Why do you need to keep statistics in your practice? The reason is because it is the best way to know what is going on in your practice.

Do you need a new patient to fill out paperwork, ask questions during a consultation and exam, to find out what’s going on with their health? You should also keep track of the health of your practice.

Along with tracking the health of your practice, keeping statistics…

The stats below are 7 areas you should review monthly. In fact, it won’t hurt to review weekly if you really want to determine how your practice is doing.

#1. Number of new patients
A new patient is anyone who comes in and completes an exam. Count them as a new patient only when they have paid you for the first visit or it is a free exam but they are scheduled to return.
Don’t include people who come in for a free consultation and leave.

#two. Average visits to stays of new patients
This is often referred to as your “retention” or “PVA”. PVA stands for “patient visit average.”
To measure it for a full month, take all your visits that month and divide it by the number of new patients you had during the same month.

#3. Average dollars raised per patient
To calculate this, take your total collections for the month and divide it by the number of new patients you had during that month.

#4. Conversion rate of new patients to care
To find this number, take the number of patients who started receiving care during a month and then divide it by the total number of new patients you had that month.

#5. average case
Case Average is a number that represents how much money that patient will make over time in your practice. Take your collections for the month (or quarterly, yearly) and divide by the number of new patients for the month. However, take your PVA for your $/visit. So take #2 and #3 above and multiply them together.

#6. ROI for your marketing
ROI stands for “return on investment”. To calculate it, simply take the amount of revenue (gross receipts) your marketing brought into your practice and divide it by what you spent on that marketing.
To accurately measure your ROI, ask the patient (either on their intake forms or verbally) where they heard about your practice. Using your software, track new patient sources. Check back and update the ROI regularly, as it will continue to increase as the patient (or insurance) pays for their care over time.
Also, measure each type of advertising and marketing you do…newspaper ads, yellow pages, online leads, sending $5 Starbucks cards to new patients with a postcard, website costs, direct mail, shipping money postcards, etc., etc.

#7. net profit
To calculate your net profit, take your total collections minus your overhead and your personal benefits. If you have a car through your office, pay for your health insurance, etc., back all of that up to get a true picture.
And get your salary too. You want to know how much your practice brings you overall and compare it to previous months and years. You can add your salary and benefits back later for accounting and tax purposes.
Below are additional stats you need to keep so you can calculate the numbers in the top 7. These others, like collections and charges, tell you a lot about the health of your practice.

• visits
• stuffed
• general collections
• insurance charges
• % of money raised compared to collected
• dollars charged for service
• Money spent on marketing
• number of conversions
• new sources of patients

Last but not least… create a weekly and monthly spreadsheet that lists all the stats in this article. Once you have this formatted, it will only take a few minutes a day for you or your staff to enter the numbers at the end of each day.