A Healthy Way to Look at Numbers in Hygiene

Episode #421 with Christina Byrne

Do you want to provide high-quality care for your patients? Then you need to track some numbers! And to share the most important metrics you should be tracking in hygiene, Kirk Behrendt brings back Christina Byrne, director of operations at ACT Dental. Kirk and Christina explain why you should care about those metrics and how to have the numbers conversation — because what gets measured gets improved! To learn more about the metrics that matter, listen to Episode 421 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Tracking metrics will lead to a healthier team culture.

Knowing your numbers will improve your patients’ health.

Numbers will measure the value you provide to patients.

Metrics will measure the hygienists’ value to the practice.

Quotes:

“[Metrics in hygiene] are important for a couple of reasons . . . I think it’s important for hygienists to be responsible clinicians, providers. They support the profitability of the practice. And that's all secondary. The first and foremost reason to do this is because knowing what our numbers are and improving our numbers is only going to improve the health of our patient base. The key to the success of a healthy hygiene department or a healthy practice is how healthy are our patients. And we can't say, ‘Oh, yeah. Our patients are all healthy. We’re doing a great job. They're coming in every six months.’ If you don't track that information, you really don't know. You're just going by a feeling. And feelings, that's not telling you the true story.” (1:52—2:47)

“I think the key thing to start with, as a dentist, is to meet with your hygiene team and talk about your philosophy of care. Talk about what's important. Talk about, ‘What do we believe about periodontal disease? What do we believe about the health of our patients?’ Even, ‘What do we believe about when to take radiographs? Should we do a caries risk assessment? What are our thoughts on fluoride, on all of these things?’ When you can position that “why” of why we think this is important and how does it benefit our patients, then you can say, ‘Okay, great. We all align, and we all agree that fluoride is an important protocol or an important medicament that we can use for our patients. How are we going to track that we’re doing that?’” (3:04—3:55)

“What gets measured improves. But what gets measured and reported on improves exponentially. And I can say that in all of my experience working with teams that that is absolutely the case, that if we just skate by and we never, ever track numbers, then they're not going to improve. They're just not.” (7:11—7:30)

“I have a lot of offices that I work with, and the team member will say, ‘I never get a thank you. I never get recognized for what I do.’ Well, here is the perfect opportunity to get recognized for what you do. If you are reporting on your numbers every week and they're increasing, then that's great. Now, that's your recognition, if that's what your goal is. The other piece of it too, and I tell team members this all the time, you are going to measure your value, if you will, to the practice based on these numbers.” (8:17—8:50)

“You have two responsibilities as a team member: you have to align with the core values, and you have to get results. And so, if I'm not tracking results, then how can I then sit down in a meeting with my boss and ask for a raise or ask for some increase to my compensation? So, if I'm a hygienist and I can present to my doctor, ‘Hey, in the last six months, this is what I've done. I increased this. I increased that. I've converted a lot of patients to comprehensive exam. I had conversations about restorative dentistry, and then they scheduled,’ that gives you some power as the team member to come to that meeting with the...