Making Dental Office Changes Stick

Making dental office changes takes insight and courage.  As you know, we are all creatures of habit.  Bring a group of us to work together, and voila!  There are now lots of habits to consider.  And this is especially true when new team members join the dental practice.  Especially those with previous dental experience.

Is it better to hire a team member with dental office experience?   Or do we want someone with no prior dental office training?  It all depends on how you want to spend your time.  Because team members with dental experience still need training.  In fact, a retraining of sorts is necessary.  But they also bring ideas the practice can learn from as well.

Slow and Steady

Slow and steady does win the race.  We reach our goals with greater ease when we take things slow.  Pick one area you want to improve each month.  Or slow it down even more.  Pick one area you might want to improve and work on that for 90 days.  Just avoid too many changes at the same time.  One change at a time is ideal.

Measure your success!  Make every goal measurable.  Tracking is the way to go.  Want more new patients, record how many new patients are scheduled and seen each day.  Want to increase collections or production?  Track daily production or collection numbers.

Step 1 – Set a specific goal and a specific time frame to reach that goal.

Step 2 – Make the goal a measurable goal.  

Making Dental Office Changes in Steps

Now, we have the foundation, let’s build the house!  How will we reach the goal or make the change we wish to see?  There are tools available for you here.  

Download e-books and training videos!  Print course units or access course materials through a link to my Google Drive File.  I cover it all here.  Reception.  Telephones.  Hygiene.  Restorative.  Collections.  And my very own Weekly Management Systems.

 

Here’s an Example

Let’s say you want to see more new patients each day.  First, let’s define how many new patients.  And we’ll say that two new patients each day is the goal.  Then, we want to focus on that alone for 90 days.  Of course, there are other things we do each day.  But our “change” is to add two new patients each day.

Set up a tracking system for new patients.   Something like a simple spreadsheet will do.  

 

Making Dental Office Changes with Accountability

 

Accountability is the icing on the cake.  To truly support and cement change, add accountability.

Team meetings are a fabulous way to institute more accountability.