Are you tracking the number of active patients in your practice? 

Active patients can be defined as patients seen for any reason throughout a set period of time in the practice, typically the previous 12 to 18 months. It takes years to acquire an active patient base and should be treated as one of the most critical numbers in your practice. We usually see a healthy, active patient base maintained at around 1,600 patients per hygienist. If purchasing a practice, you may know that the dollar amount assigned to this active patient count is called “goodwill” – an expensive yet invaluable asset to your business. 

Tracking the number of active patients in your practice will allow you to evaluate your hygiene capacity and essentially set the tone for the operational side of your practice. Typically, we see our clients’ hygienist department can see approximately eight patients per hygienist, per day, or one patient per hour. 

See the example below on how we calculate the current number of patients that your hygiene department can see and how many hygiene days the practice needs for the patient base.

Knowing your active patient count is crucial to your practice’s success and can also help determine if a practice is worth purchasing at a given price.  If the active patient count is healthy, you can certainly count on internal patient referrals versus pumping additional monies into external marketing efforts. Patient retention should be a significant focus in your practice to avoid the much more expensive alternative – patient seeking.