What it does
Type the six overhead buckets from last year's profit and loss and it scores each one against its healthy band, in dollars a year over the line and, if you enter visits, dollars a visit. Then it names the one bucket to work on. Not six. One.
What you will need
Collections for the year and the six buckets: team pay (wages, payroll tax, benefits), dental supplies, lab, facility, general and admin, marketing. Patient visits for the year if you have them.
How to read it
- True overhead under 60 cents of a collected dollar is healthy for a solo general practice. Every cent above it is one percent of collections, every year.
- Red means more than 20 percent over the top of the band. That is the bucket.
- Amber means over the line but close. Watch it; do not reorganize around it.
- Well under the band gets a flag too. It usually means something is miscoded, or the doctor is doing team work.
The rule
Fix the biggest dollar number first and leave the rest alone for a quarter. The fix is almost never a cut. A position removed usually takes production with it. It is production added on the cost you already carry: one more hygiene day, a fee update, a recall system that fills the holes.
Want the three numbers that matter most in your practice, from your own figures? That is what a Snapshot is. See the Path.