This checklist was developed based on the work habits of a hygienist with an “old school” work ethic who gives her employer an honest day’s work and then some. She doesn’t need to be told what to do when there is downtime. She just does it. Hygiene downtime happens, and you have the right to have your salaried hygienist take a longer lunch break when there’s an open slot before lunch or if the last hygiene slot of the day is open however, as many staff live paycheck to paycheck, I recommend getting the employee’s agreement to stay productive instead.  ...

Vacations (full time employees only): One week of paid vacation during second and third years. Two weeks of paid vacation for the fourth and subsequent years. Note: If you set up as above paid vacation time is considered earned at the conclusion of each year of employment. If the employee leaves or is dismissed one day into the next employment year, vacation has already been earned and should be paid out. PTO (full time employees only): PTO accumulates at a rate of one half day per month after 90 days of employment. At the end of the year any unused PTO can...

There are four dental front office/front desk positions/functions. Call them what you want but they basically break down as follows: Receptionist Scheduling Secretary Accounts Manager Treatment Coordinator In a very small office one employee does them all.  As a practice grows two staff handle the jobs/functions. The natural breakdown would be to combine the four jobs/functions as follows: Receptionist/Scheduling Secretary Accounts Manager/Treatment Coordinator Then in a really big practice you might have one person for each position or some other combination such as two receptionists, a Scheduling Coordinator and a Treatment Coordinator/Accounts Manager. Cross training has its place but it is...

The real secret of stat management in your dental practice is to concentrate on actions that are easier to control by the individual employees as opposed to the "bigger" numbers that should be monitored but are the END RESULT of the "smaller" numbers. This may sound a bit complex but it is actually quite simple and a thousand times more effective than putting too much attention on the end result numbers (Production, Collections NPs, etc.). Example: "Big" stat:  # of Reactivated Patients To only concentrate on the big stat of # of reactivated patients is almost useless. You are much better to...