An Introduction to KPIs for the Dental Practice Manager

KPIs are necessary to measure and manage your business towards successful attainment of your goals and Vision. Collecting key information about your operations allows you to gain insights, to analyse and plan, and to action improvements or changes – we call this the Continual Improvement Cycle (CIC).

Tracking and analysing your KPIs will unlock pivotal information about your practice and team.  We encourage you to look at these numbers in a positive way – as an opportunity to learn and grow both as the manager and as a team.

KPIs are driven by data (both quantitative and qualitative) which helps you and your team make decisions based on real information and numbers. Used in a positive manner, this information can drive better performance and outcomes for your team, your patients and the business.

Whichever KPIs your practice decides to track and manage in your CIC, they should follow these guidelines:

1. Align with your Vision/Mission
2. Be simple to collect, read and analyse
3. Relevant to your objectives and people
4. Measurable in a consistent way
5. Realistic and achievable
6. Shared with the team
7. Positive – boosts performance

The purpose of KPIs in your dental practice

A KPI is a performance measurement that helps us understand how our practice is performing by gauging the effectiveness of various functions and processes in achieving our goals. Having the right KPIs is essential to help us understand if we are travelling on the right path towards our goals.

The objectives of the KPIs are to create a business that is healthy, efficient, resilient and experiences growth.

KPIs are based on these four key business perspectives:

1. Financial – our financial goals
2. Client – what our patients (customers) expect from us
3. Internal – quality of products, services and processes to satisfy our clients
4. People – how we successfully develop, grow and improve employees, team culture and retention

If you are at the beginning of your KPI journey with your practice, focus on the most common KPIs to help you gain an understanding of where your practice sits financially and operationally.

Most common reports generated for KPIs:

1. Production – total provider and practice invoicing
2. Adjusted production – less discounts, write offs, re-dos etc
3. Collection – receipts including deposits/reservation fees
4. Production and Collection Goals as a %
5. Top 20 Patients – by receipts/invoices
6. Debtors – outstanding monies and aged debts
7. Number of days worked
8. Cancellations (less than allowed notice)
9. Fail to Attends
10. Unused Chair Time – down time
11. Item Number Frequency
12. Recall Success – current month and pre-booking rates
13. New Patients
14. Referrals – new patient sources, marketing sources

Questions to ask when analysing your KPIs:

• Were we on target?
• If not, what was the difference?
• If not, why not – what impacted our ability to reach our goals?
• If yes, how did we achieve our goals?
• If yes, how can we maintain and better our results in the future?
• With the 4 key business perspectives in mind, what actions do we need to take to improve our performance?
• Are our targets realistic or do we need to set different goals?
• What is our action plan (and strategies)?
• Going forward, what are the most effective and positive ways to communicate and work with my team regarding our action plan?

Leadership and KPIs

As the manager, your role is to ensure the practice and employees are meeting their objectives for the business to achieve its overall goals. Your role is to lead and manage the team to this effect. You work closely with the owner to develop realistic, relevant and clear performance goals; producing plans with strategies and targets which you need to effectively communicate to the team.

Finally, develop your collaboration and delegation skills so you can effectively work with your team on the strategies and how best to implement, action and review them for optimal results.