If you were being completely honest with yourself about your dental practice, you would likely rate your office as being a good office who delivers great care to patients. There is an imbalance in that statement in that you want to be a great office delivering great care to your patients.
Here are some suggestions to help you go from being a good office to a great office:
- Have systems in place for your patients that are patient friendly and don’t just serve the needs of your team. Take a critical look at each system in your practice and determine if it serves the patient’s needs well. Some of the systems that you would want to look at are your patient communication systems and your payment protocol systems, these systems in particular can cause issues with patients if they aren’t efficient and addressing patient needs.
- Have systems in place for your patients that are patient friendly and don’t just serve the needs of your team. Take a critical look at each system in your practice and determine if it serves the patient’s needs well. Some of the systems that you would want to look at are your patient communication systems and your payment protocol systems, these systems in particular can cause issues with patients if they aren’t efficient and addressing patient needs.
- Have systems in place for your patients that are patient friendly and don’t just serve the needs of your team. Take a critical look at each system in your practice and determine if it serves the patient’s needs well. Some of the systems that you would want to look at are your patient communication systems and your payment protocol systems, these systems in particular can cause issues with patients if they aren’t efficient and addressing patient needs.
- Having accountability for your team members within every system will give your team direction. Everyone likes to know exactly what is expected of them and most will enjoy having a goal to work towards.
- Some offices have checklists for every single protocol in the office and the checklists need to be handed in every day. This will definitely feel like micromanagement for any seasoned team members in your practice. A better suggestion would be once every two or three weeks have your team members go through the checklists for the protocols in your office and pay attention as to whether any of the steps are inadvertently being skipped. Skipping a step is likely inadvertent and may not make a difference initially but that step was put there for a reason so in the long run the result from missing it will definitely have an impact.
- Celebrate all wins with your team. Whether they are large or small let your team know as frequently as possible that they are performing well. It may something as small as a successful visit with a difficult patient or something that the whole office has been working towards like a production goal. Whatever the magnitude of the win is, acknowledge it and celebrate it.
- Allow your team to feel free to provide constructive feedback on parts of their day. A protocol may have been written years ago and may no longer serve the needs of your team or your patients. Keep your protocols up to date with team feedback.
All of these suggestions can feel very daunting as a practice owner when you know that you need to make change and don’t know how to do it. Going from good to great takes a concentrated effort with a well devised plan. You can always connect with me for a complimentary call and I would be happy to offer customized suggestions that may suit the needs of your practice.
