Nancy McNutt Dental Practice Management Articles


The Importance Of An Office Policy Manual
Written by: Nancy McNutt
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After being invited into numerous dental practices, I am surprised at the number of offices that do not have an office policy manual. I look at the difficulties that many offices face and know that had the office taken the time to create a policy manual, many of the issues would not have happened in the first place. The key word here, being 'time'. Every dentist wants a policy manual as do the team and patients but no one has the time to sit down and create one. The best way to create a manual would be to have a team meeting dedicated solely to the purpose of setting the rules. How does an office policy manual help the team, the dentist, or the patients?

Let's look at the negatives. NONE

Let's look at the positives.

Often the business team does not know their limits on making financial arrangements with patients. Can I extend a payment plan to the patient? Do we allow monthly payments? How far out can I extend a payment plan? I have worked with dental offices that when I present the team with a simple questionnaire about the practice rules, one would think they were receiving the responses from 5 different practices! The dentist is under the costly misunderstanding that "My team knows what to do". Often they are shocked when presented with the results of my questionnaires.

At your next team meeting, have each team member complete a questionnaire with the following questions. To get an accurate finding of what the team knows, it must be completed without conversing. This exercise will help you understand the areas of the practice that need to be addressed and fine tuned.
  1. What is our payment policy?
  2. What forms of payment does our office accept?
  3. To what extent can we spread a payment plan?
  4. What is our cancellation policy?
  5. Do we charge for missed appointments?
  6. What do we say to patients who have missed two or more appointments?
  7. What is our confirming policy?
  8. How many missed appointments did we have last week?
  9. What does it cost the office to have one hour of downtime in the hygiene chair?
  10. How are predeterminations followed up on?
  11. What is the scheduling and payment protocol for large cases?
  12. What is the fee for 4 veneers? What does whitening cost?
Often the hygienists or the assistants will tell us that the above does not relate to them and that it is the business team that would deal with the above questions. However, all team members must be well versed on the office 'rules' as many patients will ask the hygienist or assistant these questions and they must be prepared to answer them. Consistency within the practice creates trust. Trust, in turn creates a higher case acceptance. Patients are more apt to book an appointment if they hear the same thing from the business team as they do from the hygiene team. One example I experienced was the business team told a patient interested in having veneers that the fee was about $500 per veneer and by the time the patient was seated in the hygiene chair, the hygienist told the patient that veneers cost about $700 each. Based on 4 veneers the cost had just gone up $800 from walking from the front desk to the back hygiene chair! The patient left without booking the appointment stating they were going to "inquire around".

Having an 'office policy manual' allows the team to know their limits. How many dentists have their business team continually asking them "Can we do this"? The dentist should be practicing dentistry knowing with confidence that their team is looking after the patients and the business. Along with an office protocol comes consistency. Consistency also creates excellence. All successful businesses whether large or small have a policy manual. It is necessary to run an efficient and productive business. The patients will appreciate it, the team will appreciate it, the dentist will appreciate it and the practice will benefit from it.