The true cost of dental practice downtime

In the modern dental practice, maintaining optimal productivity and patient satisfaction is absolutely essential. This means minimising dental practice downtime to ensure appointments and treatments can be provided at the right time, every time. Amongst the factors that might impact a practice’s ability to provide dental procedures, is equipment breakdown. For example, a treatment centre, dental imaging system, or CAD/CAM workflow may malfunction, leading to the need to cancel and reschedule appointments, potentially with very little notice. This disruption can have a big impact on the practice, both in terms of finances and reputation. As such, it’s important for practice owners to understand the importance of consistent equipment maintenance to minimise the risk of breakdown and, therefore, practice downtime.

Lost revenue due to equipment breakdown

Should equipment fail, a dental practice may not be able to provide some of the most basic services to their patients. This means lost productivity and, therefore, income. Downtime can have a significant impact on practices and patients, creating missed opportunities to support individuals that are potentially in desperate need of care. Research suggests that associates generate between £800 and £1,000 per day. This means that, in a practice with multiple dentists, depending on the equipment which breaks down, thousands of pounds worth of income could potentially be lost.[i]

Even though practices are unable to generate income during periods of downtime, they must still continue to pay their usual operating costs to keep the business running.[ii] Per surgery per day, these operating costs could range from between £450 and £650.[iii] Overall, monetarily, practice downtime can create an unwelcome financial deficit – reinforcing the need to invest in and maintain dental equipment, helping to minimise the risk of breakdown.

Loss of patient loyalty following cancellation

Whilst the immediate monetary impact is an important consideration for dental practices, it is essential that the effect of cancelled appointments on patients is recognised. Often patients are attending the practice as they are concerned about a problem in their mouth, because they are experiencing toothache, or they are undergoing a course of treatment. As such, for many patients, it is important to receive dental care in a timely manner. Though not specific to dentistry, research suggests that delays to patient care have a significant impact on individuals. Cancellations to care lead to issues including ongoing pain, worsening mental health and symptoms, as well as disrupted sleep.[iv]

If equipment is unreliable and poorly maintained, downtime may become more common. In this case, patients may turn to other practices for reliable and continued care. Additionally, patients who have had a bad experience are likely to dissuade friends and family from using the dental practice, or even share poor reviews on social media platforms. Ultimately, this not only means losing the business of the patients of the day, but potentially reputational damage, making your practice less desirable to attend.[v]

Dental equipment service and maintenance

As shown, it is absolutely vital to keep dental equipment running at its optimum – both to avoid downtime and to ensure you are able to provide the highest possible standard of care. By working with a trusted provider, you can minimise the risk and impact of equipment breakdown.

The team at Clark Dental have worked with dental professionals over the past 50 years to provide the highest quality design, equipment, and maintenance services tailored to individuals’ needs. As such, its team of engineers is adept at installing, servicing, and fixing large pieces of equipment, and are fully trained by the manufacturer to ensure the equipment is in the most capable hands. Additionally, Clark Dental utilises top-quality field service management software, allowing it to live-track engineers, monitor visits, record work completed, and provide clients access to a dedicated portal. Ultimately, this means that practices benefit from excellent customer service, state of the art technology, and minimal surgery downtime.

Dental practice downtime over the course of a few hours can have a prominent impact on both revenue generated and patient satisfaction. It is vital to recognise the importance of properly maintaining the equipment in your practice to ensure you are able to carry out high quality care, and reduce the need to cancel appointments. Immediate costs to the practice following equipment breakdown, including emergency engineers and subsequent repairs, should also be considered, as should the impact on patient wellbeing and ultimately practice reputation. By ensuring your practice is as reliable as possible you will always be there when your patients need you.

For more information call Clark Dental on 01268 733 146, email info@clarkdental.co.uk or visit www.clarkdental.co.uk

Author: Stuart Clark