The Nature of the Dental BSC

This may come as a surprise to you, but the practice of dentistry is just like any other industry that is in need of metrics to ensure profit and efficient management. Thus, there is a need to implement the appropriate dental BSC or dental balanced scorecard with the proper metrics towards the achievement of corporate goals and objectives.

To manage operations more effectively, there is then the need to implement the right KPIs or key performance indicators. However, you should be careful when choosing which KPIs to use. Do not make the common mistake of just going with the format developed by the renowned team efforts of Norton and Kaplan because there really is so much more to KPIs for a dental balanced scorecard aside from the financial aspect. A holistic approach has to be implemented so that there would be ample improvement in the whole system. Another reason behind the need to take on a holistic approach is the fact that dental practice is based on service, and not on products. It would be easier for the typical manufacturing firm to have the ordinary balanced scorecard because it would deal with just products. There would then be a lot of quantifiable aspects that you can use for the implementation of the BSC. This, however, is not really something that you can say about the industry of dentistry. But with the implementation of the proper metrics, operations will definitely be done at a faster pace and patients will succeed in having better and more reliable services.

Moreover, the formulation of the KPIs should be done only after the job is thoroughly analyzed. Aside from the nature of the job, it is also important to analyze the industry itself as well as the external aspects that are at play in the environment of dentistry. There are areas or directions that you can make use of when implementing metrics. The first is the Financial Perspective, which of course, would pertain to the revenue aspect of the industry. The metrics to be included here are percentage increase in operating expenses, practice accounts receivable, and the collection percentage as well.

Next on the list is the Customer Perspective, which is pertains to anything that concerns the customer. Commonly used metrics include the number of new patients, the number of patient referrals, and the number of customer complaints. The Internal Perspective comes next, with focus on the internal processes that take place in the industry. Commonly used metrics include the number of clinician hours scheduled and the cancellation percentage at hand. Lastly, Operational Efficiency pertains to the operations of the clinic itself, with commonly used metrics including new patient conversion rate, case acceptance ratio, and many more.

With the implementation of the dental BSC, there will certainly be more effective utilization of the resources in the clinic. With better insights into the very nature of the job itself, you can certainly expect more revenue. Thus, you should definitely be in touch with the appropriate metrics to use when developing your own dental balanced scorecard.