New dentists often look at a “small raise” and think to themselves, “What’s another buck-fifty an hour? S/he’s a loyal, hardworking staff member who has helped me establish my new practice.” That may well be the case, and you may sincerely want to give the raise. Just make sure you make a truly informed decision. Take 10 minutes to conduct an Employee Salary Review.

Here’s why, every increase in salary, no matter how seemingly small and insignificant has a direct impact on your overhead. The Employee Salary Review is a clear and simple mathematical tool that you can access immediately to determine exactly how much more money you’ll need to collect each month to cover that “itty-bitty” increase.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking that any raise is so small its impact won’t be felt. Without a clear plan to increase revenue, a little raise here and there will rip through your profits, and I guarantee you’ll be stunned at the thundering impact.

To ensure that salaries do not exceed 22% of average monthly collections, you must have a plan to increase revenues to balance the impact of the raise. If the team wants to make more money the practice must make more money, and employees are vital in accomplishing that.

First, take a look at collections. Your financial coordinator should achieve daily collections of 45% or higher. If you don’t already have one, establish a collections policy with treatment financing options and follow it.

Monitor your money monthly. Review the aged accounts receivable report every 30 days. It should list each account with an outstanding balance and date of last payment. Total all monies over 90 days delinquent. The percentage should not exceed 15% of your total accounts receivable. If it does, delinquent account calls need to be accelerated.

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Need more help with Employee Performance Reviews?  Our bookstore offers great resources right here: http://thenewdentist.net/performance-measurements.htm

Sally McKenzie is the Publisher and Owner of The New Dentist Magazine. She can be reached at Toll Free 877-777-6151 or via email at Sally@thenewdentist.net

Are you getting the most out of your hygiene department? Many new dentists aren’t sure how to measure the effectiveness of their hygiene departments. Establishing performance measurements and identifying a few fundamental expectations can make a big difference.

Consider these:

• If the hygienist receives a guaranteed salary regardless of production the expectation must be that s/he produces three times her/his salary.
• In addition to a base salary, consider paying hygienists a commission for achieving additional production.
• Schedule the hygienist to produce at 3x her/his daily wage.
• Evaluate fees and determine if they are too low. Look at the procedures conducted in an hour to determine the production per hour costs. If the hygienist is paid $40 per hour and the cost for the prophy, not including the dentist’s exam, is $80, the hygienist is making 50 cents on the dollar.
• The hygiene salary should be less than 33% of her/his production, not including the doctor’s exam fee.
• Insist on periodontal assessment. One-third of hygiene production should be in interceptive periodontal therapy. Require the hygienist measure the total number of dollars produced in the 4,000 code and divide it by his/her total production. Report that once per month at the monthly meeting.
• Customize the time per patient based on patient need not on a standard one-hour allocation for each patient.
• Provide hygiene hours in the evening if patients are requesting late appointments.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of pre-scheduling. Practices using six month scheduling achieve only 76% patient retention and have a nearly 50% higher loss of patients than similar-sized practices that do not pre-appoint.

Establish expectations and performance measurements for hygiene and watch this department become a full contributor to your practice profits.

Still looking for pointers on effectively managing your Hygiene Department? Go Here