KPI

A KPI, or key performance indicator, is a specific, trackable number chosen because it tells you something true about how a part of the practice is actually performing, not how it feels. Ryan's list runs to about ten: production per provider, collections percentage, overhead percentage, new patients per month, case acceptance rate, hygiene reappointment rate, patient retention, staff cost as a percentage of collections, review volume and net profit margin.

The value of a KPI is in the routine around it, not the number itself. Production and collections reviewed weekly with the owner and office manager, hygiene reappointment checked weekly, overhead and profit reviewed monthly with the accountant, case acceptance reviewed monthly with the treatment coordinator: a KPI nobody looks at on a schedule is just a fact sitting in software, not a management tool.

When a KPI comes in off target, the instinct to panic is less useful than the discipline to diagnose: is it a data problem, a systems problem, or a people problem. Once the root cause is identified, it gets a thirty-day goal and one named owner on the leadership team: a KPI without an owner rarely moves on its own.