Sally McKenzie

If the success or failure of your dental practice were contingent solely upon the quality of your dentistry, it's likely that you, and most practitioners, would be wildly successful.

But there are 22 systems and dozens of variables that directly impact you, your patients, your staff, and the marketing of your total practice. Each demands ongoing assessment and monitoring. To accomplish that requires establishment of the most fundamental step in total practice improvement: regularly scheduled working staff meetings to monitor management and marketing systems.  

Block off two hours each month over the next 12 months and involve the entire team in making these sessions true information gathering and problem solving opportunities, starting with these 10 steps.  

1. Develop an agenda with input from the entire team. Include all areas that impact the marketing of the practice. For example: new patients, recall, collections, treatment acceptance, production, unscheduled time units, uncollected revenues over 60 days, overhead, etc.
2. Assign each member of the team to report on the area they're responsible for, and seek their input as well as the rest of the team's as to how each area can be improved.
3. Share ideas for improving the work environment, the patient experience, and marketing of the practice.
4. Don't blindly accept the status quo. Ask each other questions such as, "If you were the patient, how would you respond? What are the advantages of this approach? What are the potential disadvantages?"
5. Delegate responsibilities and establish deadlines for completing projects and tasks identified during the staff meetings.
6. Designate the amount of time you will spend discussing each issue and avoid getting bogged down on unrelated topics.
7. Discuss only what is on the agenda.
8. Make a list of issues that come up that warrant further discussion and agree to include those on the weekly staff meeting agenda or next month's working meeting agenda.
9. Eliminate outside interruptions. If possible, hold working staff meetings off-site. Many local libraries, community colleges, and other public facilities have public meeting rooms available for use.
10. Hold meetings at least once per month, more frequently if you're implementing several changes, such as a comprehensive marketing plan.

Encourage staff to offer ongoing constructive suggestions, input, and insights aimed at moving the practice forward and advancing the marketing efforts. Finally, celebrate progress; the smallest of victories is another step toward practice improvement and achievement of your marketing objectives.

More About McKenzie Management... 

Most of the costs of dental software aren't found in the sticker price.

"How much does it cost" - that's the first question most dentists ask when investigating a new or replacement software system to manage their practice. If only the price tag told the whole story! Unfortunately, most of the cost is below the water line.

When the great ship Titanic made its maiden voyage, the "unsinkable" boat found out very quickly that what is beneath the water may be substantially more dangerous than what is visible above the water.

The consequences were tragic.

Icebergs

Icebergs are large frozen masses of water. Most of the mass of the iceberg is found below the water, out of site, but just as real. A holistic perspective and analysis is required to ensure positive ROI on any technology implementation.

Beyond Sticker Price

Gartner Group conducted a study and found that across all industries software price represented just 10% of the total cost of a system. Of course, these are not dental in-dustry specific numbers, but anything remotely close to these numbers warrants significant consideration when you have so much on the line.

Lost production

Even given the long list presented above, there is one cost item that is intentionally passed over by many vendors-because they don't like to talk about it. It's the cost of office downtime and lost production required by most vendors for things like computer installation, configuration, upgrade installation, staff training, etc.

Most firms suggest "on-site" training. They will quote something like $1000 or $1500 for the training but that's just the check you write. What about the check that isn't being written by your patients during that week of training? It isn't hard to see that much of the cost for a traditional dental software system is really hidden beneath the water line and is not taken into account in the typical client/server software sticker price.

Mistaken Comparisons

Never assume that the product and services received from a client/server system are equivalent to the product and services received from a web-based system. The monthly subscription fees paid to a web-based vendor typically include many services that are not included in most traditional software vendor quotes. Many offices find that the additional services required with a client/server based system end up costing as much or more than the total monthly subscription fee of a web-based product.

Thus, it is vital that a total and honest comparison is performed before simply accepting the sticker price as the whole price. Any return on investment (ROI) analysis must include not only the simple software fees, but also the system related fees that are not included in, but are required to run the software. Additionally, the analysis must include the costs associated with office downtime and disruption. Failure to include these hidden costs is simply ignoring the truth.

Conclusion

When a dentist is considering a new practice management system, all costs should be included in the analysis. It's very easy to ignore some of the most expensive parts of a system.  

To read this "orangepaper" in its entirety click here. Or to learn more about the price of Curve Dental  click here.