Considering you are the best of the best (otherwise you wouldn’t be here), I hope that you really let last week’s Report sink in and that you took it very seriously as a wakeup call to figure out where you are stuck simply because you are doing things as you’ve always done them.
As I said before, I’m the last person that believes in change for the sake of change (I still use a Blackberry phone). And the same goes for my doctors. While perhaps more technologically advanced, they don’t get distracted from the fundamentals works and they out produce the industry on average by 3-4.
However, what’s really special is not the dollars, it’s the days – the lack of days required to do it. It’s about working smarter not harder, achieving life balance by choice, and doing it on your own terms.
That means that you can’t give in to or get stuck with the status quo. You, bluntly, must do what the average won’t.
Your compass must point to your true north, not someone else’s. And you have to withstand the peer pressure, the noise of it all, and resist the temptation to be something you are not. All while, at the same time, keeping your ambition fueled up so that you don’t miss opportunities for growth and leverage.
It’s a delicate balance. The most successful doctors are being exposed to more and learning more to find even a slight advantage, but countering that with being the most disciplined and protective over their core values, their foundation principles, and their clinical integrity.
In fact, this is why I exist. My belief is that every doctor is unique and while the commonalities are dentistry and a private practice ownership, there are more variables than there are similarities. It is inside of those differences that defines who you are and what will lead to your success.
This is against what other people tell you. You’ve heard the lies that making you more like someone (or everyone) else will make you more successful. In fact, making you more like who you are supposed to be will make you more successful, and making your practice more in alignment with your vision will make you more successful.
Which brings me to our next topic… making your practice and patient experience fit your unique vision, not anyone else’s.
Today, I want to focus on your patients and here’s how we are going to do that.
There are tried and true principles that must be in place for every successful practice to thrive and to increase the value of their patients, treatment, and time; as I’ve been walking you through over the past several weeks.
Each of these becomes customized by you and you alone. It can’t be copied from one practice to the next but that doesn’t mean you have to start from scratch.
Though the list could be longer, I want to focus on the items that will most significantly move the needle for you with your patients right now.
Next week, we’ll talk about how you can do this same concept with your team.
And remember, I preach the ideals of good old fashion common sense. It’s not about how fancy or sophisticated something can become. It’s whether or not it gets put into action, executed consistently, and successfully implemented.
There’s magic and power in the simple. Far too many doctors want to overcomplicate everything and they end up missing the point – such as talking clinically to patients instead of talking about the reasons why, the benefits, and the outcome of the treatment.
Here we go…
Three tried and true principles that should exist in every practice in order to build success on a solid foundation that will keep you focused on what matters most, staying true to yourself while helping your patients, and increasing the value of your dental practice because you are helping more patients get healthy.
First, it is critical for every practice to have a defined Mission for Patients. I explain this as, “What we are about, what we do here, why people come to us, why patients call us their dental home.”
In short, it’s more than a mission statement, it’s a standard of care. It’s about defining what ‘healthy’ is and what your goals are for your patients.
This can’t be shared or stated too often… website, poster, new patient materials, treatment rooms, at every step of the process.
Every team member should be able to recite it, believe in it, and proudly talk about it. Every patient should be engaged with it as your entire experience should embody it.
This is a core principle. If you have this it becomes your guiding compass for everything else you do.
The next tried and true principles is a deliberately orchestrated and well crafted Patient Experience Process. At first glance you say, “well we have that.” Of course you do, but I can tell you from my intimate experience with so many practices that it’s often two hygienists in the same practice for a decade still do things in a different order or say things differently about the same situation.
You could even have the same person yet depending on the day, the schedule, or the circumstances of the moment things will be done differently or missed or reordered.
And doctors, if you think you’re not guilty, just ask your team. Whether you are behind, pre-judging a patient, or whatever else – you don’t nail it every single time.
This is often where things break down and why people start looking for quick fixes, more patients, or changing every aspect of the practice. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with the “system,” perhaps there is something wrong with the execution of the system.
Your patient experience can always be better, yes, but to make the biggest impact immediately, how about just doing what you and your team have agreed to already.
The tried and true principle of stick to the basics, carry out the plan, and make sure that you are taking every patient experience (whether new or existing or general or specialty or anything in between) seriously because every patient matters.
Finally, to piggy back on this, because they obviously link together, the first principle and the second are then brought to life by the third… your diagnostic strategy and approach to bringing to life your clinical philosophy through patient.
Now, again, we have commons sense, however how many times are the diagnostics different or the quality of pictures off or something is missing whether it’s based on who is doing it or the patient or the time of the day or insert any other variable you want.
Today, I’m focused specifically on if you say in principle number one your goals for your patients are x then every single thing you do diagnostically and with your clinical engagement should fulfill and bring it to life.
Yes, the same goes for your treatment planning but to get there you have to bring the patient with you. So many patients are just left behind or it’s rushed through or shortcuts are taken all because we didn’t stick to the clinical philosophy.
If you take your most comprehensive treatment plan and you reverse engineer it by working it backwards, then you simply have to paint the picture for the patient in that order so that it is methodical and easy to understand.
Why does it have to be so intimidating and complicated with patients? The answer is a big giant: it doesn’t. Actually, it’s very easy but doctors make it more difficult by not explaining things clearly, not laying out proper expectations, not defining success in the beginning, not following the system, and not having integrity with how things are carried out.
The bottom line is: just doubling down on and committing to these three tried and true principles that will never fail you. They give your team more confidence and a game plan to carry out with every single patient every single time.
That’s the sure-fire formula for practice success… build on solid ground, go back to basics, close the gaps within your systems, and implement tried and true principles customized to your vision.
Next week, we’ll dive even deeper into these concepts. For now, you’ve got some work to do using these three principles to move your practice closer to your ideal vision and your patients closer to optimal health.
