It was very interesting to read many of the breakthroughs from last week’s Report and the concept of “NON-CLINICAL PROCESS” in your practice.
Perhaps it is the nature and tendency of doctors to be a little (or a lot) more analytical as they think about the steps to a procedure or the room set-up or even the phone, billing, software, charts, technology, etc.
These are all the tangible things, but if there is no dentistry to do, then what’s the point. What matters is the process you go through to deliberately create what you want, which means you have to focus on some elusive aspects.
In fact, just yesterday, I was talking with an outstanding doctor who was producing nearly two million dollars by himself and was scheduled out for months. However, there were three big problems…
One: Insurance write offs.
Two: The type of dentistry being done to grind it out and hit those kind of numbers with volume and insurance.
Three: No time to change this dynamic because change requires time to talk to patients, educate patients and have the room to do meaningful full mouth dentistry.
The good news is everything here is actually a PROCESS change more so than anything else. It is about the experience we are taking the patients through that enables them to be insurance minded and to accept only small, minimal dentistry. This then requires you to see so many patients that you are slammed and packed full with no time to really engage patients for anything else.
So this vicious cycle repeats again and again. At least until you reach burnout; or until insurance companies keep suppressing fees so much so you are practically losing money; or until your team is so stressed and overworked they can’t keep up (which means more hiring, more overhead); or until you are working harder and harder while making less and less.
That doesn’t describe every doctor but it describes a lot more than would admit it.
And then you have the opposite… sitting around starving as you want more dentistry but are unwilling to do anything differently than sit back and wait for patients to volunteer themselves up for treatment. And when you do get the chance, you are so passive and bashful about real comprehensive dentistry tied to optimal health that you become stymied and wonder why.
You can imagine how often I hear doctors say that they need more patients but they are stuck with a column or two of hygiene, have been in practice for decades, their new patient flow is stable and steady.
I don’t care if you want only one hygienist or a lot. The point is patient retention matters whether that is in hygiene or simply moving through treatment plans and accomplishing their pathways to health. If you don’t keep them in motion in the practice, you aren’t going to get a lot of dentistry done.
Here’s my point: it is human nature to look for the problem in the wrong places. It’s easy to blame…
Insurance
Patients
Team
City
Economy
And while all of these things can and must be managed and controlled deliberately with a strategic plan – the problem is still always in the PROCESS.
As I went into the details last week: you are getting what you are getting because of what you are doing.
Daily production averages.
Referral creation.
Treatment out of Hygiene.
Overall Value of Treatment Plans.
How much and how fast a patient completes their treatment plans.
Small visits, single teeth, quadrants, arches, full mouth.
Case starts on Ortho, TMD, Sleep.
Implant Units.
Phone call conversion.
The list goes on and on.
If you want more of any of these it’s… Process. Period. if you want increases to net profit you have to build a more profitable process to make it possible.
Last week, I talked about the Process by which you turn any given patient into a better patient for themselves and for you.
The same goes for every System and Practice Component you have.
Two quick questions…
How deliberate are your processes and systems now for each RESULT you want to achieve and each OUTCOME you want to generate?
And
Are you satisfied with the results and outcomes that are actually happening?
To both questions, the obvious answer is they could be improved; pretty much everything can. The first way we always improve anything is by assessing its current state and reflecting on if it matches the vision of your practice and clinical philosophy.
Then we work to integrate the new customized process that is going to become systematic so that the results and outcomes are predictable.
I often joke that when someone says they are doing the Triangle of Trust “sometimes” or they have Accounts Receivable that isn’t tied to Insurance that patients owe you money for work you’ve already done; these are…
PROCESS PROBLEMS
It’s also a process and system problem when patients only accept insurance dentistry; when patients fallout of your schedule and haven’t paid to be there in the first place; when you don’t get spouses in the practice quickly as a patient’s first referral; when patients don’t make a decision at a treatment conference; and when effective follow-up isn’t being done.
I don’t mind being tough on you but that isn’t the point. What is, is to understand, accept and buy into the fact that every result is happening because of the way things are being done. If you don’t like the result or you want a better one – improve the way it’s being done.
This week, I am challenging you to go beyond just the patient experience into the compartments of your practice, the production income streams and the key leverage points that you expect certain outcomes and results from. Question them, reflect on them, assess them and you decide what and how they could be better.
I’ll be back with a broader picture about systems next week and we’ll talk about the fastest leverage points for growth before we go to education and building value.
Remember, success is not up to chance; it’s up to deliberately controlled processes designed for what you expect to happen based on your goals and the dentistry you want to do. So, get to it.
