Dental practice health check: 10 questions, 2 minutes

The practice looked fine last month. The schedule was full, the deposit matched, nobody quit. This check is not about whether things look fine. It is about whether you could answer ten plain questions about your own practice today, from your own records, without asking anyone.

How the score works

Ten questions. Each is yes or no. A yes means you know the answer now or could find it in your practice software in under five minutes. Each yes scores one point. The result is a score out of ten with a short reading. Nothing is sent anywhere; the sum happens on this page.

Answer honestly. A no is not a failing; it is a report you have not yet run.

The check

1. Can you say the dollar value of treatment presented but not booked, right now?

Yes No

2. Do you know how many hygiene patients are overdue for recall with nothing booked?

Yes No

3. Did someone look at yesterday's deleted or edited payments and adjustments?

Yes No

4. Was yesterday's deposit reconciled against the day sheet by someone other than the person who posted it?

Yes No

5. Do you know the dollar total of insurance claims older than 90 days?

Yes No

6. Do you know your hygiene reappointment rate for last month?

Yes No

7. Can you name production per scheduled hour for each provider last month?

Yes No

8. Do you have a list of patients with unused insurance benefits and open treatment?

Yes No

9. Was every Google review from the last 30 days answered within a week?

Yes No

10. Are the hours, phone number and services on your Google Business Profile correct as of this month?

Yes No

What each question is really asking

Questions 1, 2 and 8 are about found revenue: treatment, recall and benefits that your records already hold. Questions 3 and 4 are about protection: whether a changed payment would be noticed, and whether one person controls both posting and depositing. Questions 5, 6 and 7 are the running numbers an owner should see monthly. Questions 9 and 10 are the outside view, which patients see before they see you.

Each no has a report behind it in Open Dental, Dentrix or Eaglesoft. The guides on this site cover them: unscheduled treatment plans, deleted payments, and the AR report in Dentrix as a start.

What Calibic does with these ten

Calibic reads your practice software, read-only, and answers questions 1 through 8 every morning without a report being run: Focus today and the Treatment list (LIVE), Smart Recall (LIVE), Protect for payment and adjustment changes (LIVE), the AR and benefits cards (LIVE), and the provider dashboard (LIVE). Review monitoring for question 9 is LIVE and the drafted replies are BETA; the Local ranking view that watches your profile for question 10 is LIVE. It is built for HIPAA, and a Business Associate Agreement is sent with every sign up. One plan at $149 per location per month, or $119 billed annually.

If your score was under six, the no-show cost calculator is a good next number to put a figure on. Or see the product overview.