Who is ”minding the store” of your practice?

The actual practicing of orthodontics is just one of the items that require the orthodontist’s time. This also pertains to attracting new patients, improving case acceptance, working smarter, completing treatment on time, keeping current with technology, and maintaining profitability. The orthodontist’s ability (and availability) to manage the business of the practice while simultaneously serving as practitioner can be overwhelming. There never seems to be enough hours in the day even though “minding the store” is crucial to the practice’s success.

With the demands of day-to-day operations, it’s easy to neglect the business of information. And when you don’t have the information you need, you can’t identify problems or make decisions to alter your course. This accountability piece, the information to measure the health of the practice, is only as important as the action that follows in order to foster real growth. Gaidge provides a unique solution to solve both sides of this equation: instant access to critical orthodontic practice information, as well as the insight to know what issues require what solutions. 

Gaidge, a web-based software platform, is equal parts “practice performance monitor” and “orthodontic practice management tool.” By bridging directly to most orthodontic management software, Gaidge automatically generates accurate, daily assessments of the practice’s “health.”  Using industry stan-dard benchmarks, Gaidge alerts the practice to specific areas or departments that are lagging, providing guidance to understand and remedy the “blip” before it becomes a trend.

Consider, as an example of what Gaidge provides to the practice, the means by which you attain similar metrics, and how you would seek remedy:    

• Is the phone ringing?  Are new patients continuing to call our office?  Are we engaging them in a way that assures they will attend the exam? Are we converting patients who have had treatment recommended into starts? 
• What is our case acceptance rate, and how does it compare with the same month over the past 5 years? How does it compare with other similar practices in my region?
• Can we set and track both short-term and long-term goals for achievement levels on a daily basis?  The Gaidge “Leader Board” tool does exactly this.
• Do we suffer from costly interruptions to my schedule (forcing me to work more days and lose profitability), and to what extent
  • Are there a high number of no-shows?
  • Are there excessive emergency repair visits?
  • Are there too many retention visits?
  • What is the real expense of having too many patients go over their estimated completion date (the most costly issue there is to your practice)?

The above is not meant to send you into a panic attack. The point is that having immediate, daily access to this information, as well as a tool set to manage any “blips,” can be a game-changer for the orthodontist, the team, and their consultant. While most orthodontic management platforms can produce a myriad of “two-dimensional” reports, the process of gathering and assembling them into accurate, actionable elements would require a full-time statistician with significant orthodontic prowess. Gaidge makes the ability to “mind your store” vastly easier, faster, and more manageable. Your “store” does not have to be so overwhelming.

To discover how Gaidge can assist your practice in moving to the next level, visit www.gaidge.com or call (800) 287-3396 to schedule a demonstration for you and your team.

This information was provided by OrthoBanc.