Unscheduled dental treatment follow-up. Who owns the list, and how it runs.

Keep the list apart from overdue hygiene recall.

Build it from your practice software’s report of treatment-planned work.

On other software, find the matching report in your vendor’s documentation and check what it leaves out by default.

A 2020 ACT Dental guide and a 2017 consultant case study hosted by the AAPD give the list one named owner, time set aside to work it, and a weekly run of the report.

The dentist

Decides which plans are still recommended, and leads any conversation about a patient’s refusal. Staff can add to that conversation.

The list owner

Makes the calls and logs every attempt where the next caller can see it.

A named contact

Answers the clinical, insurance and payment questions the caller cannot.

Answer these seven questions for your office. A no on any of them is the next gap to close.

1. Can you name the one person who owns the list?
2. Is their follow-up time blocked on the schedule?
3. Is the unscheduled-treatment report run every week?
4. Is every attempt logged where the next caller can see it?
5. Is unscheduled treatment its own list, apart from hygiene recall?
6. Does the caller know who answers clinical, insurance and payment questions?
7. Has the dentist agreed which plans come off the list?

Whether the owner sits in your office or works for an outside service is a separate decision. The check is the same either way. Compare in-house and outsourced treatment coordinators.

Before anyone calls, take off plans that are:

• Already scheduled.
• Done at another practice.
• No longer recommended by the dentist.
• Clearly declined, with the reason charted.

The dentist decides what is no longer recommended. A 2012 newsletter from TDIC, a California malpractice insurer, says the dentist leads the refusal discussion. It is not legal advice, and state rules differ.

Whoever calls needs what was said at the consult. A handoff records:

• The plan, as the clinician explained it.
• The patient’s goal or concern.
• The next step the clinician set.
• The cost estimate given.
• The payment options discussed.
• The exact callback promise.
• Who to ask about clinical, insurance or payment questions.

The handoff covers coordination only. It does not set informed-consent or record-keeping rules.

Full-arch consult follow-up scripts compares three more schedules and has the call, voicemail and text to use at each contact.

Set your own schedule and write it down. It has five parts:

1. When the first contact happens after the consult.
2. How long to wait between attempts.
3. Which channel each attempt uses.
4. The point where contact stops.
5. What happens to the plan after that, and who decides.

Count each stage on its own:

Contacted

An attempt was made to reach the patient.

Reached

Someone in the office spoke with the patient.

Booked

The planned treatment is on the schedule.

Attended

The patient came to that visit.

Completed

The planned treatment was done.

Acceptance can be counted two ways. Case acceptance counts cases with any accepted part over all presented cases, pending cases included. Dollar acceptance counts accepted fees over presented fees for the same cases.

Before you compare an acceptance figure with your own, ask:

• Does it count cases or dollars?
• Are pending plans in the denominator?
• What period does it cover?
• Which report produced it?

Name an owner for the list in each office, and count the five stages the same way in every office so the numbers compare.