How do you guys feel about working Saturdays?

[Mauricio45]

I find that they're not productive days at all! Way too many no shows and last minute cancellations. Plus, it's not a respectful use of my time to sit around just doing hygiene recalls when a patient no shows/cancels.

Sundays? Ha! Forget about it.

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[TanMan]

I find that they're not productive days at all! Way too many no shows and last minute cancellations. Plus, it's not a respectful use of my time to sit around just doing hygiene recalls when a patient no shows/cancels.

Sundays? Ha! Forget about it.

LOL, those are my most productive days. 3-4k/hour possible on Saturday/Sunday

 

[Mauricio45]

LOL, those are my most productive days. 3-4k/hour possible on Saturday/Sunday

I guess it's really regional dependent. Do you practice in a metropolitan area? I practice in a small town.

 

[TanMan]

Suburban area. Trick is to overbook and if the schedule falls apart, convert your exams to same day procedures. Example would be today. I had an implant crown noshow on me in the first hour but I redeemed myself by doing an rctbucrn same day instead (in that hour block). Emergencies are willing to wait when they are in severe pain - especially if it's been days of no sleep.

Edit: If you have x chairs, you should have anywhere between x+1 to 0.8x chairs scheduled the day before. Hyg/Ops mix depends on your chair configurations. Right now, I think we try and keep a 35:65 (Ops/Hyg) mix, but I don't discriminate. I can handle up to a 55:45 mix theoretically.

 

[Cold Front]

I find that they're not productive days at all! Way too many no shows and last minute cancellations. Plus, it's not a respectful use of my time to sit around just doing hygiene recalls when a patient no shows/cancels.

Sundays? Ha! Forget about it.

It depends.

Some communities have a lot of parents who have sports and other activities with their kids on Saturdays. Some communities are highly religious and most of them (including your staff) could be at their congregations on Sundays. Know your community FIRST before you consider seeing patients on weekends.

I worked Saturdays when I opened my first practice from scratch. After the office patient traffic picked up for the first few months, I stopped working. I also noticed my staff didn’t enjoy working on Saturdays - actually some complained about working 6 days a week. I dropped my Fridays work schedule 8 years ago, but my 3 hygienists see recall patients that day and bring about $1,500 each. See if you can build up a good hygiene program and make your hygienist work on weekends - you might have to pay her/him more for the weekend hours.

 

[allDAT]

It’s hit or miss depending on where you live. There are some who will work Saturday during a season. So for example, in Washington state, you may find Saturdays are worth it during the colder months but when the sun is out the days routinely fall apart so they’re not worth it during the warmer months.

Like someone else said, if church time is coveted in your community/patient, a Sunday won’t be a good idea.

I worked Saturday’s briefly for a Corp out of school. My experience was that we would schedule families on Saturday - so it would be one family with 3 appointments for their kids. The family would cancel and the day would fall apart.

If I had my own practice, Saturday’s would require payment in full to schedule.

In most cases...good staff don’t want to work Saturday or Sunday and this is probably more important than anything. If the choice is between having an all star crew Monday-Friday vs a mediocre crew willing to work some weekends, I would take the A team.

 

[Mauricio45]

The corp I work for doesn't require payment in full to schedule Saturdays. So, patients frequently no-show and cancel. It's not a respectful use of my time to sit around doing hygiene recalls. Often, my total production is 1K on Saturdays (1 chair) which is demoralizing being an experienced dentist. I'd rather be at home.

I've talked to my corp about reducing the Saturdays and they found a new grad willing to do them. I was that new grad too and was willing to do Saturdays to pay off my loans. However, enough is enough, lol. I paid my dues with Saturdays after doing them every week for almost 4 years.


At some point, you start to value your time over money. A part of me dies when I walk into work on Saturdays knowing there is going to be frequent cancellations and no-shows.

If the corp I work for actually knew how to productively schedule the Saturdays, I probably wouldn't have a problem with them. However, like someone else said above, staff usually doesn't want to work hard on Saturdays. For example, if last patient of the day cancels, staff won't work hard to fill it because they want to go home early (as do I).

 

[gryffindor]

I hated Saturdays as an associate. So when I quit all associateships, I refused to work Saturdays at my office. Except, parents constantly asked about it. My practice-owner friends in the area all said they did some Saturdays and that it is usually a day that is in demand and productive. So based on my staff schedule and my hatred of working on Saturdays, I opened one Sunday a month. We are always slammed on that Sunday going on 5 years now. Once in a while it falls apart but it's rare. We only do certain kinds of appointments on Sundays to minimize the big appointment canceling/big gap in the schedule problem. I'm reaching the point again where I don't like having to head in on that Sunday every 4 - 6 weeks. I'm hoping to transition this to an associate day in the next few years.

 

[TanMan]

Weekend recalls are not very productive (average worth is 120/pt/6 months/chair/ for a 30 min to 1 hour block) - I'll agree that they are just a gap filler; the emergencies are where it's at. During the weekends, new patient conversions into treatment are also very productive, especially if they haven't seen the dentist in so many years.

For me, Saturday and Sunday is just another day. The idea that people value their schedule based on the norm of sat/sun being the "weekend" seems a bit crazy. Go where the money goes, work less, make more.

If you're stuck at corp and you're not producing enough due to lack of staff motivation, start your own bonus system (if you get paid by production). You don't need to pay everyone off, just the top assistants and maybe the OM. To get staff to push treatment on your behalf, they need to have some skin in the game. For example, if you get paid 30% of production, I'd set a goal of 10k or more in production (only yours, not office) on a day, if they meet that, give them 50-100 bucks each and every time they hit it (or gift or "favors" or other things). Set it high, and make sure they don't hit it every time. It's like gambling, it builds an addiction to your money when they don't always hit the goal. In a multidoc corp office, you're in competition with other docs, so you want the best assistants in your corner of the ring, and if you incentivize them, they'll sell ice to an eskimo to meet that goal. Ask me how I know this works... 😆

 

[charlestweed]

For me, Saturday and Sunday is just another day. The idea that people value their schedule based on the norm of sat/sun being the "weekend" seems a bit crazy. Go where the money goes, work less, make more.

Yeah, Saturday and Sunday are just another day for me as well. I work 3 Saturdays and 3 Sundays a month. I am off every other Tues and every Thurs. The total number of workdays is still 20 days/month. It used to be 22 days/month a few months ago because I had to book fewer patients a day due to Covid. Now everything is back to normal…no more N195 mask, no more social distancing etc; I add more patients per day and work less days per month. It’s good to have some free time during the weekdays to run some errands because most government offices and many banks are closed on the weekends. The restaurants and stores are less crowded on the weekdays; therefore, my wife and I get better customer service and enjoy our days off more.

There are several other benefits of working on the weekends that I’d like to list here:

1. No traffic. Shorter commuting time = shorter work day.

2. Attract more patients because of convenient office hours. All the dental offices are closed and your office is the only one in the area that is opened. How cool is that? More patients coming in = more word of mouth referrals.

3. You can book patients more efficiently and have a shorter (but highly productive) work day. Because patients are off on the weekends, you don’t have to book their dental appointments according to their work schedules. There won't be a large gap of no patient on your appt book because patients are at work. With the convenient weekend hours, you can book them on the time slot (for my office, it's from 8am- 11:30am) that you want them to come in.

4. It’s easier to find P/T assistants. Many of them work F/T at other offices and want to earn extra cash on the weekends. Working P/T for me and earn an extra $160-180 a day (4 hours a day) is way better than driving Uber or delivering pizza. Hiring P/T assistants helps reduce the overhead significantly.

 

[Molar Whisperer]

Since I mainly work on capitation, I've never had to worry about production. Saturdays have always been slower production days and I get plenty of time to chill and relax. Now I work every other Saturday mornings and get paid for the whole day whether people show up or not (Medicaid capitation). It is very hard to get staffing on Saturdays but my DA is very dedicated and we get Wednesdays off.

Weekends in the desirable Pacific NW are always crowded for recreational activities such as golf, beach, mountain and water sports. Before I had kids, I wanted to work Saturdays and take weekdays off to do those fun things. Now my kids sleep in late on Saturdays and by lunch time I'll be home so they won't miss me much.

If you work on production, it is not worth opening on weekends in the PNW. There are plenty of competition with Emergency Dentistry DSOs to do the high dollar procedures.

 

[2TH MVR]

Private Practice. I Never worked fri-sat-sun. We were a Mon-Thurs office. I tried one sat a month and the staff hated it. In my area patients really did not like going in on a sat. Sun was never an option. Also .... I was younger back then. Had a young family. Family events. Wifey dates. Golfing on fridays. Trips on the long weekend.

Corp. I'm older now. No kids at home. Sat is just another day. Means nothing.

 

[setdoc7]

I worked Saturdays for over 30 years and just recently cut it out of my schedule. Has not made a difference. People will take off time to get their teeth done if they value their dentition. Try seeing an MD on the weekend. Not possible.

 

[nobeldds]

I plan to avoid working any Saturday ever again in my Career. I worked a couple in my first year when working at a larger dental company. I was told it would be the most productive day of the week. It wasn’t, it was terrible and many colleagues have been told the same thing and experienced the same. The offices always had light staff on Saturday, so it was hard to get much done. Patients would no show like crazy. There was a much higher proportion of drug-seeking behavior. Never again.

 

[jikooo]

What Ive seen in CA
New grads in city - Saturday is almost a must.
New owner in city - Saturday and sunday sometimes.
specialist owner in city - not so much.
specialist associate in city - rarely but sometimes.
New grads in rural - more flexibility.

Ive worked every.single.Saturdays first 2 yrs. I learned to weed out 'bad' and 'cheap' appointment and made my expectations clear to the front staff and manager. So if I am working on Saturday, it will be $$$$ and smooth day.