Three Keys to Building a Terrible Template
Published by Michelle Haupt on
By Derek Dohrman
I’ve given many lectures on how to build an ideal template. I thought for this blog post I’d switch it up and give a few solid ideas on how to build a less than ideal template. Many times it’s in discovering what doesn’t work that leads us down the path of discovering what does work, so my hope is that after you read through these key concepts you’ll have all the tools necessary to build a really terrible template.
The first key is you should make your template either very simple or very complicated. Life’s about choices, and sometimes you have to choose one. In fact, I’ve found that having no template at all makes scheduling appointments very easy, and being able to execute the system is half the battle. If I can ask the patient, “What works best for you?” and always be able to accommodate, my patients will be thrilled they can come in whenever they want, and as a scheduling coordinator I’m getting a gold star for following the system to a “T”. Granted, all patients will come during 3-9 P.M., but the system is being well followed.
The other option is to make the system very complicated. Six hundred procedure codes and you’re doing well. If there’s a procedure you do once in your career, you should have a procedure code for it. If the assistants aren’t spending hours a day scrolling through procedures, then we’re simply not trying hard enough. Finding that healthy balance between simplicity and complexity in your scheduling system would be counterproductive to constructing a terrible template.
The second key is making sure your system is built for inconsistency. If your practice averages 60 patients per day, then you really should be seeing 80 patients one day and then 40 the next day. This will ensure every day is a surprise, and while potentially stressful, who wants to go through the same process every day stress-free? Also, inconsistency in the execution of your procedures is paramount. If the procedures are done in a different order every time (i.e. sometimes I take the records in the beginning of the appointment, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the end, really depends on where the doctor is), or if some assistants do it one way and the others do it another, this will help us accomplish our goals. Developing a high level of consistency in your template and procedures will only lead to a high level of efficiency and less stress, but we can all agree that that’s just boring.
The final key is to make sure you build a lot of extra cushion in your appointment times. For example, if a procedure takes 30 minutes to perform, you should book at minimum 50-60 minutes. This will ensure you stay on time with the appointment even if you’re running behind. It will also make it so appointments get spread out over more chairs than you have actual assistants, but imaginary assistants are the best and very cost efficient. It’ll also be impossible to map out the doctor time because we won’t know when that wait time will occur within the appointment, but doctors should be able to work at minimum 3-4 chairs simultaneously if need be. Building your appointment times to the actual work time will allow you to map out the doctor time most efficiently, where they may only be needed at one chair at one time, but then you lose the thrill of having eight patients waiting for you at the same time.
So there you have it. Follow these three keys, and you’ll quickly discover you’ve built a terrible template.
All kidding aside, for the few of you who made it this far in the post, here are three actionable ideas that should help avoid these scheduling pitfalls:
I’ve found that most practices should have 12-15 classes, and between 40-60 procedures. Many practices have too few classes, and as a result aren’t accounting for complexities of doctor time, but you also don’t want to make it impossible for the scheduling coordinators to follow the system by having too many classes.
Spend a couple hours with your team going through all procedures you perform at least once per day (these will form your classes), and talk through how you’d like to see procedures performed, and develop a high level of consistency within your processes.
Build any extra cushion of time into the template itself and not each appointment by crossing off 10 minutes every 60-90 minutes to allow for catch-up time and for assistants to take a break or help with sterilization. *Disclaimer – this post contains satire.
You can hear more from K. Ryan Alexander at the 2022 Users Group Meeting, January 27-29 in Las Vegas. To learn more about the UGM, or to register, visit ugm.ortho2.com.
Ryan Alexander is the president of Alexander and Sons Transitions Inc., a company founded by Ken Alexander that has been exclusively teaching management to orthodontists for the past 35 years. He has quickly risen to the top of the orthodontic consulting field as a complete practice consultant working in all areas of practice management with a unparalleled expertise in scheduling and efficiencies. Ryan also does extensive work with orthodontic practice transitions nationwide.