Why Keeping Your Chairs Full Could Be Killing Your Practice's Profitability

When you're just starting out, the primary focus is simple: keep the chairs full. As a new practitioner, that makes sense. The busier you are, the more productive you feel. In the early stages of your practice, it’s about getting those appointments booked and keeping patients coming through the door. But as your practice matures, so must your strategy. Aiming solely to "keep the chairs full" can quickly become a trap that limits your potential for growth and profit. It may sound counterintuitive, but filling the schedule with any appointment available isn’t always the best path to increasing production and collections.

Let’s break down why.

The Misleading Comfort of a Full Schedule

Many practices experience natural fluctuations throughout the year, with some months busier than others. It’s common for doctors and team members to panic during slower periods and scramble to fill those empty time slots. While this might seem like the right move in the short term, focusing on just filling every chair with any procedure can be detrimental in the long run.

Here’s why: Not all appointments are created equal. You could fill your schedule with procedures that generate $300 per appointment or, with a shift in strategy, you could be booking appointments that generate $3,000. Both may take the same amount of time, but the impact on your bottom line is dramatically different.

Quality Over Quantity

Imagine this hypothetical: Two patients book appointments, one for a $300 procedure and one for a $3,000 procedure. Both take up the same chair time, but the financial difference is tenfold. Now multiply that over the course of a month. If you focus on lower-revenue procedures just to fill gaps in your schedule, you’re leaving thousands of dollars on the table.

Now, what if this scenario plays out 10, 20, or 30 times a month? The gap between a practice that focuses on high-value production and one that is merely trying to "keep busy" becomes enormous. In fact, making this small change in strategy could increase your annual revenue by $324,000—or more.

The Downside of the "Easy" Route

When the focus is simply on filling chairs, practices tend to go after the easiest procedures to schedule. While it may feel good to have a full calendar, it’s deceptive. Some appointments might not even appropriately fill the time slot for the doctor or producer, meaning the team is effectively wasting valuable time on low-yield procedures.

Training your team to prioritize high-value procedures can completely transform your practice. Instead of chasing after quick fixes to fill gaps, empower your team to think strategically about the schedule. That means understanding which appointments will move the needle the most and making sure those get top priority.

A Small Shift, Huge Results

So, as you’re reflecting on this, ask yourself: What if you could make this small shift? What if, instead of just focusing on filling the schedule, you focused on filling it with the right procedures? It’s not about being busier—it’s about being more productive.

Are you and your team ready to make small changes that can result in massive gains?