What is the case acceptance percentage in your practice? This is a difficult question to answer for most practices but one of the key statistics to know and understand. This percentage tells you many things about the practice and how your patients are making decisions around the dentistry you recommend and they need. You can’t make changes to enhance your current percentage if you don’t know what it is to begin with. Would you like to have 100% case acceptance? Would you prefer to have 50% case acceptance?
The truth is, there isn’t enough information to answer that question. Is 100% of $50,000 presented in a month better than 50% of $200,000 presented in a month? For the rest of this post, let’s assume that you are presenting everything you see in the mouth. Within that context (and we will discuss case presentation in a separate blog post), excellence in case acceptance should be around 70% or better.
Case acceptance is not just a number; it is the marker your practice can use to determine the following:
- Are you successful in providing your patients with the care and treatment they deserve and want?
- Have you educated your patients?
- Are they able to make an informed decision about their treatment?
- How are your patients making decisions about their treatment?
- Are they making decisions about their treatment?
- Do they value what you are offering?
- Is it all about the money?
Case acceptance is a reflection of all of the above. Knowing what your case acceptance percentage is offers you the opportunity to celebrate your success and look for growth opportunities if it’s not where you would like it to be.
- Are you using the technology you have – intraoral camera use, CAESY Cloud or other education materials?
- How and where do you present cases to patients?
- Do you have clearly defined financial arrangements and third-party payment options?
Knowing and understanding your case acceptance percentage will keep you on the path of continued success and provide awareness if something changes and you need to course correct.
Calculating Your Case Acceptance Percentage
The simplest way to calculate your case acceptance is to divide the amount of dentistry accepted into the amount of dentistry treatment planned for a given period, let’s say for the last 90 days.
$ amount of dentistry accepted
÷
$ amount of dentistry planned
Once you have a baseline percentage, monitor on a monthly basis. OnTrack offers an ongoing resource to track and monitor results in case acceptance for your practice. Go to www.myontrack.com for more information or ask your Patterson representative about how to sign up to use OnTrack in your practice.