What Is an Active Patient?

A Spear Talk community member raised a question I think is worth addressing. He noted that I often refer to “active patients” in my talks and wondered what my definition of an active patient is.

I have revised this definition over the years as circumstances have changed. My current position is that a patient must have visited the practice in the hygiene department at least once within the past 18 months to be considered active.

From a leadership perspective, a patient should be appointed within a maximum of 60 days of their due date, which is an accurate measure of your effectiveness. Patients who haven’t been in the hygiene department or the practice for 18–24 months are in the danger zone, where their status is questionable. They may eventually return (maybe they’re having economic issues), or you may never see them again. After two years without an appearance, they definitely cannot be considered active.

That’s the short answer. But of course, any time we discuss active patients, a greater question is implied: How do you keep those active patients active? It’s an important question because the people who come through your hygiene department represent your reservoir of future production.

Retention in hygiene really comes down to the short, medium, and long term. Over the long term, you will inevitably lose some patients because of things like people moving away (although that shouldn’t always be a deal-breaker). In the short term and medium term, however, there are strategies you can adopt to keep your active numbers up.

I’ll discuss those strategies in future articles. For now, let me just say that the key to retention will always be demonstrating value. One way to do that is to go beyond the usual and expected. This means every second visit or so should be an expanded appointment, where you comprehensively reevaluate the patient’s oral health condition. As you know, a lot can change in someone’s mouth over a year. But beyond that, a patient’s sense of value needs to be replenished and reinforced regularly, and you can’t accomplish that just by doing quick hygiene checks. They need to feel your attention at least once a year to remind them why they want to stay with your practice.

Yes, this does create some challenges with scheduling and managing the doctor’s time. Still, it’s worth it because that consistent “booster shot” of value appreciation is the best way to keep active patients active.