This doctor said it’s the best money he’s ever spent

 

I was just on a call with one of our clients who recently purchased our “Quick Start Guide to More Hygiene Profits“.  Here’s what he had to say:

“Rachel’s Quick Start guide is the best money I’ve ever spent! It is chock full of valuable tips and information. We’ve made very specific, positive changes in our hygiene department with what we learned and I’m seeing the results quickly.”

~ Dr. Marc Dyer Elizabethtown, KY

This program includes a series of exclusive members-only special topic calls from the archives of our High Performance Hygiene Mastermind program.  These topics were hand-picked to help you jump start hygiene profits quickly.

This educational product includes:

  • CD recordings of 6 powerful High Performance Hygiene Mastermind special topic calls
  • Written transcripts of each call
  • Checklists
  • Action plans
  • Worksheets to walk you through implementing what you learn from each CD

Everything is designed to guide dentists, hygienists and office managers step-by-step throughimplementing these hygiene profitability concepts FAST.

Get all of the details here!

Stay Inspired,

Rachel

What you Don’t Do Might Send You to Jail

 

Are you a member of the High Performance Hygiene Mastermind Group? If so, you won’t want to miss the Mastermind call this month!

“What you Don’t Do Might Send You to Jail”
with Dr. Roy Shelburne

Let’s face it, at one time or another every dental professional has unintentionally omitted information or been guilty of not fully documenting dental findings, recommendations or procedures. Dr. Roy Shelburne will share his story of being charged with a federal crime before he even knew he was doing anything wrong. In fact, what you (and your team) don’t do may be what puts you at risk of being charged and found guilty of fraudulent activity. Dr. Roy’s mission is to keep this unfortunate event from happening to another dental colleague and on the call he’ll reveal:

  • Why creating a treatment plan and procedure notes may not be enough
  • The best form of documentation that you must do with every patient
  • The truth about staff being implicated in malpractice or fraudulent activity
  • Checks and balances you must have in place to protect yourself and your practice

Date: Thursday, November 18

Time: 1:00pm Eastern

Rachel interviews: Dr. Roy Shelburne

Not a member but want to join us for the call?

Sign up for a 2-month free trial membership. You’ll not only get to attend the tele-class, but you’ll also receive 2 months of CD and transcripts of our events plus private coaching opportunities and much more (you’ll only pay $9.95 for shipping).

Stay Inspired,
Rachel

Systems, what systems?

 

I hope you’re having a great day!  It’s been an unusual couple weeks for the Wall family. My mom just completed 8 days of recovery from eye surgery. The recovery involved her spending every moment of the day and night face down. Yep, that’s right. She had to keep her face parallel to the floor for 8 days! If you or someone you know has undergone retina or other eye surgery, you’ve experienced this. It’s been tough for her but she’s had such a great attitude through the whole thing.

So I’ve been juggling taking care of mom and finding sitters for the kids for the last week while trying to maintain a busy work schedule. I am so happy I’ve been able to return the favor to mom as she does SO much for us taking care of the kids and supporting our family when I travel.

So if I promised to call or email you last week and I haven’t, please forgive me. I’m hoping next week we’ll all be back on track and mom will be holding her head up high enjoying life.

Today’s article is part 2 of the Obstacle piece I shared a few weeks ago.  I hope you enjoy it.

Obstacle #2: There Are No Systems

A few weeks ago, I stepped into the office of one of my clients and I was pleasantly surprised. Based on their analysis, I expected to find a hygiene team that was not performing a complete perio exam on every patient and was not aware of each patient’s condition. Very quickly, I realized this was not the case.

This team was doing a fabulous job with calling out the perio numbers and recording each number on the chart along with bleeding points, recession and furcation. They had a threshold for the number of bleeding points before they recommended some form of periodontal therapy. But that’s where they hit their biggest obstacle. There was no system.

Although it seems intuitive to some of us, it is critical to have a clear system for:

  • Distinguishing health vs. disease
  • When to place patients into gingivitis and/or perio disease treatment
  • How to present this treatment
  • Clear fees and coding for perio therapy
  • When and how to follow up on therapy
  • What adjunctive products/services to use
  • How to keep those patients in periodontal maintenance

This is especially true when there are multiple doctors and hygienists in the practice. Everyone must be on the same page and using the same system. What happens when we’re confused is we do nothing, we shut down. This is true for patients as well. When patients are confident and clear on both the problem and the solution, they say yes!

The great news is that when we put a system in place for taking periodontal patients into active therapy and maintenance, this team sky rocketed! They already had a strong foundation in place. They didn’t have to start from scratch.

Here are a few signs that this is one of your obstacles:

  • Low perio percentage despite thorough periodontal exams
  • Acceptance of perio treatment is low
  • Not starting treatment until the disease has progressed to a moderate/advanced stage
  • Most of your perio patients are being referred immediately to the periodontist

If this sounds familiar, sit down with your team and talk about it. Decide what help you need. We offer support from our High Performance Hygiene Mastermind all the way up to private in-office coaching programs. Starting with a high quality CE program and gaining more knowledge is a great place to start.

To quickly determine where you are with your perio percentage, download our free Perio Percentage Calculator tool by clicking here.

Stay Inspired,

Rachel

What do your patients REALLY think of you?

 

After a busy week of traveling I had so much fun last weekend on a hay ride with the family and some friends. Our time at Hunter Farm was a great example of what having clear systems can do for your business. Like clock-work, the covered wagon circled the farm picking us up and delivering us to the milking barn and then to feed the goats.  We even got to see a new calf that was born just days before.

They thought of everything; from having feed for sale in the barn to letting us know how to behave around the animals and then guiding us to clean our hands after feeding the goats. The farm team educated us to the steps they’ve taken to protect the animals and the land. They were all on the same page and it was clear that when we arrived at the milking barn, Ashley was prepared and ready to answer all the kids’ questions.

They created a wonderful experience for us and the kids. We WILL be visiting the farm again. In fact, we’ll return for the Christmas tour, complete with hot cocoa.

Our time with the farm manager was very short, 5 minutes tops. His team was responsible for taking great care of us. It was obvious they had very clear systems in place and they had the same level of dedication to their ‘craft’ as he did.

Do you notice any similarities here? It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, your team can make or break you. And it’s especially true with hygienists in a dental practice. They are often the team member patients see most. And a top-notch hygienist can do wonders for your business.

I recently came across a great article written by a dental patient. I’ll give you the link to the article but first, keep reading and see how you can find out what your patients really think of you.

What do you your patients REALLY think about you?

I hope you’ve already noticed that it’s now more important than ever to differentiate yourself from the other dentists in your area. There are lots of obvious ways to do this-accept certain plans, offer high tech options for care, offer sedation and sleep apnea treatment, for example.

One way to set your practice apart that might not be so obvious (and maybe even a little controversial) is by carefully selecting a top-notch hygienist.  I recently read an article written by a consumer about his experience with a series of hygienists working with his dentist. The article revealed that he actually made the choice not to return to his dentist because of the hygienist. He perceived that her skills were inferior to her predecessors and that she was not a reflection of the dentist’s commitment to high quality care.

On the flip side, having dynamic hygiene team working at a very high level can create massive growth in the practice. This type of hygienist is key to successful internal marketing and creating a healthy flow of patients into the recare system. This flow of patients ensures there is restorative treatment on the doctor’s book.

As a dentist or office manager, the first and most important qualification for a hygienist is attitude. Clinical skills can be taught but having a mind that is open to learning, growing and being a flexible part of the team is very hard to teach. Of course, this applies to all positions.

As a hygienist, your impact on patients and the entire dental practice will often be the most rewarding part of your career. Hygienists play a huge role in patients’ confidence in the doctor’s skills and treatment recommendations. This is why if the doctor and hygienist don’t have a common treatment philosophy; there may be difficulty in enrolling treatment and retaining patients.

But before you run off and implement new ideas to empower hygiene to build your practice, it’s smart to find out where you stand NOW. And you don’t know what your patients think of you unless you ASK. This is where the patient survey comes in. As a speaker and consultant, I always ask for feedback and evaluations.  Sometimes it’s painful to hear what I need to improve on but if I didn’t have that feedback, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to get better and grow. The same is true for your practice.

I’ve found that automated surveys work well because it’s just that, automatic. There are at least a dozen resources in the dental industry for surveying patients. The system I’ve used most in practice and with clients is Smile Reminder (let them know I sent you and you’ll get a preferred rate). They have a survey that goes out to every patient immediately after they’ve been seen in your office. The feedback you receive will be extremely valuable and will likely prompt some very strong testimonials.

If you’ve never done a patient survey, do it now. Patients want to know they have a voice in your practice. Once you receive the feedback, make a strong effort to resolve what’s not working and do more of what your patients ask for.

Take a look at this article. Very interesting point of view…

http://postilluminance.com/Consumer-Reviews-Service/Dentist-Beware.html

Stay Inspired,
Rachel