Practice Management Tips: Running a Dental Office

When we completed our dental education, our instructors emphasized a focus on dentistry by learning to implement our skills to better serve our patient population. It’s often the sole focal point for recent graduates fresh out of their respective programs. With that said, the actual practice of dentistry involves much more than how you treat a patient. You now must learn how to manage an entire operation with many moving parts. These parts can, and will, contribute to an overall positive patient experience.

It’s impossible to write an article that will encompass and appropriately capture everything that should be done in a dental practice. In fact, running a practice with no prior experience or background in ownership has a steep learning curve. Many of us learn as we go, taking classes and sourcing colleagues’ opinions for guidance. And although there are multiple philosophies on how to approach a successful operation, I think many can agree on some basic tenets that will keep your office running smoothly. Outlined below are a few practice management tips that I’ve found to be impactful to not only my staff, but myself and my patients as well.

Communication/Values: Have you ever had a poor customer service experience? Or even frustrated when someone can’t communicate an idea or feeling clearly to you? Communicating effectively with your staff and setting expectations early on can help eliminate confusion. Occasionally, office staff can be caught up in their own work and forget the needs of the dentist or the patient. Having monthly team huddles can ameliorate this road block. While I know some practices have team meetings weekly or daily, I believe that this can create a system where staff are too micromanaged. Micromanaging can breed resentment and lack of trust.

To communicate your values effectively to staff:

• Leverage your team’s talent to your advantage and take their input seriously.
• Treat your team with respect and come to a mutual agreement on divisive issues, as long as that compromise doesn’t affect other team members, your patients, or yourself.
• Always advise your team of your goals and values on how you want your office to run. Great organizational and behavioral development gurus like Drucker and Schein talk about having clearly articulated beliefs and values. Running an established and well-functioning practice boils down to whether or not your staff (and patients) share
  your values and philosophy.
• Communicate early in order to minimize contention in the workplace.

Finances: Be cognizant of your finances. Ultimately responsibility for the practice’s financial situation cannot be delegated.

At a minimum, practice owners should:

• Check your production sheet at the end of the day and look through your invoices to make sure you aren’t
  being overcharged by suppliers. While I know many Practices delegate these tasks, at the end of the day it’s your practice and you should know what your suppliers are billing.
• Do your due diligence and become familiar with common codes and what their general reimbursement rates are. People make mistakes and codes get miss-billed.
• If there is excess petty cash in your office, lock it up in a secure area. Cash can’t be tracked if it’s missing versus an electronic payment.
• Organize your finances by hiring an accountant or use a software program such as Quickbooks or an excel spread sheet to track your finances, business expenses, and payments, or to view your profit and loss ratio.
• Track bad debt expenses. I do this by having an adjusted entry in my financial statements. It’s important to know how much of collections goes uncollected, i.e., Patients not paying and writing off uncollected copayments, etc.

Patients: I can’t count how many times patients have told me they “hate” going to the dentist. Lots of people have had some adverse experience and I empathize whenever a patient tells me of a situation that left them unhappy. I try to take every encounter with a grain of salt but make every effort to listen regardless of my personal opinion. We, as clinicians, are already pressed for time and gaining a patient’s trust in several minutes is a feat requiring finesse.

To encourage your patients to feel comfortable and safe:

• Always try to make treatment clear in layman’s terms, and if you don’t know the answer, tell them you’ll get back
  to them.
• Don’t over promise. If you don’t feel comfortable doing a treatment or procedure, refer to a specialist.
• If patients have questions regarding costs, don’t get involved. Let your front desk staff handle it. No one likes
  surprises. Send a pre-treatment estimate. Disclosing costs and terms of payment up front work best.

Overall, practice management can be overwhelming. Try to tackle each issue one step at a time. Organize your framework into a simple equation for success. At the end of the day, if you pay attention to problems as they develop, you’ll put out the small fires before they become unmanageable flames.