What does triage by complexity, pain, and cost mean for new patients?
With an emergency or regular new patient you are really doing two kinds of triage at once. Problem triage, the clinical one you already do, and sales triage, which decides what pathway that patient follows in the practice. You sort on three things: complexity, pain, and cost. Pain sets the first move, because if they hurt you fix that first. Complexity tells you whether this is a single-tooth problem or something that deserves a complete evaluation. And cost is what actually splits the road. Below a fee level you define, you handle it the normal way you always have. Above that level, even for a simple problem, the patient should get a separate financial visit, done every time so it stops being a judgment call. The point of triage is to route every patient down a known path.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.