Summer Slump? Use It to Your Practice’s Advantage

Summer Slump? Use It to Your Practice’s Advantage

Unless you work in a specialty field, many general dentists see a dip in new patients in May and June.¹ Most theorize it’s because a trip to the dentist just doesn’t compare to a trip to the beach. However, this down time doesn’t have to mean wasted time. Instead, use the slower summer months to reevaluate your practice systems and take advantage of making any updates or changes while the practice is quiet.

Start with your practice management system, the “brain” of your practice. During busier months, it’d be hard to imagine switching up your software with so many appointments to manage. However, there are several ways to update your systems without experiencing too much disruption to your day.

Reach Your Patients, No Matter Where They Take Their Summer Vacation

You could start small by enhancing your current platform with an add-on module. These modules can do everything from aiding in patient recall to online reputation management. Carestream Dental offers Patient Manager for all its practice management platforms to engage with your patients before they even walk through the door. For example, since almost half of consumers prefer texts for appointment reminders,² Smart Messaging within Patient Manager lets practices automate pre- and post-appointment patient care text messages. So, you can make sure your patients remember their appointments after summer vacation, even if their mind is still at the beach.

Imaging Chairside or Poolside

What if you decide to take advantage of the quieter early summer months and take a vacation yourself? Before you hit the road be sure to upgrade to Sensei Imaging. Sensei Imaging pushes your clinical images to the cloud, so if an emergency arises while you’re out you have centralized secure access to your patient images from any computer or laptop with an internet connection. You can store and review diagnostic images—yes, even from the beach—without having to change your current imaging hardware.

The Cloud: More Than a Vacation, Why Not Move Here?

If Sensei Imaging gives you a taste of the convenience cloud computing offers, then you may want to take the next step and switch your on-premise software system to a hosted version, or go even bigger with Sensei Cloud. Switching to the cloud gives you access to your files anywhere, anytime. It’s a secure and HIPAA-compliant way to manage patient care and your practice.

These updates can get your practice ready to handle the slew of new patients that many practices see near the end of the summer as people switch from “vacation mode” and prepare for the busy fall. Learn more about how you can turn a quiet month into productive one for your practice here.

¹Rossi, Bill. “Seasonality in Dentistry.” Dental Economics, March 2005.
² McKinney, Maureen. “Appointment Reminders: Which Methods Do Patients Prefer?” Phreesia, 18 Oct. 2018, https://www.phreesia.com/2018/10/01/blog-appointment-reminders-which-methods-do-patient-prefer/  Accessed 16 May