Three Key Metrics to Evaluate Your Dental Practice’s Performance
When December arrives, dental practices face their annual year-end rush while simultaneously trying to assess their yearly performance. How did we perform? What does our patient flow look like for the new year? How many outstanding treatment plans are in our practice management system? So many questions. Often, this exercise can be overwhelming, leading many to focus solely on their production figures. The million-dollar question is, do production figures alone really paint a complete picture of the performance or health of your practice? Unlikely. This article explores three key metrics that any practice can measure without getting overwhelmed.
The metrics in discussion involve the three main stages of the patient cycle: attracting new patients, treatment acceptance, and patient retention.
New Patients
This is a self-explanatory metric that most practices measure to determine the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. However, this metric is more insightful when additional dimensions are considered. The new patient numbers alone are useful, but when you add other factors, the story unravels is quite compelling.
Let’s start with the basic definition of a new patient.
“A patient who had their first treatment at your practice in 2024”
Now, let’s add another dimension: Treatment Value. This adds context. Imagine 60% of your new patients came in for that $150 Exam & Clean you promoted and had no further treatment—would you still consider that new patient number to be an accurate representation of your patient base gain? With this information, you can make a more informed assessment.
Let’s look at this from another perspective by adding a different dimension: lapsed or lost patients. Using the conventional 18-month mark, you could calculate lost patients as those whose 18-month anniversary since their last visit fell in 2024. Let’s say your new patient number was 150 for the year, and the lost patients were 120. You can now calculate a metric with more context: Net Patient Gain.
Net Patient Gain = New Patients – Lost Patients
Depending on where your practice is located, what stage of the business lifecycle your practice is at, and other factors, you can now make a fair assessment of your practice’s performance.
These are only two examples of how new patient numbers can be used to gain deeper insight into your practice. There are many other ways, some of which we’ll discuss when we tackle the other two metrics.
Treatment Acceptance
Regardless of the practice management system you use, Treatment Acceptance is one of the most difficult metrics to measure because there are so many elements and interpretations to it and not one single practice management or business intelligence system is able to cover all aspects. Furthermore, there is a heavy reliance on the users to maintain accurate records.
Let me illustrate this with a scenario and some follow-up questions.
The dental practitioner, after an examination and diagnosis, presents the patient with three treatment options:
- Option A – $400
- Option B – $1,600
- Option C – $4,000
The patient chooses Option B ($1,600). They have had $600 worth of treatment and have scheduled another $500 in treatment.
How would one calculate the Treatment Acceptance rate?
- Is it by All Options Presented?
Treatment Acceptance = (Accepted Treatment ÷ Total Value of All Options) × 100
= ($1,600 ÷ ($400 + $1,600 + $4,000)) × 100
= ($1,600 ÷ $6,000) × 100 = 28.6%
- Is it by Highest Revenue Opportunity?
Treatment Acceptance = (Accepted Treatment ÷ Highest Priced Option) × 100
= ($1,600 ÷ $4,000) × 100 = 40%
- Should we ignore the two rejected options and go by the Accepted Plan Only?
Treatment Acceptance = (Accepted Treatment ÷ Value of Accepted Plan) × 100
= ($1,600 ÷ $1,600) × 100 = 100%
- When the option/plan is accepted, do we consider the entire $1,600 as accepted?
- Do we only calculate the work completed and scheduled as accepted?
Treatment Acceptance = ((Completed Treatment + Scheduled Treatment) ÷ Value of Accepted Plan) × 100
= (($600 + $500) ÷ $1,600) × 100
= ($1,100 ÷ $1,600) × 100 = 68.75%
- If the patient chose Option B only 2.5 months after it was presented, do we attribute the acceptance to the month it was created or accepted?
Some of these questions may seem a little out there for some of us, but I have seen practices calculating Treatment Acceptance using all the methods mentioned.
If an automated system were to calculate treatment acceptance, which method would we advise it to use? Regardless of the method used, there is a reliance on users correctly marking Options A and C as rejected/inactive for any automated calculation to be successful.
You may have your own method of calculating Treatment Acceptance. The key is using a consistent approach that you can use to measure year-on-year performance.
Similarly to the New Patients metric, you can add other dimensions to Treatment Acceptance to create more context. Some commonly used examples are Acceptance by Patient Type (New vs Existing), Acceptance by Treatment Type, and Acceptance by Treatment Value.
Recall Effectiveness
Although calculating Recall Effectiveness is not as tricky as Treatment Acceptance, there are multiple interpretations and methods when calculating recall effectiveness. Some of the common methods include,
Pre-booked recall appointment attendance rate
Attendance Rate = (Number of Pre-booked Recall Appointments Attended ÷ Number of Pre-booked Recall Appointments) × 100
Recall Appointment Booking Rate (typically within 14 or 30 days after a reminder)
Booking Rate = (Number of Recall Appointments Made ÷ Number of Recall Reminders Sent) × 100
A variation of the above is calculating only the appointments made and kept as a result of a recall reminder.
The challenge lies in the fact that most practices use a combination of Attendance Rate and recall Booking Rate, which combines the outcomes of these calculations.
Regardless of how you calculate your practice’s Recall Effectiveness, it’s essential to keep it consistent to set targets and measure success. With recalls, you can add dimensions such as Patient Type (New vs Existing), Reminder Type (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.), and even the medium (SMS, Email, Phone) to create more context around the numbers.
If all or some of the methods described above are overwhelming or too tedious, there are three accurate recall metrics that you can use as ‘catch-all’ as they do not rely on users correctly updating the records or most other factors.
- Active Patient Recall Engagement – The percentage of active patients who returned for a recall exam.
Active Patient Recall Engagement = (Number of Active Patients Returned for Recall Exam in 2024 ÷ Number of Active Patients at the Beginning of 2024) × 100
- New Patient Recall Engagement– The percentage of new patients who returned for a recall exam.
New Patient Recall Engagement = (Number of New Patients in the First Half of 2024 Who Returned for a Recall Exam in the Second Half ÷ Number of New Patients in the First Half of 2024) × 100
- Recall Compliance Rate – The percentage of patients who adhere to their recommended recall interval.
Recall Compliance Rate = (Number of Patients Attending a Recall Exam Within Recommended Interval ÷ Total Number of Patients Due for Recall) × 100
Conclusion
While measuring dental practice performance can seem daunting, focusing on these three key metrics—New Patients, Treatment Acceptance, and Recall Effectiveness—provides a solid foundation for assessment. The key is maintaining consistency in your measurement methods and adding relevant dimensions to create meaningful context. By understanding these metrics deeply, practice owners can move beyond simple production figures to gain genuine insights into their practice’s health and growth potential. Remember, it’s not just about the numbers themselves but the story they tell about your practice’s performance and its direction.
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