You may be tracking KPIs in your dental practice, but do you know what those numbers are actually telling you? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt talks with Adriana Booth, an ACT Dental coach, about how key performance indicators reveal the health of your systems, team, patient care, and business.
You’ll learn how to interpret KPIs as diagnostic tools, identify the systems influencing your numbers, focus your team on meaningful improvements, and make steady progress without chasing perfection. To understand what your practice data is really telling you, listen to Episode 1089 of The Best Practices Show!
Main Takeaways:
- Every KPI is influenced by multiple systems and should not be interpreted as having only one cause.
- KPIs can help measure both the health of the practice and the quality of patient care.
- Teams should ask which system produced a result instead of assigning blame to an individual.
- New patient growth can be affected by referrals, phone conversion, the first-visit experience, treatment presentation, and follow-up systems.
- High numbers of unscheduled active patients can indicate weaknesses in reappointment, recare, or other patient-retention systems.
- Tracking KPI trends over time provides more useful information than relying on assumptions or memory.
- Practices can create meaningful improvement by selecting a few important KPIs and improving the systems that influence them quarter over quarter.
Episode Chapters:
00:00 What KPIs can reveal about a dental practice.
03:01 Using KPIs as feedback instead of judgment.
05:40 Why every KPI is influenced by multiple systems.
06:38 Systems that can affect new patient growth.
08:30 What unscheduled active patients can reveal about a practice.
09:32 KPIs as measures of practice health and patient health.
11:12 How periodontal percentages can reflect patient-care outcomes.
12:45 Stop asking who is responsible and start examining the system.
14:38 Using collection percentage to identify system improvements.
17:38 What a high broken appointment percentage can indicate.
22:44 Focusing on progress rather than perfection.
24:48 Choosing a few KPIs to improve each quarter.
26:34 Using the KPI analysis activity to better understand practice metrics.
28:50 Resources for KPI improvement and coaching support.
Guest Bio:
Adriana Booth is a Lead Practice Coach who partners with dentists and their teams to cultivate leadership skills, drive practice growth, and streamline business practices. With nearly three decades of experience in the dental industry, Adriana brings a deep passion for professional development, high-level training, and systems creation to her coaching.
As a dental hygienist committed to continuing education and personal growth, she thrives on helping practices achieve their full potential. Adriana holds a BS in Dental Hygiene from West Liberty University/O'Hehir University and remains actively engaged in the dental community through study clubs and professional networks.
Now based in Teays Valley, WV, Adriana enjoys fitness, reading, quality time with family, and exploring the outdoors with her Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Beau Duke.
Episode Resources:
KPI Analysis Activity: https://join.actdental.com/c/resources/kpi-analysis-activity
More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:
