Art Anderson gets a little Tipsy...       

Five Ways To Improve Office Efficiency

Regardless of the size of your community, it is much more profitable to keep existing patients than to be constantly replacing those who don’t return. This is an observation of Kathy Droege who is office manager for the general dental practice of her husband, Dr. Timothy Droege in Breese, Illinois. Here are five ways she recommends that will improve office efficiency and help to increase patient retention and profitability.

1. See that every dental team member is totally dedicated to giving the same courteous service to every patient. This suggests that all team members must give undivided attention to the patient who is in front of them with no bouncing around to answer phones or leaving one patient to attend to another.

2. Except for the dentist, more than one person needs to be able to perform each job in the office. In this way the same high standard of service is maintained even when there is an unexpected absence. Regardless of who steps in to perform a job temporarily, the responsibility to see that it is done correctly remains with the person to whom the job is permanently assigned.

3. It is essential that all members of the dental team do what they agree to do by the time they agreed to have it accomplished. Whatever assignments are made during the dental team meeting should remain on the agenda until they are accomplished.

4. Give the team members the authority to function in their job positions. Make sure they understand the limits of that authority. As employees accept and perform reliably in their jobs, they will likely see new and better ways to perform their tasks.

5. Encourage all dental team members to make suggestions even when those suggestions are outside of their area of expertise. The ideas may not always be useable but it is important to allow and encourage the input just the same.

The reward for observing these principles will likely be having the patients feel a positive atmosphere when they step inside of the office. In addition, most things in the office will be totally predictable. 

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   Suzanne Black – Coaching Director Talks About...

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you a few of the success stories that our coaching team experienced over the past few months. Here are some more that will help you to understand what can happen to your practice, with a little help from your coaching friends, if you really want it to and you have a proven plan that works:
 
 From Paula Harriss – Coach

• Just couldn't hold this one back!  Please join me in congratulating Drs. Jeff Gray and Kenny Williams! I had a call with Jeff and Kenny this morning and they are so thrilled! Since they have installed the Block Scheduling program their production is zooming! They had a $226,000 month in May. This was with one less assistant and one less hygienist! This was their second best month ever! They want you to know that their best month ever was last March when the Nelsons had treatment and production was $307,000. This is still a "challenge goal" for them.

• Dr. John Lamons who has attended all levels of Dental Boot Kamp and who is going to be a facilitator in training in the fall had a wonderful month and their best month ever with a solo doctor. They produced over $95,000 with one doctor. Think what they can do when their new associate joins them this month.

• Dr. Kim Jernigan Pensacola, FL -  Was in the Chicago Dental Boot Kamp last year, then came to the Chicago Financial Arrangements Seminar early this year and proceeded to sign up for Coaching.  Suzanne kicked off Coaching  with an onsite training - they are now on Module 8 and have completed Hands On.  They’ve implemented the Success Rewards Bonus program.  Roz Fulmer had a great visit last month on maximizing Dentrix.  Kim and her entire team are attending Masters later this year.  This month she had her best month ever!!! Over $60,000 in production and just under that in collections.  That's a 72% increase!!! 

• Dr. Brock Lynn, Dallas TX.– Brock took his team to the September 2001 BK in Kerrville, they started Coaching right away and went through Hands On in March in Kerrville as well.  Early this year they implemented the Success Rewards Bonus Program, which the team and Dr. love.   In May Brock had production of $159,718 with $152,000 in collections. In 2001 he averaged about $100,000 per month.  That’s with the same number of team members and working one less day per week. He’s up 60%!!!