That's a really good question. The answer is ... yes and no. The problem with trying to compare this across dental offices is that people use a wide variety of definitions for available time. For some offices, it's simply whenever the doctor's schedule is open. If the doctor works 35 hours a week, then available time is exactly 35 hours. It's really tricky trying to compare numbers across practices and to get a feel for what a "standard" definition is.
What I like about this definition is that available time fluctuates based on when patients are in the chair. When filling the schedule, we generally try to schedule patients in "blocks" (so we don't have large gaps between appointments). By defining available time as the difference between the start of the first appointment and the end of the last appointment, we can start to see what real demand for the doctor's services are.
Hi Jeremy, this is a well thought out plan. I'm interested in knowing if other practices are taking a similar approach.
That's a really good question. The answer is ... yes and no. The problem with trying to compare this across dental offices is that people use a wide variety of definitions for available time. For some offices, it's simply whenever the doctor's schedule is open. If the doctor works 35 hours a week, then available time is exactly 35 hours. It's really tricky trying to compare numbers across practices and to get a feel for what a "standard" definition is.
What I like about this definition is that available time fluctuates based on when patients are in the chair. When filling the schedule, we generally try to schedule patients in "blocks" (so we don't have large gaps between appointments). By defining available time as the difference between the start of the first appointment and the end of the last appointment, we can start to see what real demand for the doctor's services are.