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Management Resolutions for Your Dental Practice
Your team, who is always looking to improve your practice, will be making the following resolutions this year.
Become involved in activities that will make the practice well known in the community. Join civic associations and service clubs. This provides an opportunity to become better acquainted with community members and show that the practice is interested in community growth and success. When the practice supports these associations, either by donation of time or dollars, the members of the societies turn around and support your business. What a win!
Make the patients’ visits as pleasant as possible. Complete a walk-through. Everyone grabs a piece of paper and visits a fellow team member’s department (not your own area). Write down everything that should be cleaned, upgraded or patched within the next 12 months. If anything you see does not exude excellence or at least appear to picture the practice as pleasant and relaxed, then it must be brought up to standard.
Develop your case presentation skills to the pinnacle level. Every team member should role-play his/her part in the educational process to motivate patients. Re-examine how you are completing the pre-consultation and hygiene exams, as well as the co-assessment process between team member and dentist. See how and when it is best to use closure statements.
Organize logically by first committing to paper your sequence:
- Build relationships
- Establish the need
- Instill and motivate
- Ask for closure
- Use proper aids and terms which are understandable, yet professional
Adopt and live by the philosophy that “Collections begin before production.” Be friendly, yet professional and business-like with patients. You never want them to ever think that making a payment to the practice is unimportant. Begin with the commitment that the dentist is never allowed to drill a tooth without firm, financial arrangements completed. Provide itemized statements so they know exactly what they are receiving for their investment. Maximize their insurance benefits for them, however, never let insurance dictate your treatment plan.
Establish a great recare program that retains your “Acres of Diamonds” per year. The master dental practice will set a goal to retain 90 percent of its existing practice. These patients will be seen in the dental hygiene department at least two to four times during the year. Your team members know that they must be focused on creating value and on educating the patient to want to be repeat loyal customers. The dental team takes 100 percent of the responsibility to ensure this goal is reached year after year.
Maintain fair and ethical standards by which each member of the team abides.
Compensate every member of the team fairly and provide opportunities for each one to receive non-monetary as well as monetary rewards for excellence, professionalism and growth. Job satisfaction, good working conditions and a pleasant environment ranks high with team members, along with opportunities for personal growth and advancement. Aim high and reward the behavior when the team works together to reach pinnacle levels of profitability!
Ensure your periodontal program is ready to enter the new millennium!
Many practices say “Well, we had a great program,” or “We had a program, but we stopped talking about it to the patients.” Eighty-five percent of patients have some level of periodontal disease. Stop allowing bleeding points to be considered average health. Rekindle your commitment to provide the best non-surgical periodontal therapy to your patients and don’t forget that the patient must come back for a four to six week re-evaluation. He/she must also come to see the hygienist for a periodontal maintenance appointment every three months. Remember that explaining treatment before therapy is a diagnosis, explaining after the therapy is completed is an excuse.
Set Goals: A goal is not a goal unless it is written down. Commit goals to paper in the following five areas: family, social, business, financial and self-attainment. In January, commit personal and professional goals to paper. Review goals every month or two and see how quickly the goals become a reality.
Enjoy your profession if you don’t do anything else. All of us are on this earth for such a short time that it is imperative that we do something we enjoy. Revitalize your commitment to your profession, live your philosophy, have fun and WIN!
Smile: Develop an “Attitude of Excellence.” This positive outlook on life will empower everyone you work with and will reach out to patients, friends and family, making our world a much better place to live!
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