Sally McKenzie

Don't just sit there staring at the holes in the schedule. Pick up the phone and follow-up with patients who delay care. In too many cases, patients forego or delay recommended treatment because they actually do not understand the importance of pursuing treatment. Doctors and staff meanwhile are frustrated because patients just don't seem to "get it." But they don't "get it" because dental teams don't give them enough information.

In between appointments, continue to educate patients on the importance of oral health care and the impact of it on overall health. Too often dentists will tell a patient something once or twice and believe they've done their part to educate them on the matter. Take a page from McDonalds, everyone in the country knows what a Big Mac is, but that doesn't mean the company stops telling us how delicious they are at every opportunity.

Patients are inundated with hundreds of competing messages every day which means that for the communication to have impact, it must be repeated multiple times and in multiple ways. You can't just send out the newsletter or the postcard and expect to see an increase in patient activity. Similarly, in many cases, you can't expect a patient to pursue extended treatment after one conversation. You have to continue to reiterate the message many times and on multiple levels. Telling patients something once or handing them a brochure isn't ongoing patient education and treatment marketing. It is merely an introduction to the oral health situation and your proposed solutions. It is the beginning of the education/marketing process, not the end.

Central to your ongoing treatment marketing messages to patients are specific details and explanations as to how they will benefit from pursuing your recommended course of care. It's essential that patients recognize that the dental practice is an essential stop on their journey toward optimal health. And it's up to you to make the concerted effort to help them understand this critically important information.

More About McKenzie Management... 

"What if the web goes down?" It's a common question when people investigate web-based solutions. Certainly, technology introduces different failure modes than traditional processes. This begs the question, "How reliable are web-based solutions when compared with their client-server counterparts?"

The short answer is that web-based dental software applications, properly hosted, will be about ten times more reliable. Let's now explore what drives this amazing reliability. We will also identify some actions that can mitigate the small risk associated with web availability.

Client-Server Vulnerabilities 

Most client-server failures can trace their cause to two primary origins:

First, every hardware component found in the server is a potentially catastrophic failure point. If failure of a computer is a given, then the ideal solution is to create an architecture designed for it. Unfortunately, there is no such architecture available at a reasonable price for office based client-server systems.

Secondly, the client-server installation is put together using consumer grade equipment. Moreover, the server is typically placed in a less-than-suitable location. The risk of bumping, or spilling, or nudging, or moving is synonymous with the risk of failure.  

Finally, when a client-server based system goes down, you will need to call your "IT pro" to come to the office and repair the server. Even with responsive service, you still are looking at hours; for typical service it can be days or longer.

The result of all these failures ends up as system downtime that is measured in hours per month or days per year. That quality of service is very costly and is far inferior to web-based systems.

Web-based Systems

Web based systems will typically have downtime that is measured in minutes per year. Here's why:

Redundant and fault tolerant architectures. Backup systems and secondary backup systems are in place to take over for a failed primary system.

Professionally housed, managed and maintained systems. With professionally managed web-based systems there is someone who is on guard all the time.

Hardware Maintenance. When the published service life of a component is up it will be replaced, even if it is technically "still working".

Hot swappable. The computer does not need to be turned off to replace a component. Pretty amazing stuff, but that's what you get with a redundant web-based architecture.

Controlled Environment. Sterile, humidity controlled environments are made perfect for the operation of computers. 

So, what if the web does go down?

The most common method of protecting against a web access failure in a dental office is to bring in a redundant web access point, like a wireless network card. Many offices find that after many months or years of uninterrupted service, they choose to go without the redundant web access point.

If the internet goes down, your Internet Service Provider puts all available resources at the problem until service is restored. Because you are not alone, the problem is resolved much quicker and at less expense.

So, most offices find that although the internet does sometimes go down, it is so infrequent and of such short duration, that a backup internet access point isn't justified. Client-server system downtime is on the order of ten times as disruptive in both frequency and duration when compared with web-based solutions.