s compliance and oral hygiene and start good habits during their orthodontic treatment before they start back to school. This is also a time when many orthodontic employees look to take PTO for their own vacations. Combining increasing demand and decreased team capacity can put a strain on unprepared orthodontic offices. 

Here’s a checklist to help get prepared.

Part of the checklist can be viewed below, or you can download the entire checklist by clicking the button. 

Complete Department Audits

(Begin by March/April)

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

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? 
• Do all front desk team members follow check-out procedures? 
• Do all front desk team members understand scheduling codes and time blocks for efficient scheduling of patients at checkout? 
• Do all front desk/phone team members understand the process for handling canceled or missed appointments and utilizing a wait list, if applicable?
• 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 professionalism in all procedures (banding, de-banding, attachment procedures, etc)
• Review expected time frames for these procedures. Are all assistants operating within the expected time frame for these procedures? 
• Do all team members understand how and when during an appointment to request assistance from the doctor? 
• Establish a training plan based upon any team members and areas that could benefit from improvement. 

TC’s

• Do all TC’s understand at what point to bring in and excuse a doctor from the room?
• Do all TC’s understand treatment codes and lingo for quick note taking?  
• Are all TC’s following practice procedures for presenting financials? 
• Are new patient charts being updated with the correct information after their appointments? 
• Establish a training plan based upon any team members and areas that could benefit from improvement. 

Finance/Insurance

• Are all financial processing subscriptions up to date and functioning properly? 
• Do all financial team members understand how to process payments, set up auto debit, run benefits checks, and input patient insurance information?
• Is your patient-facing financial information clean and concise, and is there a dedicated line or email for patients with financial questions to avoid bogging down your other lines? 
• Establish a training plan based upon any team members and areas that could benefit from improvement.  

Marketing

• Does your marketing department have their marketing messaging and plan set prior for the months leading up to and during the busy season? 
• Is your marketing team directing new and existing patients to self-scheduling options, when available? 
• Are your promotions and offerings for the busy season decided upon and prepared prior to allow for testing? 
• Have your marketing team check all automations and scheduling links to cut down on leads being lost due to decreased team capacity. 
• Is your contact information and hours reportedly correctly across all online platforms?
• Is your online, self-scheduling link (when applicable) available from all online platforms? 
• Have your marketing team check all automations and scheduling links to cut down on calls and emails to other departments during peak season. 
• Does your marketing team have a clear channel of communication to other departments to monitor input of appropriate patient data and chart updates for tracking, follow-ups and automations? 

All departments

• Do all team members understand the patient flow within your office to decrease wait times and bottle necks between departments? 
• Do all team members understand how to update patient charts with appropriate information for leads, no starts, new patients, new patient no shows, etc? (Whether you have a team member doing follow up for new and non-starting patients, accurate chart updates are crucial. In most offices, chart updates are what tell your email automation systems when to send correspondence to folks. If you have an automated email welcoming new patients to the practice, that email can only be sent if a patient’s chart is updated to a “new patient” and the automated system can then welcome the patient to the practice. If you have a “No start” process and a new patient’s chart is never updated to a “No start” that individual will never receive the appropriate correspondence encouraging them to schedule to start.)
• 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? 

Audit & Train Team Members

(Begin by March/April, following department audits)

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

Audit of 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

Audit of 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 

• 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 can help you have a more clear picture of scheduling blocks to offer and how to maximize your available chairs and team members. 

Audit Operations & Systems

(Throughout May)

Goals: Confirm that operations & communication systems are functioning for smooth patient communication and day-to-day functions. 

•  Audit communication systems:
• Audit your marketing messaging/online presence:
• Audit your new patient intake
• Audit follow-up processes

Training Audit

(Throughout May)

Goals: Evaluate training progress and gaps in learning of all team members prior to June.

• Audit of team member 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

Review Upcoming Schedule

(End of May)

Goals: Evaluate the upcoming appointment load & team vacation time

• Review upcoming schedule and prepare for busiest days/times
• Review upcoming schedule of PTO
• Shift team members ahead of time to cover open space. Allow enough time for team members to prepare for responsibility shifts.
• Prepare your wait list and review wait list procedures.  

The summer busy season can be exhausting for unprepared practices. Luckily, with a little preparation and training, your office can take summer in stride and breeze through your mot productive months.