Find below the list of the ready-to-use KPIs for a dental practice.
- It makes sense using these KPIs as a part of your Dental Practice Business Scorecard.
- If you are looking for an example of a more general scorecard for a healthcare organization, then we recommend to check out this hospital scorecard template.
New Patient Conversion Rate
Use this KPI to find out how efficient your marketing system is. You will need to specify what lead is your qualified lead and then find out the conversion rate of the qualified leads into active patients.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategy objective
- Improve the quality of marketing materials and initial treatments
KPI category: Customers
Target: 70%
Measurement: (New Active Patients) * 100% / (Qualified leads)
Amount Paid Per Active Patient Per Year
When choosing a new marketing method it is important to know what your current cost is to get a new active patient.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategy objective:
- Gather relevant information to know the cost of attracting one active patient
- Do a data-driven decision when choosing marketing methods
KPI category: Customers
Target: $80
Measurement: (Total marketing budget per year) / (The number of new active patients per year)
Dental Practice Profitability KPI
The goal of any business is profit. Besides providing excellent dental care, you run a business. You need to know the profitability of your dental practice before the owner’s compensation. The industry average benchmark is 40%.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective: improve profitability of the dental practice
KPI category: Finance
Target: 40%
Measurement: (Operating expenses)/(Revenues generated)
Initiatives:
- Analyze costs structure and introduce cost cutting measures if necessary, for example managing FTA
Annual Production Per Full Time Employee
The annual production per one employee depends on where your dental practice is located. For the US, an excellent benchmark target would be $15,000.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Objective: Track and improve employees’ efficiency
KPI category: Education and Growth
Target: $15,000
Measurement: (The total production, $) / (Number of full time employees)
Initiatives:
- Introduce algorithms and standards to ensure higher operation performance
Treatment Acceptance Rate
You need to know how good your team explains to a patient a treatment’s risks and opportunities. Low treatment acceptance rate (industry benchmark is 50%) means that your team needs additional training and/or explicative techniques.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective:
- Make sure that patients accept suggested treatment in most cases
- Train your team to present treatment plans
KPI category: Education and growth
Target: 50% and more
Measurement: (The number of accepted treatments) * 100% / (The total number of recommended treatments)
Initiatives:
- Design visually appealing explicative materials
- Introduce training program to your team
% of Patients Who Leaves a Dental Practice
Control if the patience stops using the service because of the service price or quality or because of more natural reasons (such as relocation). If you find a problem you need to initiate quality assurance procedures, e.g. prevent similar problems from occurring.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective: Do quality assurance to prevent patients from being lost in the future
KPI Category: Customers
Target: 5%
Measurement: (The number of lost patients per year) * 100% / (The total number of patients)
Initiatives:
- Introduce quality control and assurance programs
% of New Patients for Dental Practice
Any business loses a certain percentage of patients per year. To stay in the business and grow you need to find new patients regularly.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategy objective: Develop a marketing system that will promote your practice to new patients
KPI category: Customers
Target: 7% new patients per year
Measurements: (The number of new active patients per year) * 100% / (The total number of patients)
Initiatives:
- Develop a marketing program
Dental Practice Overhead (Operating expenses) KPI
To make effective management decisions you need know your total expenses. Overhead includes operating expenses, rent, equipment, and utilities. Industry benchmark for overhead is 60% or less.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective:
- Control operating expenses;
- Introduce cost-cutting measures where possible;
KPI Category: Finance
Target: 60% or less
Measurement: (Overhead expenses * 100%) / (Collections)
Initiatives:
- Track overhead expenses
- Develop plan to control operational expenses
Average Production Per New Patient KPI
This KPI shows how good you deal with new patients. Unlike old patients, new patients’ behavior indicates how effective your team and patient engagement efforts are. The basic approach is introducing to new patients not just a solution to the problem they have, but offering them a detailed treatment or prevention plan.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective: Introduce to new patients the treatment plan, not just a solution of the actual problem
KPI Category: Finance
Target: 800$
Measurement: Treatment plan value, $
Initiatives:
- Design a “Welcome” pack that will include complex oral health exams and development of a treatment plan
Average Annual Production Per Active Patient, KPI
Explain to patients at your dental practice the possible treatments that they could receive. Your goal is not just to solve the problem, but to provide comprehensive dental care.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective: Increase average revenue generated by patients
KPI Category: Finance
Current: $500
Target: $800
Measurement: Measure the profit generated by one patient during a 1 year period
Initiatives:
- Perform a complex oral health exam
- Perform cosmetic dentistry evaluations
- Develop and share with every patient a treatment plan
KPI for the Number of Whitening Procedures
Whitening procedures have been reported to have a positive effect on patients’ engagement. Make sure your dental practice provides appropriate services. There are difference industry benchmarks on this. Some suggest having at least 1 whitening per day. Others suggest having 30% of available whitening procedures.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective: Improve patient’s engagement
Category: Customers
Target: 25% and more
Measurement: (The number of whitening procedures) * 100% / (Total treatments per day)
Initiatives:
- Promote any esthetic issues of whitening treatment
- Explain any health issues of whitening treatment
Accounts Receivable KPI for Dental Practice
Studies show that you need to collect payments in a 2 month period, or your chances for successful collection go down significantly. These KPIs are applicable in the US and are less applicable in Europe. For example, in Spain, dental practices work on an upfront payment scheme.
Dental Practice Scorecard.
Strategic objective: Improve payments collection ratio up to 98.5%
KPI Category: Customers
Target: 98.5%
Measurement: Percentage of due payments received after 2 months of the actual treatment
Initiatives:
- Inform patients before the actual treatment about the fees for the treatment that they will have to pay
- Introduce a possibility to pay upfront
% of Facility and Equipment Expenses KPI for Dental Practice
What do you pay for rent and equipment? Industry benchmarks tell that these should be about 10% of the revenues. If your expenses are higher, it doesn’t necessary mean that you need to change anything.
Dental Practice Scorecard.Strategy objective: Control facility expenses
KPI category: Finance
Target : 10%
Measurement: (Facility and equipment expenses) * 100% / (Total revenues per month)
Initiatives:
- No specific action required. Use this KPI for benchmarking purposes.
% of Marketing Expenses – Dental Practice KPI
What are marketing expenses of your dental practice? The industry benchmarks tell us that the value of the KPI should be able 10% of the total practice’s revenue. If you have 15%, it doesn’t mean that you need to change something. This might be business specific for your region.
Dental Practice Scorecard.Strategy objective: control marketing expenses
KPI category: Finance
Target : 10%
Measurement: (Marketing Expenses per month) * 100% / (Total revenues per month)
Initiatives:
- No specific action required. Use this KPI for benchmarking purposes.
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Reference
- “The Reduction of Broken Appointments in General Dental Practice: An Audit and Intervention Approach”. Patel, Piyush; Forbes, Michael; Gibson, John. Primary Dental Care, Volume 7, Number 4, 1 October 2000, pp. 141-144(4)
- “7 Most Important Things to Measure in Your Dental Practice”, Gary Takacs
- “Financial Health of Your Practice“, Satish Patel, Gerry J Casazza
- “Monitoring your practice’s vital signs“, Dr Michael Sernik, July 2005
- “Key Performance Indicators“, Roger P. Levin, DDS, dentaleconomics.com
Alexis is the CEO of BSC Designer with over 20 years of experience in strategic planning. He has a formal education in applied mathematics and computer science. Alexis is the author of the “5 Step Strategy Deployment System”, the book “10 Step KPI System”, and “Your Guide to Balanced Scorecard”. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has written over 100 articles on strategy and performance measurement. His work is often cited in academic research and by industry professionals.
The KPI for production per FTE seems low for an annual production rate. I’m guessing that is meant to be monthly, yes?
Hello Dante, yes, that’s correct.
Also, I’ve searched a little bit to find some up to date figures. In 2016 average dentist net production per hour was $216.24 (based on data of 12,500 dental practices) Source: http://www.dentistryiq.com/articles/apex360/2017/04/here-s-the-current-net-production-per-hour-dollar-amount-for-dentists-and-where-the-trend-is-headed.html