Maximize Your Dental Practice Daily Huddles

“Huddle up!”

That directive is a type of “rallying call.” For your dental practice it’s that and more. How you maximize your dental practice daily huddle creates momentum and drives productivity.

Truth is, your morning huddle is a stale routine or it’s a catalyst for everything you do throughout the day. Your care standard, team dynamics, and profitability are influenced by the tone of your morning huddle.

So much value from a small (but essential) daily time investment

Time-wise what are we talking? 15 minutes…max?

It’s surprising that a mere quarter of an hour investment can carry so much weight. It does if you’re covering the daily essentials.

Research has shown that practices who value a daily, morning huddle time “outproduce practices that don’t by 30%” on average.¹

Here’s where those producing practices are focusing their huddle agenda:

• Scheduling gaps and opportunities
• Scheduled patients with unscheduled treatment on record
• Plan B for cancellations and no-shows
• Team building and collaboration

An effective morning huddle requires being intentional. Covering metrics and reviewing the schedule are good but there’s more to it.

The value exists in knowing what numbers to measure. Then translating those measurables into practical actions that help your patients and improve your team’s productivity.

How to maximize your dental practice daily huddles to improve patient care and team performance

Reflect on yesterday

Each day has something positive to carry forward to the next. It’s also valuable to analyze, learn from, and leverage the negative.

Keep each in perspective as you huddle around the previous day. It’s easy to default towards failure while overlooking your “wins.”

• Follow a proven 3-to-1 ratio for daily huddle reflection (3 “wins” and 1 “loss” to improve)
• Collaborate briefly and proactively around the “one” area of improvement
• Monitor your improvement goal(s) and circle-back when necessary

Review what’s happening today

Think of your schedule as a “who” instead of a “what.” That means seeing people (patients) instead of line-item production potential.

Start from a personal perspective and work outward to their oral health plan. This helps keep you and your team engaged with each appointed patient (and their “why” relative to treatment).

• Look for unscheduled treatment on today’s scheduled patient records
• Look for unused or remaining insurance benefits within today’s scheduled patients
• Look for opportunities beyond what’s already on the day’s schedule

As cliche’ as it may sound – today’s opportunity is tomorrow’s production.

Re-evaluate for tomorrow

This is where a good relationship with your schedule pays off. A evaluative eye on your next-day’s schedule helps increase awareness and anticipation across your team.

Look at tomorrow from a who-what-where-when perspective.

• Who’s scheduled?
• What treatment is scheduled?
• Where are there openings and opportunities?
• When is the patient’s next recare, follow-up, etc.?

Ask for forward-thinking insights from a variety of team members – hygienists, assistants, associates, front-desk, management, etc. This keeps your team’s eyes on the horizon for what’s next or necessary.

Re-energize your team

Think of your morning huddle as a daily “reset button.” You have an opportunity to reboot you systems each new day.

Remember that success doesn’t happen by default. It requires being fed and fueled daily.

Your morning huddle is the perfect environment for re-energizing your team.

• Create and use visual motivation (e.g. video, whiteboard, print media, etc) around your daily schedule goals, a select KPI (Key Performance Indicator), or a patient story.
• Instill ownership in your team members through welcoming their individual input and ideas.
• High-five effort, successes, energy, and overall engagement with practice goals.

Intentional planning will enable you to maximize your dental practice morning huddles. The time and potential outcomes are too valuable to be left to chance.

Check out the following resources relevant to team building and daily huddles:

How to Use Data Analytics in Your Morning Huddle to Increase Practice Success
Evaluate Your End-of-Day Reporting Process for Your Dental Practice

Follow and track your patient data to keep your team engaged around your practice goals

The Jarvis Analytics platform helps assure that you’re tracking the important metrics and staying on-track in your daily workflows and overall practice goals.

Jarvis…

• Integrates seamlessly with your chosen practice management software/platform
• Presents the metrics you want and need in an easy-to-view dental dashboard that reduces data complexity for growing dental practices, dental groups, and DSOs

Experience Jarvis in action. Request a demo today!

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