5 Key Strategies to Eliminate Dental Office Burnout with Automation

Key Takeaways

• Burnout is a problem in dental practices, but dental office automation can help alleviate it.
• Dental practice automation strategies include appointment scheduling, reminders, digital forms, and texting to replace phone calls.
• Digital forms can save up to 50 staff hours per month, while appointment reminders may save up to 81 hours each month. 
• Freeing your staff from mundane, repetitive tasks can allow them to contribute more value to your practice’s growth and reputation.

Your office staff may love what they do, but that doesn’t make burnout any less of a reality. Over 60% of dentists report struggles with staff shortages, retention, and recruitment. More than four in 10 office managers say they feel overworked and overwhelmed.

When hiring stalls, your existing staff is left to fill the gaps, leading to increased stress and burnout. 

Automation can offer some relief. With tools that reduce the administrative workload, staff can focus on tasks that add value to the practice and improve patient care. 

Let’s explore five automation strategies that can help eliminate burnout and ensure smoother day-to-day operations without cutting corners.

1. Automate Your Patient Recall System to Save Hours Each Month

Your front desk team spends significant time on the phone with your patients for various reasons, including getting them back into the office for follow-ups. An automated patient recall system can save your dental practice hours each month without sacrificing critical touchpoints.

You can send reminders via text message or email to reach your patients in ways they prefer. Automated technology sends recalls based on appointment types and treatments, so the right message reaches the right patient at the right time.

An average practice using Doctible’s patient recall solution can save up to 13 hours per month by automating patient recalls, improving operational efficiency and staff well-being. 

2. Streamline Appointment Confirmations with Automated Reminders

Manually confirming appointments can become a time-consuming task for dental staff, especially during busy periods. Automating reminder confirmations allows your practice to stay in touch with patients without draining your team’s time and energy.

With automated appointment reminders, your practice can save substantial time each month, reduce the likelihood of costly no-shows, and ensure that patients stick to their care plans.

Practices can confirm over 70% of appointments automatically using Doctible’s text and voice reminders. This automation saves an average of 81 hours per month.

3. Use Digital Forms to Simplify Check-ins and Save Time

The check-in process is often bogged down by paperwork and manual data entry, which can lead to errors and consume valuable time. Transitioning to digital forms streamlines this process, reduces errors, and improves efficiency.

Automating your intake process with digital forms helps streamline check-ins by eliminating manual data entry. This also helps to keep patient information secure, as forms aren’t passing through multiple hands or have the potential of being misplaced.

Patients input their information directly into the forms, which seamlessly enter your practice management system so there’s no manual entry.

On average, practices save 10 minutes per patient by switching to digital intake forms, adding up to 50 hours saved each month in administrative work. 

4. Reduce Phone Calls with Two-Way Texting

Handling phone calls for scheduling, confirmations, and patient queries can take up a significant portion of your staff’s day, contributing to stress and burnout. Phone calls can negatively affect productivity — they prevent employees from doing other parts of their jobs, interrupt their workflow, and can be stressful.

For staff, automated texting minimizes phone time and offers a more efficient way to handle patient questions. Even better, most patients now prefer texting to email or phone calls. In fact, text messaging has a much higher open rate than email — around 98%. 

Patients are even happier when their healthcare providers use two-way texting, which allows them to confirm appointments on the spot and have conversations with their providers. A study by Artera found that 64% of respondents preferred two-way texts compared to basic texting.

Doctible’s HIPAA-compliant two-way texting solves many of the challenges associated with patient engagement while enhancing patient satisfaction. 

5. Automate Your Waitlist to Fill Cancellations

Last-minute cancellations are frustrating for any dental office, leaving gaps in the schedule and missed opportunities for patient care. An automated waitlist helps fill these openings quickly and efficiently, reducing stress for your staff.

When a patient cancels, the automated system sends a notification to patients on the waitlist, allowing them the appointment slot. This process eliminates the need for staff to manually call patients and manage last-minute schedule changes.

Doctible’s EasyFill automatically fills up to 44% of last-minute cancellations from your patient waitlist, keeping your schedule full and reducing revenue loss from no-shows and late cancellations.

Applying Dental Office Automation with Doctible

Automating dental office operations can drastically reduce the administrative burden on your staff. When tasks such as patient recalls, appointment reminders, digital forms, and waitlists are automated, your team can focus on higher-value activities that improve patient care and drive the practice’s success.

Are you ready to see how automation can help eliminate burnout in your dental office? Explore patient engagement solutions that streamline your office operations and allow your staff to focus on what matters most. =

Schedule a demo today and discover how automation can transform your practice.