In the business world, the words “problem” and “opportunity” are often used interchangeably. “Boy, we have a huge growth opportunity in this market” is often just a positive way of saying “Wow, OK, we haven’t done well here so far.” What often defines which word is used, is whether we actually know how to turn the current “problem” around and take advantage of the “opportunity” before us. Otherwise, it pretty much stays a “problem.”
Increasing treatment plan acceptance has always been one of the biggest “problems” for a dental office to solve. In fact, a 2012 survey by the “Inside Dentistry” magazine placed treatment plan acceptance as the third biggest challenge of practicing dentistry – behind only attracting new patients and getting them to schedule routine recall appointments.
The good news is, Patterson Dental and RevenueWell are committed to developing technology that recognizes this challenge and helps turn it around into an exciting new way to grow your practice. This year, the big news is integration between the CAESY Cloud chairside patient education suite and the RevenueWell patient communication software.
Users of CAESY Cloud already know the impact that professional multimedia presentations can have on treatment case acceptance. Using CAESY during a consultation can really help the patient understand the need for and the impact of proposed treatment. Yet because patients are restricted to viewing the presentations in a somewhat stressful environment, and are likely to be in a hurry to get going, their ability to absorb and retain all the information they need to make a decision may be impaired. Could anything be done to extend the power of CAESY outside the four walls of the office?
RevenueWell’s solution was to integrate CAESY Cloud presentations into its existing treatment plan follow-up feature. With RevenueWell, any patient with an unscheduled treatment plan (which is pulled directly from Eaglesoft or another practice management software) would receive an automatic email that includes a description of the procedure, the estimated cost, estimated insurance coverage, and now a 3D CAESY video to help the patient visualize a successful clinical outcome. This way, patients can view presentations on proposed treatment at their own pace, at a time convenient to them, and in consultation with family members if desirable. Once they are done educating themselves, they can even electronically request their treatment appointment.
Does this work? The data tells a very conclusive story. An average RevenueWell customer who uses the combined solution sends 68 follow-up messages to their patients, gets an additional 2.7 treatment plans scheduled and generates $1,547 in incremental production every month. What’s the opportunity at your practice?
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