Conducting Chart Audits Before Purchasing a Dental Practice

Purchasing a dental practice can be among the most important professional decisions you’ll ever make in your career. Making sure you’ve done your due diligence before purchasing a dental practice is vital. Part of this due diligence includes a chart audit. This will provide you with important information regarding the viability and success of the practice you’re considering purchasing.

Importance of Dental Chart Audits

There are three things you’ll want to discover when conducting a chart audit. These are:

1. First, it’s important to discover what percentage of patients are coming back to visit the practice for recommended preventative care or have already scheduled appointments for recommended treatment. These are established patients, and the more the practice has, the better. Compare the number of returning patients with the number of patients who haven’t made appointments in over a year or who only make appointments for dental emergencies. We recommend choosing a sample of 100-150 charts instead of inspecting each and every chart.
2. Next, focus on how many appointments for dental treatment the owner has scheduled to perform. Make sure you agree with the diagnoses that have already been made by the current dentist. If most of the established patient base have finished their treatment plans, you may have trouble filling your schedule once you take over the practice. We recommend making sure the practice still has 25-30 established patients who are still in need of treatment.
3. Lastly, closely analyze the current schedule of the practice. Make sure you’ll be able to keep up with the pace of the practice and that there aren’t too many unfilled appointment spaces. Reviewing the current schedule of a practice can give you a good idea of the trends within the practice and if these trends fit with your career goals.

If you’ve recently purchased a dental practice and would like help creating a successful dental marketing plan for your practice, please contact Pro Dental Designs. We’ll help you with dental print marketing, dental social media marketing, and putting together a successful dental website.