Did you take time to study last week’s Report? Did you unpack it with your team one point and strategy at a time?
I was tempted by the idea of just copying and pasting it here again, letting you read it twice. Because no matter how great you think you are and how thorough of a job you are doing… you can do better.
Not just at seeing the big picture for yourself but helping your patients see it. Not just at diagnosing in general but making it mean something to them.
Furthermore, does your team understand it all, what you do? Why you believe in something? How to build a case?
That weak link statement is very true. Anyone that is diminishing diagnosis or the value or letting patients off the hook or not being believers hurts the overall outcome. It detracts and goes against what you are doing.
It is in the small details that end up unraveling the big picture and taking away from the overall goals and objectives you have for your patients.
You need to embrace the concept that growing the TOP LINE number in your Practice will determine and be responsible for everything else; especially the BOTTOM LINE number that you want to see move from mouth through practice into your bank account.
Oh I get it, you don’t like to think about it that way, but why not? Why not be extremely proud of what you are doing and jump up and down to know that your patients believed so much in you that they put their money where their mouth. They give it to you and you put your skills, expertise, knowledge, and passion into them – into their overall health physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Perhaps you and your team could get more excited about THAT and so much else would take care of itself.
Today, my point is this…
They say that life is about the journey not the destination. You accept that, don’t you?
So is your patient experience. The way you diagnosis is not just about ‘getting it done,’ moving on, finishing it up, following a checklist, and off we go.
What if it’s about the journey? The journey the patient goes on in terms of belief and value, the journey you go on to make sure you don’t miss the details while you are trying to get to the end result.
Seeing the bigger picture is also about dreaming, envisioning, being creative, thinking deeply. It’s about the journey of getting to the goal.
Yes – I of all people – talk about the “destination” of optimal health and of your clinical philosophy needing to be brought to life. That you are to take the patient’s reality and compare it against the patient’s optimal health and build a bridge, a plan, a path to take them there.
Yes, that is what we are doing. However, just like any “end result” – you only get where you are going by going through the process to get there.
All too often the value of the diagnosis is lost. The treatment plan has no meaning because it has been departure and arrival but no flight in between. Of course, we wish we could teleport from destination to destination when traveling but then you just wouldn’t value the trip as much.
I have talked since day one of my existence in dentistry about creating “experiential dentistry” in your practice. There is no place this is more valuable or important than what I presented to you last week and how you go about diagnosing and arriving at your treatment plans.
Does it take more time? Not necessarily… if everyone is working collaboratively.
The real question is: Does it matter if it takes more time? Of course not. If it gets you to the goals that you want for yourself and for your patients.
You get there a lot faster when each one adds up to more, when you close the gap on case acceptance, and when you maximize each opportunity you have to help people.
Today, I’m taking it easy on you. We’re staying a bit more conceptual than usual. Last week was packed full of reminders, strategies, specifics around how you can make sure you are covering all the bases to set your patients up for success and truly bring to life the vision you have for your practice and for your patients.
Here’s the thing…
To get where you are going on the journey, you might have to take a pit stop, there very well may be a detour, or you could also find a shortcut. You can get there in a lot of different ways as long as you know where you are headed. Make the diagnostic process and building of the pathway to health something that really matters to the patient, that is of value, that they take ownership over.
The best way to get them to want to go there is to see what it will be like once they arrive. Then, through your engagement with them and through their participation in their own diagnostic journey, you will end up there together both excited and enthusiastic about what’s to come.
If you take last week’s specifics and this week’s concept, you can go to work on your own Diagnostic and Treatment Building Journey of how you take a patient from where they are to where you want them to be.
The one thing you can know is that no two journeys are the same. You have protocols and guidelines so you don’t miss out on the what matters, but your flexibility around helping your patient get where they are going is going to ensure that you do help everyone in the best way possible.
And that is a plus sum game that grows your diagnosis and profitability like nothing else ever can or will.
Next week, we are back to the good old ‘math problem’ and the formula that leads to leveraged growth in your practice.
I’d make it a point to study last week’s Report again and have your Team assess specific things they can do to further contribute and support your creation of opportunities to help people one patient at a time every single day.
