Scheduling on the Hygienist’s side is a little easier than the Doctor’s because they only have one column per provider. While it is easier to schedule appointments, we need to make sure we are optimizing their schedule too.
Above, you can see there are a few different appointment types and times. Hygiene appointments can range from 30-90 minutes. The different appointments can be tricky to schedule because we do not want any gaps between appointments.
Example of 90 minute appointments: NP COE, 90 Gum Treatment.
Example of 60 minute appointments: NP Child COE, Healthy Gum Visit, Gum Management Visit, 60 minute Gum Treatment.
Example of 30 minute appointments: Sealants not attached to Preventative Care Visits, Child Healthy Gum Cleanings (age 13 and under)
*Child Health Gum Cleanings are only 30 minutes if they are not a new patient appointment and there are no sealants attached in the appointment.
One of the ways we prevent the gaps is we pre block the hygiene schedule. Below you can find an example of this.
Each color represents a different appointment type. Recare/ Healthy mouth cleanings, New Patient appointments, gum treatment 60/90 minutes. We need to follow these blocks because it allows enough variety of appointments each day, but it also helps us get the hygiene incentive and goal. (Rocks vs Sand)
Is this hygiene schedule optimized?
No. There are too many gaps in the schedule. One way we could potentially get the schedule optimized is scheduling sealants for children under 12 in those 30 minute gaps.
Is this schedule optimized?
Yes. Some gaps in the schedule are normal as people are rescheduling and canceling. When there is a last minute rescheduling, it is the Business Team’s responsibility to find any appointment to fill it. That is probably what happened in this example.
