PURPOSE: To reactivate all those patients who have not ...



HYGIENE REACTIVATION

CHECKLIST OF TO DO’S

PURPOSE: To reactivate all those patients who have not been in the office in the last 6 months to a year. Also to get those patients in who have not completed their treatment program.

PROGRAM INFORMATION: There are two basic actions that you will do to reactive patients using this program:

a. Send them a letter.

b. Follow up the letter with a call.

Section 1: REACTIVATION LETTER

1. Assign this program to one of your office staff. This person will be called the Reactivation Secretary in this program.

________________

(Doctor )

2. Pull all charts of patients who fit the following criteria:

a) Have been in within the last 12 months but failed to show for an appointment.

b) Have missed a recall appointment and have not been in for over 12 months.

3. Prepare a letter using the office stationary modeled after the attached example.

4. Copy the letter onto your stationary. Do not send out anything of inferior quality in the way of copies or the quality of the paper, the office image must be professional quality. You might want to send the letter on nice colored “resumé” paper and envelope.

5. Address envelopes to each patient from step #2 above.

6. Send out the letters.

Make reactivation of patients a game; set a goal of reactivating everyone.

Do not get serious. I have never seen seriousness be a winning ingredient in

making an office successful. HAVE FUN!!!!!

Section II: REACTIVATION CALLS

Additional Information: You will get some responses from the letter, but just as important, if not more, is the follow-up phone call. The letter sets up the call. The person making the calls must not be "careful" or "timid." Such an approach will decrease results.

1. Make a copy of the "Reactivation Script" (see attached).

2. Practice the "Reactivation Script" until you can do it naturally and

comfortably. Do this by having another staff member or the doctor play the role of the patient being reactivated, while the person who will be doing the reactivation practices the script. Don't fail to do this step thoroughly. It is the major factor in reactivation success.

3. Go through your inactive patient files breaking them down into the following categories:

a. Patients who have not been in for treatment from 12 to 18 months and have not responded to the recall system.

b. Patients who have not been in for treatment from 18 to 24 months.

c. Patients not in for treatment in over 24 months.

d. Patients who have been seen within the last year, but have failed to show for treatment.

4. Start with group "a" above, using the reactivation script, call and appoint them for a cleaning.

NOTE* Reactivation calls are best done in the late afternoon and early evening hours as this is when people are most usually able to be contacted, unless you know the patient prefers to be contacted at work. I suggest calling from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

5. Keep track of the following statistics so that you are able to monitor and improve the success of this program:

a. Number of calls made.

b. Number of appointments made.

c. Number of appointments kept.

6. Turn in these statistics to the doctor on a daily basis.

NOTE: If you are experiencing any difficulty, report it to the doctor so that optimum results are obtained.

(REACTIVATION LETTER SAMPLE)

Dear Patient,

Our office is currently involved in a Dental Awareness campaign and we want you to be a part of it, will you?

Our records indicate that you have not been in since _________. Can you believe that it has been so long?

Your dental health is important and we want to make it easy for you to get the care you need.

Our Offer: Simply bring in this letter and the doctor will give you an exam and necessary x-rays for $________.

You are important to us as a patient and this is our gift to you.

We will be giving you a call to set up a convenient time to set up an appointment.

See you soon!

Provider’s Name

P.S. All family members are welcome to take advantage of this offer.

PATIENT REACTIVATION SCRIPT

NOTE: Before doing a phone reactivation of patients a letter needs to be sent out.

Included in this program is a sample letter that you will be using. Do not start the

phone calls without preceding it with the letter.

SUCCESSFUL PHONE BASICS:

1. Review the patient file before calling. Quickly review the file for information

about the patient, i.e., last treatment received or needed, family members or

children also seen in the office, etc.

2. Use the information you obtained about the person in your conversation to

show them that you made an effort to know about them and their family. Show

them that you care for them.

3. Do not be timid or careful. This will be a determining factor in whether the

patient gets needed health care. Some people are not anxious to come in for

services because of fear. Do not let their fear stop you in being effective at your

job. When a patient comes in for care they win and so do you and the office. You

must be willing to help the patient overcome barriers.

DIALOGUE: "Hello Mr. Smith, this is _____________ from Dr. ________ office.

How are you?" (Using the information you found above, engage the person in

conversation, mention something about them or their family, or about the work

they had done or that needs to be done).

"Doctor(Name) was reviewing his charts and noticed that you haven't been in since

______________ and asked me to call you."

*Note: Ask them how they are doing in regards the areas they have had work on

before. Let the patient talk. Do not make them feel unimportant.

"The doctor considers your dental health very important and that you get regular

exams (complete their treatment, get a cleaning, say whatever is appropriate) and

would like to have you come in and see him. When is the best time to schedule: in

the beginning of the week or in the latter part of the week?" Continue until you

have an appointment. Notice that you do not give an alternative to not come in or

ask the patient to decide if they want to come in.

ALTERNATIVE DIALOGUE FOR PATIENTS IN

CATEGORIES "B" AND BEYOND

(See "Patient Reactivation" program for descriptions of categories)

If the patient has not been in for over 18 months, schedule them for an

examination. Introduce you self as above and develop agreement or rapport with them.

"The doctor considers your dental health very important and he wants to have you

come in and see him. Many dental problems go undetected and can lead to unnecessary difficulties." Schedule as above or continue if warranted. "When you came in for your initial exam, problems were found that needed to be taken care of. Quite often these problems worsen if left uncorrected. Since you are a previous patient, the doctor offers an exam at a courtesy fee of $10. We need to make an appointment for this exam. Are you free at the beginning of the week or is later better?" Continue to get an exact appointment.

PATIENTS WHO WILL NOT SCHEDULE

If the Reactivation Secretary cannot get the patient to schedule, the file is passed to

the doctor and the doctor must call the patient.

Often, just the fact that the doctor is calling will get some patients to commit.

The "hat" the doctor is wearing at this point is quality control and you must

discover why the patient is not scheduling. Following are areas that need to be

checked:

1. Patient does not see that the care is needed, educate them as needed.

2. Find out if they had a negative experience in the office, receptionist was rude,

billing was incorrect, felt overcharged, felt the doctor was only in it for money, etc.

Once you find the correct reason the patient will stop resisting. The key is finding

the real explanation for their resistance. To accomplish this you must be willing to confront whatever comes up without reacting defensively.

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