The hardest thing for you to deal with right now is the uncertainty of what day you\u2019ll been given permission to reopen your practice, take care of every patient, and get back to doing what you do best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The challenge for me in writing this Report is there are a multitude of different approaches to practice, patient, and team management during this pandemic. I guess that just goes to show that these guidelines, mandates, and suggestions are open to interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I preface this with those two paragraphs because I don\u2019t want to you to bypass these important steps just because you may not yet have set your date to reopen (or have been told when you can, depending on how you are looking at it). With that in mind, over the next few weeks, I\u2019ll be giving you plenty of items to focus on, execute, and prepare. The only difference will be how many weeks from now you put them into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For some, they have already begun, fully prepared to begin seeing patients the last week of April, for most the first week of May, and others it might be mid-May. It\u2019s doubtful that even the most radical governors are going to be able keep people locked in their homes until June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I\u2019m considering this a three, two, one week Re-Open Countdown to be used as you wish in whatever intervals you want. We\u2019ll call it about thirteen, a bakers dozen, of specific tactics that you have to account for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, I\u2019m talking about the boring stuff. We\u2019ve covered for weeks the exciting part\u2026 the videos to patients, the team sharing about \u2018quarantine\u2019 ideas, reading books, catching up on your \u2018never get around to it\u2019 lists, and all the wonderful things you\u2019ve never achieve because you don\u2019t work \u2018on\u2019 your practice long enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s still time. You can get so many things accomplished. It ought to feel very rewarding. And if you\u2019ve got nothing to do\u2026 relax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s the thing, you aren\u2019t yourself right now \u2013 you can\u2019t be. You are still you, it just feels different when you can\u2019t express your ambition, you can\u2019t fuel your fire, and you can\u2019t get up every day hit the ground running to go into your life\u2019s work. You\u2019ve been benched but not for much longer (though it will seem like forever). You will be back on the field, in the game playing again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only question is: will you be ready? Well, I\u2019m here to make sure of it. First, you simply have to cast out all negative thoughts. With the right mindset (and a few of my tips), you can be the leader your team and patients need right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay, at some point you\u2019ve got to set a date to re-open and begin to schedule patients. Most people have rescheduled patients to some day into the future even if they have to call them again and move it. This for the emotional benefit of the patients, retaining control of the schedule, and convenience of the team. It\u2019s a lot harder to cancel an appointment, chase down a patient later on, and get them back on the books than it is to reschedule them when you are on the phone in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is, whether you have a date or not, the following still applies because we have sufficient time. You want to get these items out of the way so the two weeks coming back into the practice can be full-speed execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At some point here you have to re-engage your team. With very rare exception, I find that teams are gathering at least once a week (via phone or zoom or facetime or google hangouts or some virtual format). If you aren\u2019t, you have to rally the troops at least once to establish the game plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you no longer have a team or able to communicate, you can do the next part yourself; otherwise, I\u2019d do it altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two critical keys to the re-open strategy that have to be decided and determined before anything else can be. They are critical and they are completely up to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have to decide how are you going to handle the missed clinical days. Simple question with a complicated answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right now, you will have incredible demand with so many patients rescheduled. While it might take some time for the practice to feel as though you are back to your full capacity and pace, using the demand that was removed from the schedule it should buffer that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If it were me, I think I would try to get all of the patients who were cancelled back and rescheduled as quick as possible (within the first few weeks of the re-open). That means you\u2019ll need an extra hour a day and an extra day per week. It will somewhat depend on how your patients respond and whether or not you\u2019ve been communicating with them during the shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides the fact that most doctors have finished all of their deliveries and post-ops during the shutdown so their schedules could be clean and clear for nothing but diagnosis and procedures when they get back. Others have finished all procedures that were on the schedule so patients weren\u2019t waiting (and therefore turning into emergencies during the shutdown time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What the government is incapable of understanding is a lack of dentistry creates dental emergencies. Like not washing your hands spreads germs. There is actually less (dentistry) to do if we can all do a little in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I digress\u2026 you can wait it out and see what demand looks like or you can go ahead and add days to balance out your schedule as you come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other thing you can do is simply refigure your monthly goal and just make up whatever days you lost spread across the rest of the year. You could do it by adding two days to every month or by adding x dollars to every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Understand: it is NOTHING BUT A MATH PROBLEM \u2013 that is all is. Please stop fixating on the money. Live off a credit card for a month if you are in that position but the money isn\u2019t the problem, it\u2019s the time and people that are the coveted assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want the money back, you have to be focused on the people (not the money). You need to be prepared to diagnose, educate, motivate, and influence patients about their health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have hygiene or for our specialists if you have a lot of follow-up visits that you chose not to see then you have to figure out where those go in the schedule so that you don\u2019t blow up your ability to rebound fast with diagnosis and production. Just because the schedule is full, doesn\u2019t mean you are making up for lost time; you could simply be treading water \u2013 or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you decide on the make-up the time\/money structure, then have to decide how you want the schedule to be organized… what procedures take precedence?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might go for the \u2018turn over more same-day dentistry to catch up and get patients while they are there\u2019 strategy; or you might go for \u2018line up as many comprehensive exams as you possibly can\u2019 during the first week or two at the sacrifice of the production but load up on dentistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You probably can do 50\/50 depending on the production that you cancelled or rescheduled. However, you have to get back to focusing on creation and diagnosing fast if you want your numbers to bounce back quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t worry about patients\u2019 mindsets and decisions. I have Doctors in New York, Florida, California, Texas, and other states seeing patients (with emergencies) and having no problem getting case acceptance. For those practices who are engaging patients and doing virtual consultations, their patients want to come in to get work done. They are anxious to do it and they all will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There will be some who will remain timid, but there will be enough for you. The patients will reflect YOUR MINDSET like they did before. Especially if you are willing to tell them the truth \u2013 about everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once you layout your schedule structure (which will probably look different during the first couple weeks, the following couple weeks, and back to some version of normal into the 6-8 week range), then you\u2019ve accomplished the most important decisions you will have to make that will determine your success in the first 30 days you are back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After these two items, it is important that you review the protocols and guidelines for seeing patients related to sanitation and sterilization; which may even modify before you open but at least you need to inform your team, plan for supplies, and consider what is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, if you aren\u2019t already, you have to make sure that you are capturing every single call that comes in. Someone can answer at their home, keep a log, and take appropriate follow-up steps with each patient. If you can\u2019t require team members to monitor the calls, then find a freelancer or independent contractor. These calls are too critical to be unattended and sent to voicemail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So there you go, date or no date; team or no team\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Get prepared to re-open based on your decision on lost time, schedule structure, procedural priorities, sterilization protocol updates post-pandemic, phones, phones, phones (if you are at all worried about money, for goodness sake then you ought to be treating every patient, every call, every opportunity like gold).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is NOT surprising to me in the least that the people who aren\u2019t sweating the money or the time off because they are in a stable position are the ones being the most proactive, answering every call, stacking up new patients, doing virtual consults to line up diagnostic opportunities, reaching out to their patients. They are taking care of their assets now like they always have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opposing mentality (the ones with the most worry, angst, and concern), are fixated on money, cutting expenses, neglecting their patient relationships, and unprepared for return. They are doing nothing to protect the assets as if they are already out of business and staying that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, it\u2019s practical and prudent to manage cash-flow, but the longer you focus on the opposite of what is going to make the difference the longer you are going to be stuck with the problems you are fixated on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At some point, as the weeks go by faster and faster, you have to turn your focus to the future and start materializing what you really want to come out of this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next week, we\u2019ll move into stages of date setting and action taking to position your two-week blitz to re-open. While we may not know when it is exactly, we certainly know what to do and how to prepare. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"