Very few Dentists, if any, would say they are NOT Patient-Centric in the way they run their practices and treat their patients. Maybe no doctor would say otherwise.
But, they and most likely you have it all wrong.
That’s because the perception of what it means to be “patient-centric” or in other words “putting the patient first” – is all wrong. In fact, it’s completely 180 degrees wrong. Certainly not intentionally so but as result of what happens. The result of setting up your practice to be “patient-centric” is not actually patient-centric.
Think about it this way… what do you perceive patient-centric to mean?
Convenient scheduling. Affordable care. Patient is the boss.
In other words: the Doctor and Team at the mercy of the Patient.
Now, I know what you are thinking. They are your “customers” and you have been told that THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
I say BS! No customer is always right – that’s why they are called “customers” and not “doctors.”
Of course, you think you are always right when you are a customer of someone else’s business. That’s fine in a restaurant, hospitality, retail, shopping and other COMMODITIZED Businesses that have little stature or credibility in the customers’ mind.
If you want to devalue yourself immediately and forever then you let your patients run your practice and let them make all the decisions. Give them the control over what and how you diagnose or even what and how they schedule, pay, show up, etc.
First of all, you became a doctor for a reason – to help people. Often times people that DO NOT know they need help. Even when you show them, tell them, teach them – still they question the legitimacy of what you are doing, saying, charging. And yet you say you want to run a patient centric practice.
Here’s what I want for you, for my doctors, for The Entrepreneurial Dentists…
I want you to be respected.
I want you to have authority.
I want you to be a leader and influencer for your patients.
I want you to see Patient Centric as what’s in the best interest of your patients not what’s the path of least resistance for them.
Too many Doctors are satisfied with just “being busy.” Going in and out of the practice every day like a job instead of actually doing dentistry and making a difference.
If you want to do better by your patients, you can do one thing above all others…
YOU CAN DO BETTER BY YOURSELF
What I want you to have – and what the best doctors have, the ones that are happiest with their lives and their dentistry, the ones that are most prosperous and practicing on their own terms, the ones that don’t dread coming into the practice and they feel proud of what they are paid, the ones that they stand tall and confident when diagnosing real dentistry and truly helping patients…
A DOCTOR-CENTRIC PRACTICE
Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean it all sits on your shoulders. Not a chance. This is about the Entrepreneurial Dental Practice here. It’s going to be TEAM DRIVEN and SYSTEM RUN (we’ll get to that part very soon).
Today, I’m talking about YOU.
The Entrepreneurial Dentist achieves a Practice as a Business that revolves around them. Like the Planets orbit the Sun. You are the center of your own universe – as it should be.
That is not greedy or arrogant or egotistical – it’s called SMART BUSINESS. If your practice doesn’t revolve around you then that means one thing – you revolve around someone or something else.
Your life is held hostage to your practice and instead of it serving your purpose, passion and profits, you are its servant and it your master.
You can fall victim of being at the mercy of your Patients or your Team or (as we talked about last week) you can be letting industry norms become your anchors to achieving what is actually possible.
The true Entrepreneurial Dentist has a vision for what they want, a plan to get there and an operational system in management, training and leadership to ensure that it happens.
That makes your life easier – not harder. Done right, everything becomes so systematic it hardly feels like work anymore; aside from the actual dentistry, of course.
If you love the dentistry you are doing and you love the way you are doing it then you would welcome more of the right kind of “busy” and “production” into your life, as long as it felt worth it to you and you felt fulfilled everyday you show up.
Here’s the thing: this is only possible if you embrace the fact that it’s not bad to want a business to be centered around you. Once you decide what you truly want, we can engineer a practice to serve your patients in amazing ways that truly matter without you having to be the one who sacrifices and bears the brunt (pain) of your own decisions.
As an Entrepreneurial Dentist you realize you can have it all if you are deliberate in what you are doing.
No business actually lets the customer run the show. The best businesses thought to be “customer-friendly” have disciplined protocols and rules of engagement that create the parameters to allow the customer service to take place and for the business to thrive.
With dentistry, the patient can be at a tug of war against your goals, no matter what you think. That is until you master the second part of what it means to be an Entrepreneurial Dentist. We’ll go there next week.
For now, remember if your business isn’t set up to serve you, you are going to be the only one left out. Believe me, I’ve yet to see a Doctor who’s happy (or doing well) that is at the bottom of the food chain in his/her practice; running around being everyone’s you know what. That’s no good for your ego (confidence), your bank account (income), your health (sanity) and it isn’t any good for your patients (customers) either.
The Entrepreneurial Dentist commits to building a practice as a business that matches their personal and professional objectives above all others. If that’s not okay with you, you can always get a job.
It’s a win-win-win because it’s better for everyone involved. For more, stay tuned for the rest of the Entrepreneurial Dentist series.
