OFFICE OPERATIONS AND STAFFING

Your Staff Makes Or Breaks You

Proper practice protocols and office flow provide for a seamless transition from patient welcome to exit exam and maintenance. The office manual should have these protocols clearly written out for training and reference. Once you have to format for the office to run effectively, you will require staff that can perform these functions reliably and correctly.

Finding staff is made far harder than it should be. It is far easier to train someone with a great personality than try to untrain someone with experience. All staff members should be intelligent, principled, and personable. They are the face of the practice. They are the first people your patients will meet and they will be your support group for many years to come. A stable staff provides patients comfort and creates a family environment.

Bottom line: Hire good people. Treat them with respect. Pay them well.

chairside technologies and delivery

Be Smart About What You Use and How You Use It

Every dentist has their own preferences on what they use to perform procedures. Whether its equipment or supplies, purchases that help you work efficiently and productively is preferred over those that are impulse purchases, cheaper pricing, can be done by another item in the office, and/or just seldom used.

Office backrooms are filled with equipment and supplies that simply never got used enough to justify having them. Worse, were sold by sale reps who swore they were going to make your life easier and they didn't.

In a similar approach, tweeking your procedures to make them more efficient or setting up your room to maximize efficiency can immediately add to your overall production. Not every patient is the same and the more you can adjust your delivery of care to cover a majority of procedures, the more time you will create to add an extra crown or fillings on a daily basis. It can add up.

Bottom line: If a piece of equipment and/or dental material does not improve your efficiency don't buy it, don't use it, and above all, don't store it. Storage space has a price you don't need to add to your cost of operation.

Patient relations and marketing

Create A Family Environment

What demographic are you trying to attract? If you don't know, you are wasting your marketing dollars and you are practicing blind. Knowing your patient population is critical in a growing practice. Gone are the days when you can open your doors and patients flood in for your dental care. Trying to sell implants to someone who only makes $30K per year is not going to happen often and you have to adjust. Identify the type of patient that you want and market to them (also, you may want to be located in an area that has a lot of those type of patients).

Once you get them in the door, welcome them, make them feel valued, respect them, and most of all, be honest with them. Earn their respect. In a day where every dentist they have been to tries to sell them the "big case". Listen to them, give them treatment options, and stand by your work. Eventually, they will sell themselves on your suggested treatments and they will give you something of great value in return...TRUST.