Beginning June 15th, Dr. Abbas will reduce her days at Monterey Coast Periodontics to Tuesdays and Thursdays only, as she will also be working at another office closer to home. Mondays will no longer be available. This is expected to evolve further, and the team will continue to monitor for additional changes.
PRD lunches were previously scheduled on Mondays due to greater scheduling flexibility. With Mondays no longer available for Dr. Abbas, the team is working to identify an alternative approach to accommodate these touch points within her new Tuesday/Thursday schedule.
Monterey Coast Periodontics is fully booked through May, with the next available new patient appointment around June 1st — and June is filling quickly. New patient appointments are staggered between surgeries, with full-mouth periodontal evaluations scheduled for one hour and limited or problem-focused exams for 30 minutes.
Jayme noted that Referral Lab currently shows no pending consults in the next 30 days, which does not reflect the actual schedule. Merie confirmed that some new patients have not been entered and committed to reviewing and updating the Salinas and Carmel location data promptly. Referral Lab is the primary source of truth for reporting and must be kept current.
Merie recommended that Jayme inform Heidy of the ongoing capacity and scheduling challenges, as the current system does not allow for quick consults between surgeries and staggered scheduling has resulted in backups. Jayme will bring this to Heidy's attention to seek guidance or solutions.
Kirsten completed outreach to 20 offices in April and will target another 20 offices in May. All activities are being tracked in Referral Lab. These efforts have contributed to re-engagement from providers who had not referred patients in a significant amount of time.
Recent marketing outreach has successfully reactivated lapsed referring providers, with several offices that had not sent patients in some time now referring again. This is a positive indicator of the outreach program's effectiveness.
A significant portion of patients — particularly those with Delta Dental and BRMS insurance — require pre-authorization before committing to treatment. Because Monterey Coast Periodontics is out of network with Delta Dental, patients pay the practice directly and seek reimbursement from their insurer, which adds friction to the decision-making process. Pre-authorization can take four to six weeks, directly contributing to lower same-day acceptance rates. Overall case acceptance is at 52%, with same-day acceptance at 45%.
Monterey Coast Periodontics will participate in the October Fall Festival event. Planning details will be confirmed as the date approaches.
Lula's chocolate will be distributed for both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays as a seasonal appreciation gesture for referring partners.
Merie will keep Jayme informed about lunch meetings attended by Dr. Wetzel and Dr. Abbas on an ongoing basis, as these are relevant touch points for referral partner engagement and should be tracked accordingly.