practice management
feature
what needs to be done, or why. Statements
such as, "Any questions?" or, "Do you
understand?" makes it easier for the patient
to leave without scheduling.
Talking. Dentists and treatment coordinators tend to talk too much. In fact,
dentists and treatment coordinators often
talk patients into-then out of-treatment.
The more the patient is talking, the higher
the case acceptance. This is accomplished
by asking targeted questions such as, "What
do you think will happen if you don't do
anything about it?" "Which of those three
treatments do you want to do?" Even more
specific: "Did you know you were walking
around with an infection 24 hours a day,
seven days a week? How do you think
that might affect your immune system?"
Or, "Which way are you going on this
chart if you don't do something to stop
this process?"
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Risk. Make sure patients understand
what will likely happen to their oral and
general health if they don't move forward.
This is a key step.
Financial arrangements
The biggest problem I've run into when
training treatment coordinators on financial
arrangements is pretty simple: They don't
listen to the patient.
Example 1:
Patient says: "That's a lot of money. I
can't imagine spending that much money
on this." What treatment coordinator hears:
"I can't afford it."
But "I can't afford it" isn't what the
patient said! You have to read between the
lines. What the patient is really communicating is that the dentistry isn't valuable to
her. You have to teach staff to "tune their
ear" and really listen to the patient.
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown August 2016