A common narrative for a dental practice is preventive care. That same preventive mindset applies not only to your patient care, but also to how you can utilize data analytics for risk assessment and risk management in your dental practice.
Before sharing the practical benefits associated with your dental practice data, it’s essential to evaluate your current risk awareness.
Risk assessment isn’t paranoia, it’s proactive
There are inherent risks within healthcare — dentistry included. You might be tempted to underestimate some risks, but others carry heavier consequences.
- Clinical errors.
- Patient dissatisfaction.
- Potential legal liabilities.
Risk assessment in your dental practice is more than forecasting an approaching hazardous situation. Rather, it puts you in a proactive position to analyze your daily systems, procedures and potential outcomes and to anticipate how (and if) something could go wrong.
Being risk-aware helps with how you approach risk management in your dental practice.
Identifying and anticipating potential risks (assessment) synchs with the strategies to reduce or eliminate them.
- What protocols and systems can you improve?
- Are there equipment updates or upgrades to be made?
- Is your staff adequately aware and trained?
Risk assessment alongside a risk management strategy addresses these questions and more.
But…
What about risks that might slip under the radar or new risks that evolve and emerge?
That’s where data analytics software delivers!
Use data analytics to support your dental practice risk assessment and risk management strategies
You have access to a substantial amount of data in your dental practice. Some data is consistently utilized on a daily basis.
Other data is raw and perhaps unused.
Data analytics helps you maintain high levels of risk awareness.
- Turn raw (unused) data into actionable insights.
- Make more informed and timely decisions about patient care, team inefficiencies and procedural inefficiencies, further reducing your risk potential.
Identify trends that have risk potential
This isn’t about being overly cautious or tentative. But using data to spot an upward trend in patient complaints or negative reviews can help you make on the spot improvements.
This type of data helps you address problems before they worsen and potentially lead to patient attrition.
Data analysis can also create awareness about systemic problems within your daily operations.
Data has the potential to reveal complicated procedural insights that can help drive focused training and the revision of certain care protocols.
Track KPIs (key performance indicators) and their risk-awareness potential
Tracking KPIs and other metrics isn’t an isolated task. Rather it’s an ongoing strategy that provides insights into the effectiveness of changes and revisions to your systems.
The desired result: determining if changes are reducing your risks and ultimately improving patient outcomes.
It’s a solution focus…not a problem focus!
Create an appreciation for data analytics across your practice culture
Lower the risk and increase team and patient satisfaction. This requires creating “literacy” around your practice data.
- Train your team to value and utilize data within their respective roles.
- Invest in technology that provides your team with the necessary tools to “mine” and use data.
- Encourage a proactive mindset about risk assessment and risk management using the predictive capabilities of data analytics.
There are deeper levels of risk assessment and risk management. Over time, you could discover that utilizing data analytics helps carry the weight of risk assessment for you and your team.
- Turn potential risks into opportunities for improving your systems.
- Promote accountability and safety to ensure better dental patient care.
Why not further explore how a dedicated data analytics platform can interface with your dental practice management system?
Check out the following on-topic resources:
Gain Transparency on Your Dental Practice’s Strengths and Weaknesses
How Data-Driven Goals and Strategies Align With Dental Practice Operational Success
Experience a simple and proven system designed to maximize your dental practice data
The Jarvis Analytics platform helps ensure that you’re tracking the important metrics and staying on track with your goals as your dental practice grows and expands.
Experience Jarvis in action. Request a demo today!
Or…
Contact us for more information about data tracking that leads to standout patient care and organizational profitability.
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