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Turn Your Patient List into Gold: Boost Engagement & Growth with Your APL

Written by Team Flex | March 13, 2024

Building solid relationships with your patients is crucial for success in today's competitive healthcare landscape. Your Advanced Patient List (APL) is a powerful tool for achieving just that, offering valuable insights and functionalities that can significantly impact your practice.

Unlocking the Potential of Your APL:

New Patient Welcome: Leverage your APL to identify patients seen in a specific month. Send them a warm welcome text message (SMS) expressing your gratitude for choosing your practice. This personalized touch fosters a positive first impression and strengthens patient loyalty.Boosting Reappointment Rates:  In addition to your automated recall messages, utilize the APL to generate a list of patients due for their next appointment. Send them timely SMS reminders, prompting them to schedule their follow-up visit. This proactive approach helps maintain consistent patient engagement and reduces appointment no-shows.

Promoting Treatment Completion: In addition to the automated unscheduled treatment reminders, identify patients who have planned treatments in a specific month but still need to complete them. Send them friendly SMS reminders highlighting the importance of completing their treatment plan for optimal oral health. This gentle nudge can significantly improve treatment completion rates.

Combating Patient Attrition: Patient retention is vital for practice growth. Use the APL to identify patients who have not visited in the last 18 months with no future appointment scheduled. Reach out to them with a re-engagement campaign via SMS. This can involve offering special promotions or simply inquiring about their dental needs, encouraging them to return for essential checkups.

Beyond the SMS:

While the above examples highlight the power of SMS communication through your APL, remember that its potential extends far beyond. You can use the Insights to generate reporting/graphs for various purposes, including:

Identifying trends using Insights: Analyze other areas of the practice, including Production & Income, Treatment Patterns, Appointment/Reappointment History, and other stats to bring valuable overview into your practice.

Tailoring marketing efforts: Segment your patient population based on specific criteria and develop targeted email marketing (FlexBlast) campaigns to increase effectiveness.

By effectively utilizing your APL, you can better understand your patients, personalize their experience, and ultimately foster stronger patient relationships. This translates to increased patient engagement, improved treatment acceptance, and, ultimately, the growth of your dental practice.

How this works with Flex 

Using Flex to view your APL provides valuable tools to understand key patient trends, including reappointment, appointment, and attrition rates. This information is presented visually through trend lines, making it easy to identify areas for improvement.

The APL goes beyond just an overview. You can drill down into the data by provider, name, date of birth (DOB), and various statuses within OpenDental. This granular view allows you to pinpoint specific areas needing attention.

The insights drop-down menu makes it easy for you to create advanced views tailored to your needs. Imagine targeting new patients from the last month and sending them a personalized thank-you text message to show your appreciation. This is just one example of the many possibilities the APL unlocks.

By leveraging the APL and its features, you can gain deeper insights into your patient base, optimize your practice's performance, and ultimately cultivate stronger patient relationships.

Your APL is a cornerstone for building stronger patient relationships and fostering practice growth. By leveraging its capabilities, you can personalize your communication strategy, promote preventive care, improve treatment adherence, and ultimately retain patients, leading to sustained practice success. Remember, the APL's potential extends beyond the examples provided. Explore its various functionalities to gain deeper insights, streamline operations, and tailor your approach to each patient, creating a thriving dental practice built on trust and personalized care.