Practice Management

You’re good at what you do. Your staff and patients love you. You’re at the top of your game and feeling good about your career-no one can stop you.

Recently the New York Times reported that President Obama is threatening to strip the insurance industries’ exemption to the antitrust laws because the insurance industry is using “deceptive and dishonest” advertisements to derail his health insurance reform. At the same time, the Senate Judiciary Committee is conducting hearings on the antitrust exemption for insurance companies. Senate Bill S.1681 has been introduced in the Senate to prevent insurance industry price fixing, bid rigging and market allocation. 

This morning, 11 dentists received a special delivery letter that changed their lives forever. It began, “Dear Doctor: We represent your patient Jane Doe and demand that within the next 10 days, you submit your entire records and x-rays for her treatment.”

The practicing dentist works diligently to accumulate assets and income. He or she has little time or inclination to consider that someone may attempt to take those assets or income by starting litigation. Maybe the thought of a potential lawsuit has not entered the dentist’s mind. Why should it? The dentist may think “What could I possibly do to cause someone to sue me?”

Your hands are your livelihood. In a flash, a career that took decades to achieve can come to an end. Meanwhile, the monthly bills keep rolling in and financial obligations mount as you’re out of work. This is an unpleasant but important topic for all dentists.

Well known author and expert on relationships, Alan Cohen, said, “In our culture, presence in many relationships has been reduced to a trickle. In our fascination with labor-saving devices, mass production, lightening speed dental technology and unprecedented busyness, the human factor is often relegated to a low priority.

Tell them what’s in it for them. Want to improve patient case acceptance in your practice? Make sure you’re using benefit statements when you present treatment, said Lois Banta of Banta Consulting.  

We go through leading small business journals and websites so you don't have to. Check out this week's best small business links...  

The second installment to Dental Products Report's Paperless Video Series highlights the practical benefits associated with going paperless. While paperless workflows create large, big picture benefits for a dental practice, this portion of the series dials back to the simpler, more practical advantages.  

Get them thinking long term. Your patients have plenty of short-term reasons why they can’t go through with treatment, from it’s too expensive to they just don’t think it’s necessary, and that’s why it’s important for you to talk with them about their long-term goals.

Parents and patients don’t intend to be less committed to their appointments during the “lazy days of summer” but let’s face it…if anyone makes them a better offer than going to the dentist, off they go, which means your scheduling coordinator works at top speed to keep the changes in the schedule filled. Not to mention the stress involved with the confirmed patient “no-shows.”

The Paperless Video Series is a guide to help you make the right purchases for the right reasons when it comes to technology and methods as you make your traditional dental practice paperless.

It is 1962 and Dr. Jones has an air compressor installed with air lines to all the treatment rooms running to units with highspeed air turbine handpieces, yet he continues to use the old belt driven dental drill because he just doesn’t trust the new system. That seems silly today, but it is the same situation many dentists find themselves in 50 years later with regards to paperless dental records.

Marketing isn’t a bad word. The thought of it may make you feel uncomfortable or even a little anxious, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore what a good marketing plan can do for your practice. And while most of you already know you need to market your practice to survive, 54% of you said dental marketing is bad for the profession, according to a survey from The Wealthy Dentist.

Don't be neutral. When a patient calls to cancel or re-schedule an appointment at the last minute, make sure that patient understands what that means for your schedule.? ?

We go through leading small business journals and websites so you don't have to. Check out this week's best small business links: Keep your employees motivated this summer

The current outlook suggests that while there is an abundance of qualified buyers available, quality dental practices on the market are lacking.  

DPR editors have compiled a list of must-read books with your dental practice in mind. The concepts and ideas conveyed through each book can easily translate into your dental practice, among your staff and even your patients.  

Whatever your practice goals may be, the platform that is built to grow upon is key to success. Practices are bought and sold quite often, but it is every practitioner’s dream to build their own. When dentists get to build their own practice the right way using modern equipment and materials, their future plans will be much better served. The same is true for their computer system and their future technology goals, which includes going to a paperless office by 2014.

The hiring process is hardly ever enjoyable; the paperwork alone can be enough to drive anyone insane. Unfortunately, this long, exhausting process is unavoidable.  If you’ve said, “I know I need a good team, but it is too hard to find the right people,” chances are you’ve made some mistakes during the hiring process. Here’s a breakdown of the top 5 mistakes dentists make during the hiring process, and how you can avoid them.

Next time you walk into your dental office, pretend you’re a new patient. If you’re greeted by a wall of paper charts and a reception area featuring a sliding glass window and a clipboard, think about what you are communicating. Impersonal reception areas, clipboards and paper charts scream “yesterday.” Now consider that, rightly or wrongly, patients form beliefs about the quality of your dentistry based upon these seemingly innocuous things.

It’s bound to happen. At some point in your career, you just stop feeling the passion you once had for dentistry. You find yourself in a rut, and just going through the motions of your day to day. While this is common, no matter what your career, it doesn’t have to become your normal. There are ways to get that passion back, to renew your energy and your enthusiasm for the work you do. Here’s how:

Patterson Dental has added profit-driving analytical business tools by Mercer Advisors to its Explore Store online technology center to help dentists identify lost revenue and determine the overall health and performance of their practice.

Your patients are your practice. Without them, where would you be? You have to know the best ways to attract them to your practice, get them to accept treatment and make them happy, life-long patients. That’s where we can help. Check back regularly for tips on how to keep your patients happy, healthy and loyal.  

The third video interview in a series on social media with Dr. Edward Zuckerberg, the dentist dad of Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, touches on the fears that dental professionals have about using social media and why they should overcome them.

In light of the recent investigative film that examined the flaws in the dental care system, dental professionals from across the country have expressed mixed reactions. FRONTLINE and the Center for Public Integrity were behind the production of the film.

AMD LASERS, a global leader in dental lasers and dental laser education, announced a partnership with leading dental trade publication Dental Products Report to sponsor  a social media training series for dental professionals.

The second video interview in a series on social media with Dr. Edward Zuckerberg, the dentist dad of Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg, offers insight focusing on how social media platforms can affect your dental practice.

Biographer Walter Isaacson outlined core leadership strengths that can be used to characterize Apple founder and personal computing pioneer Steve Jobs in a Harvard Business Review article. These four approaches to leadership can be applied to the improvement of your dental practice. ExecTech, a practice management consulting firm, breaks them down. Focus

The investigative team at the television show FRONTLINE and the Center for Public Integrity, joined forces to produce the film “Dollars and Dentists,” which examined the dental care system and offers some solutions to correct problems found within it.