My Dental Practice 6 Photo Challenge

My Dental Practice 6 Photo Challenge

When was last time you evaluated your practice with a critical set of eyes? Take a really close look at the flow of your work space, the age and functionality of your equipment, and the impression the appearance of the office makes on your patients. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so many of you sent photos earlier this year that I wanted to post this challenge again for a second round!

My Dental Practice 6 Photo Challenge

Take the following 6 photos of your office:

1. Operatory
2. Sterilization area
3. Technology
4. Reception Area
5. Whatever bothers you most
6. Front of your building

These pictures tell the story of your practice. They reveal areas in need of improvement, lost production opportunities, and the messages you are sending to your patients.  It is easy, in the rush of day to day operations to lose sight, of the bigger picture. Let’s begin your path to practice growth with a review of your 6 photos.  Email or text them to me and I will or arrange a private consultation in your office to provide a customized assessment and a plan for updates that will dramatically impact the success of your practice.

To be even more prepared for our consultation, take a few moments to fill out the practice growth survey on my website. The survey can help you get focused and is a great starting point for goal setting and planning.

My experience helping doctors launch and expand dental practices can save you time, help you avoid common pitfalls, and ensure that you have the guidance and support you need to make a practice growth strategy that is right for you. There is no better time to take charge of your future, achieve the productivity and success you’ve always dreamed of, practice state of the art dentistry, and love what you’re doing more than you ever thought was possible!

Storage in Your Dental Office

Storage in Your Dental Office

What is Your Storage Strategy?

Storage strategies have changed dramatically over the years in the dental practice. I have seen many extremes including putting full storage of every item in each operatory. This makes it nearly impossible to manage inventory, and can become unnecessarily expensive. You’ll be ordering more of a product, but you already own 3 boxes x 5 operatories which could potentially expire before the inventory in each op is fully utilized. Another extreme is to have almost nothing in the operatories and the assistants running back and forth for additional items you’ll need for each procedure from the one centralized storage location. Time motion studies show that when an assistant leaves the operatory to get something she is gone for 4-5 minutes and that is lost production time for you. If you multiple that 4 minutes out by 8 times in a day that 32 minutes is time for another entire procedure to be performed.

The way products are stored impacts your efficiency and the bottom line. The best way to stock the office is to have 3-4 days of supplies in the operatory organized by procedure in tubs. Think of the storage tub as a removable drawer for a specific procedure like a composite restoration. Every supply needed to perform that procedure, right down to the articulating paper, is always in the that tub. When setting up the op for a given procedure simply place the appropriate tub on the assistant’s work surface and remove the materials needed. Keep the tub on the work surface covered so you can retrieve additional materials if needed during the procedure without de-gloving, going into a drawer, or leaving the room to find an item that might have been forgotten.

By keeping one of each of the procedure tubs in the room you can easily pull down another tub if your procedure changes during the appointment. Digging through drawers to set up rooms and being ill prepared for what might arise with a patient in the operatory is not an ideal time and materials management system. Because the procedures are repetitive, and very similar case to case, the tub system will enable you to do the same thing each time, professionally and proficiently, to optimize the care you deliver to your patients.

Procedure tubs are replenished in a central stocking area-separate from sterilization. Materials are removed from boxes and placed in ten restocking bins. Acrylic doors make the area more attractive and conceal from view all the stock items you’d have on hand at any given time.

Instruments can be stocked the same way so you can quickly access the appropriate kit and perform procedures with the assurance that all you might need is in that tub. Be sure to monitor the quantity of items you place in the tubs. You don’t need 50 of anything in the tub just a 3-4 day supply. Your Patterson TR can work with you to place a re-order barcodes on each bin to further maximize convenience and efficiency. Let’s work together to evaluate your space and plan a makeover for your office that will allow you to implement a cost saving and convenient storage management system in your practice!

 

 

Part III: The Three Biggest Mistakes Doctors Make When They Want to Grow

Part III: The Three Biggest Mistakes Doctors Make When They Want to Grow

Mistake #3: Playing it Safe

  1. Making decisions from a place of fear
  2. Thinking you can do it all yourself
  3. Not building and planning large enough to accommodate growth potential

I’ve talked about making decisions from a place of fear in the first blog in this series, and the mistake of thinking you can do it all yourself in the second one. The third biggest mistake doctors make is simply playing it too safe.

Many clients I’ve met over the years conservatively underestimate how large and successful they and their practice can actually be! Most doctors can manage a patient load of 1200-1500 patients and which can be accommodated by a 5 operatory office. The down side of conservative planning is that doctors reach the plateau of growth very quickly and outgrow the new facility while still paying off the loan for it. Each operatory generates $250,000 a year and over 10 years the revenue and collection on each treatment room is $2.5 million. If you short yourself the revenue from production, in even one operatory, by underestimating the value it brings, you’ll be making a very expensive mistake!

With the formulary I just described, and the correct location and strategy in place, we can pretty exactly determine how to build the business to achieve the financial outcome you are seeking. One of the only regrets I hear from doctors who have done projects with me is, “I wish I had made it bigger, or designed it so I could add more operatories.” A preoccupation with empty chairs blocks the pathway to growth and the space to treat patients and expand the dentistry you can offer in an efficient and timely manner.

Dr. Adam Lankford, Byte Dentistry, Windham, NH

Focus instead on having the capacity to handle your busy times. When you don’t have a place to put a patient, what is it costing your business to reschedule, or turn patients away during those peak times? They may not return at all, or change their minds while waiting for that next appointment. Planning your business capacity for busy times means creating the space for immediate treatment options and expands amount of dentistry you can offer. The ability to treat patients on the spot during their current visit is very profitable. Your incremental overhead is just the materials and a lab fee. That immediate treatment option for your patients can equate to 86% profit on that treatment. In a state of the art practice, offering the a convenient patient experience, I can say with certainty you will find all the patients you’ll need to meet, and often exceed, your goals for return on the investment.

Don’t make these common mistakes! If you are looking to start, looking to grow, or have reached a plateau in your business I can meet you wherever you are at in the process and work with you to plan for your goals. Take a look at some of my featured projects and read testimonials from doctors about their success stories. You can also fill out Getting Started forms on my website. Let’s meet to discuss ways we can work together to plan and build the successful modern dental practice of your dreams.

Read the Part I of this series, Making Decisions From a Place of Fear »

Read the Part II of this series, Thinking You Can do It ALL Yourself »

Part II: The Three Biggest Mistakes Doctors Make When They Want to Grow

Part II: The Three Biggest Mistakes Doctors Make When They Want to Grow

Mistake #2 Thinking You Can Do It ALL Yourself

Remember the very first dental procedure you ever did? The first time you do anything you actually learn a great deal from the mistakes you make. My role in the process of planning and executing growth for your practice is to eliminate the “learning curve” for your growth plan. I can save you money, headache, and false starts. Your years of experience, trial and error, and practice have made you the expert practitioner that you are today. You can now quickly plan complex treatment and build a team of experts or specialists when necessary that supplement and enhance more complex cases to achieve the very best outcome for your patients. I provide the same kind of expertise in dental business growth facilitation as well as a broad range of experts and specialists to customize the best plan for you which completely eliminates the need for you to learn from bad experiences.

Underestimating the complexity of a dental office project, the need for this winning strategy, and the customized planning that will achieve the outcome you are seeking, is the second huge mistake I see doctors make. It is so critically important to enlist an expert project manager and a partner who can, reliably and efficiently, combine all the factors you’ll need to optimize success. I carefully select a team of experts that I have worked with and vetted over the years in every area of the project from real estate, lease experts, financing, architect, designer, contractor, and our own technical experts from Patterson to collaborate with you on your particular project.

Many doctors think they can easily compile a team by asking a buddy who does real estate, or a friend who is a contractor, or the guy Dr. Smith used for his reception area remodel. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the people they find on their own have zero experience with the unique nature of a dental practice as a business. Just as you carefully orchestrate a complex treatment plan for a patient with a team of specialists and assistants to get the best outcome, the same care and consideration should be applied to the compilation of “specialists” who will treatment plan for the growth of your practice.

Don’t make these common mistakes! If you are looking to start, looking to grow, or have reached a plateau in your business I can meet you wherever you are at in the process and work with you to plan for your goals. Take a look at some of my featured projects and read testimonials from doctors about their success stories. You can also fill out Getting Started forms on my website. Let’s meet to discuss ways we can work together to plan and build the successful modern dental practice of your dreams.

Stayed tuned for Mistake # 3 Not Building and Planning Large Enough to Accommodate Growth Potential in my next blog!

Read the Part I of this series, Making Decisions From a Place of Fear »

Read the Part III of this series, Playing It Safe »