HCD Headlines 11-26-2024
- Clint Henrie, DMD
- Nov 26, 2024
- 4 min read
Hello, Team! Can you believe Thanksgiving is on Thursday? Crazy how fast the year is closing out. Please remember the office will be closed Thursday-Friday this week. If you do not have a place for Thanksgiving dinner, but would like a place to go, please let me know. We'd love to have you with us, or I can bring you leftovers.
December Schedule
Here is the tentative schedule for December. Princess will be out all month. DCH and DAW will be out at various times, too. If you haven't turned in a vacation request, please know that we're counting on you to be here and can definitely use your help.
And side note on the schedule... When the schedule falls apart, we still need your help! There are many ways to support and/or rebuild the schedule that will help all of us to "Protect the Assets of the Business" - specifically the schedule in this situation.
Phone calls to patients on the ASAP list,
Phone calls to patients with broken appointments,
Phone calls to patients with unscheduled appointments,
Phone calls to patients with unscheduled treatment,
Phone calls to patients that are overdue for hygiene,
Phone calls to patients that are currently due for hygiene,
Phone calls to patients that are going to be due for hygiene,
I guess what I'm getting at is that we would love you to make phone calls...
Other options include completing training with new team members, deep cleaning operatories, restocking rooms, supply inventory, sterilization, OSHA records, and even creating content for social media.
Being actively engaged in building up your schedule, your team, and your skills will make the day go more smoothly for everyone. It'll also show your team members that you're willing to "Serve One Another" by doing tasks that may not be in your immediate job description. Thank you for keeping an eye out for one another.
Schedule Perfect Appointment
As a follow-up to our team meeting, here are some important points to remember when scheduling the perfect appointment in either the doctor's or the hygienist's chair.
Make sure there are only 2 exams per provider per hour in the hygiene chairs.
Schedule in the templates ONLY.
Do your best to schedule within the templates as they currently are, and then move as needed.
Do not move the black templates. Save those for NPEX or NPHYG.
A new info card has been made to help you remember all the steps for scheduling a perfect appointment and how to prepare for the huddle. I'll have them available at the morning huddle tomorrow.
Referral Slips
We have updated the referral names in the system to be under the office NOT the provider. Thanks to Lauren's help, we have the referral specialists listed with their office on an info card which I'll hand out in the morning huddle. Remember to put the provider's name in the referral slip if you'd prefer your patient to see someone specific. Otherwise, you will be referring them to any available provider at that office.
Updated Appointment Checklist
You may have noticed the change in the checklist within the appointment. We deleted some superfluous things and added a few necessary items for huddle prep. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding when to check an item or not.
Hygiene Appointments
As a reminder when scheduling hygiene appointments, please keep the appointments marked in the appropriate hygiene templates. Every hygiene appointment is either 60 or 90 minutes long with the rare 30 minutes.
Here is our standard for hygiene timing:
60 Minute Appts can contain:
Prophy or Perio Maintenance
Visual Exam
LBR
1x SRP
90 Minute Appts can contain:
Prophy or Perio Maintenance
RCEX - periodic exam and BWs and/or pano
LBR
Periodontal evaluation
2x SRP
30 Minutes ADDED for:
Whitening
Additional SRP quad
There's always an exception to the rule. In these scenarios, we must flag the patient's account to ensure each appointment is scheduled as needed.
The templates have been updated for all hygienists. Please make sure we always schedule within the templates. All of them can move EXCEPT for black ones a.k.a. NP templates.
Ergo Check-In
Have you been feeling pain or tension in your neck or getting headaches? One of the reasons may be due poor positioning of yourself and your patients during treatment. Learn more about causes, prevention and treatment in this article from Dental Economics: "Trapezius myalgia: Making dentistry a pain in the neck—or head."
And with that said, let's do more stretches during our team meeting. Everyone up for that today?
Treatment During Work Hours
Please remember to CLOCK OUT whenever you are doing treatment for yourself. This is not considered work time and you should not be compensated during that time. If you are planning on being a patient for someone practicing treatment, please let me know before you proceed so that we're all on the same page regarding actual time worked.
Dentrix Training Options
We'd like your help in deciding what our next Dentrix training should be with our team. Here are some options on my list. Please send a response to your team of what you'd like to see to help us ensure we're using Dentrix to its full extent. This response will serve as a notice to your department that you read the headlines today.
Linking cases
Phasing treatment plans
Updating case status including complete and rejected
Referring treatment
We are very grateful for all of you. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and are able to relax and rejuvenate yourself 100%! We have so many things to be grateful for, and we hope as you list them out one by one, you'll be able to see all the good things in your life. Each one of you are on our list with multiple hearts and smile doodles surrounding your name.
Thank you!
Whakawhetai Koe
Ua Tsaug
谢谢
Gracias
Samalat Po
Cảm ơn
Merci
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