Columns & Placement
The 'ideal' amount of columns per doctor and hygienist?
What are 2 for doctors and 1 for hygiene?
A single filling appointment is scheduled for this amount of time.
What is 60 minutes?
This term describes a day with appointments only at the start and end, leaving a big hole in the middle.
What is a ‘donut day’?
These short blocks are almost always unfillable and should be avoided.
What are 15-minute gaps?
We strive to schedule consults within this time frame after their initial inquiry.
What is 48–72 hours?
These three columns are used to organize appointments for revenue procedures, assistant-driven tasks, and cleanings.
What are the Production, Non-Production, and Hygiene columns?
When a patient needs two fillings in one visit, this is the total time required.
What is 75 minutes (60 + 15)?
When the day is mostly open, these are the two time blocks you should fill first.
What are immediately before lunch and immediately after lunch?
This is extremely valuable and it's crucial you protect it.
A new hygiene patient should ideally be scheduled within this many days.
What is 7 days?
A 45-minute consult should be placed in this column whenever possible.
What is the Production column?
A new adult patient in the hygiene column requires this amount of time for their appointment.
What is 90 minutes?
Appointments greater than two hours, such as multiple fillings and crowns, should be scheduled during this part of the day.
What is the morning block?
When the doctor is scheduled in three different appointments simultaneously, we call it this.
What is triple-booking?
This list is used to fill sudden cancellations or last-minute openings.
What is the ASAP list?
A quick, no-production expander check belongs in this column, even if the Production column is open.
What is the Non-Production column?
This is the maximum filling appointment length before requiring doctor approval.
What is 2 hours?
This is the term for the technique where we guide the patient where you want them to schedule.
What is 'Options Funneling'?
We do our best to accommodate for this, but we do not let it break our production vs non-production column rules.
What is patient convenience and preference?
This is the recommended approach if one day shows $10,000 in production while the next day has $100.
What is ‘add additional procedures to the low-production day to balance the schedule'?
These are two reasons why an assistant-driven procedure might be scheduled in the Production column.
What are a family appointment at the same time or doctor approval?
These two assistant-driven appointment lasts 60 minutes and must be placed in the Non-Production column.
What are the Expander and Invisalign deliveries?
When the schedule already has appointments at scattered times, you place new appointments next to these to reduce small gaps.
What are the existing appointments?
If a 90-minute crown prep begins at 8:30, starting a 60-minute extraction at 9:15 in the production column would break this rule.
What is ‘Do not overlap Production procedures’ (or ‘avoid double-booking the doctor’)?
If you cannot schedule a new hygiene patient within 14 days, you must take this action.
What is ‘notify your regional manager immediately'?