Test Drive: Software Simplifies the Business Side of Dentistry

We now live in a world where data is king. A long time ago—1597, to be exact—Francis Bacon, in his Meditationes Sacrae, stated “knowledge is power,” and I can hardly think of a more profound statement. Today we are swimming in data, and there is no way the amount of data will not continue to increase.

Along those same lines, I firmly believe that “he who understands the numbers controls the world.” I say that for the simple fact that almost anything can be understood if there is a way to break it into numerical values.

The most successful companies are those that measure and comprehend the numbers of their business and industry. Most of these successful entities are managed by the numbers, because you simply cannot run a successful enterprise on a whim. What gets measured gets improved. Numbers provide a guide to the journey of a business, and you cannot reach a goal—even one that is easily attainable—if you have no way of measuring your progress.

This can be summed up nicely with a quote from Lewis Carroll’s famous work, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, where Alice meets the Cheshire Cat at a fork in the road and asks him which way to go, noting she doesn’t care where she winds up:

Cheshire Cat: “Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.”

Alice: “So long as I get somewhere.”

Cheshire Cat: “Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”

The funny part about that quote is most dentists I know are great walkers! We tend to sort of wing it when it comes to business decisions, then we get frustrated when things don’t work out like we hoped they would.

Having current, reliable data is the best way to make informed business decisions. Bigger companies employ people to crunch their numbers. However, most dental offices do not have the luxury of a metrics department. Our offices generate an incredible amount of data but lack the capacity to properly use that information.

What can a dental practice do to be able to properly run itself as a small business? The challenge is finding a way to optimize use of your practice data. That solution is called Jarvis Analytics.

Jarvis Analytics is an incredibly powerful tool to help unlock the power behind the numbers of your practice. It’s true that you must understand the numbers, but it is just as important to know which numbers are important to understand. One of the great things about Jarvis Analytics is it was designed by people who truly understand what needs to be measured in dentistry, both from the clinical and the operational perspective in the forms of key performance indicators.

Jarvis Analytics was originally designed for the demanding vertical of dental service organizations and as such, the system has a good handle on the important categories to measure and what to measure them against. This means your office, or small number of offices, can use the same type of measuring metrics that power the largest dental enterprises. With Jarvis Analytics for Private Practices, the team has essentially designed a simpler and incredibly effective system solely for use within private practices.

The system gives you access to all your practice data and includes 8 workflow-driven modules. These modules are the big categories that then allow you to move from the top down, deeper into the practice metrics, and they include workflows that build accountability. They consist of Calendar, Dashboard, End-of-Day Form, Front Office, Morning Huddle, Patient Portal, Practice Potential, and Treatment Miner. Each section covers big-picture aspects of your business and makes finding more detailed numbers and information easy, and the layout is well thought out.

Although all these modules are important to understanding your business, my personal favorite is the Morning Huddle, which is probably because I’m a huge fan of the morning meeting concept in general. A well-planned day generally goes much better than one that is not. Utilizing Jarvis Analytics as part of your daily morning huddle will keep you and your team well informed on the numbers for your practice that day.

I won’t list every bit of information the Morning Huddle module provides—that would take way too long. However, here is just a sample of what is provided: yesterday’s production gross, yesterday’s production net, yesterday’s collection total, yesterday’s collection net, production percentage, treatment acceptance percentage, today’s scheduled production, today’s scheduled production (total and per provider), hygiene unscheduled family members, and a whole lot more! As you can see, there is a ton of information you have access to. It also provides a section for yesterday, today, and tomorrow, which allows you to get a big-picture view of your immediate financials.

Another module that can help smaller practices is Front Office, which is designed to streamline the office manager’s responsibilities by highlighting important, real-time metrics. This module provides office staff with the ability to switch among 2-, 7- and 30-day views of everything from month-to-date financials broken down by business line, to daily tasks, and even measurements of the guest experience, and staff performance.

Jarvis Analytics connects to your practice management software of choice with more than a dozen software platform integrations, and it interfaces with your software to extract and sync data multiple times per day. This ensures the numbers you get are always current to help you make the best business and clinical and operational decisions. It is always analyzing the data, always measuring your key performance indicators, and always available to you through your browser on any device, even when you are on the move.

Keeping up with the changing landscape of clinical dentistry can be a daunting challenge. Trying to evaluate the tremendous amount of business data your practice generates is an even bigger challenge. The problem is that there is no way enough time exists to do both. Thanks to Jarvis Analytics, the number crunching and evaluation is done for you. It is delivered right to you in easy-to-understand formats. Jarvis Analytics is like your very own business analytics department that works 24/7 to provide you with critical business information. More importantly the workflow modules within Jarvis Analytics help you effectuate change. If you are looking for a way to take your business to the next level, Jarvis Analytics is ready to help.