title: How to schedule patients based on their clinical needs, not their checkbooks.
abstract: To schedule quality, stress-free days, a dentist needs to provide a range of effective financial options for patients that allows them the ability to prepay in full or make small monthly payments to an outside finance company. The choice is the patient's. Both options benefit the patient/dentist relationship. I ask dentists to take themselves out of the banking business. Eliminate financial choices that allow patients to borrow money from you, often interest-free. I doubt many of you receive such interest-free service from your vendors, landlord, and suppliers. By carefully creating a range of financial options allowing your patients to take care of their financial responsibilities in the methods covered here, you should be able to schedule some wonderful extended appointments, and enjoy performing more dentistry on fewer patients while building quality relationships.
authors.affiliation: info@jdsg.com
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de St Georges
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D006801:Humans; D010350:Patient Credit and Collection; D011215:Practice Management, Dental / Q000191:economics*