DESIGNING
YOUR PERFECT DENTAL PRACTICE
Foundations of Clinical Success
Jay M. Hislop, D.D.S., J.D.
Dr. Jay Hislop’s 304-page book (Zipped- compressed)
provides
the design by which today’s fee-for-service dentist can create their
own
perfect dental practice!
|
Two sample chapters are below.
Dr. Jay Hislop provides the design by which today’s fee-for-service
dentist can create their own perfect dental practice!
Designing Your Perfect Dental Practice: Foundations of Clinical
Success shows how today’s dentist can design their own future and
establish a philosophy to make it come true, then translate that philosophy
into practical, usable business management solutions. The process is aided
by the 26 standard operating procedures the book describes.
The result is an easy-to-read, straightforward guide equally as valuable
for the recent graduate as
the veteran looking to put their practice into prime, resalable form.
Hislop involves the reader by
telling the fictitious story of a fellow dentist, Steve, who is simply
overwhelmed and seeing his
practice and life approaching toward a crisis point. Steve is skillfully
interwoven into the nonfiction material, adding insight and some levity
to the immediately applicable text.
What other benefits can result from applying
Hislop’s guidelines?
More efficient operations, better patient outcomes, higher profits,
reduction in malpractice risk, true quality control on referrals, clear
communication between doctors and their staff, better staff relations,
faster patient service, better patient compliance and retention, outstanding
practice growth, peace of mind that the practice philosophy is understood
and followed, no patients “lost to recall” or “lost to referral,” an environment
with which managed care can’t compete, and increased referrals for specialists.
Table of Contents
Introduction ACHIEVING YOUR
DREAM
CHAPTER 1. ONE DENTIST’S STORY
CHAPTER 2. YOUR PREFERRED FUTURE IN DENTISTRY
CHAPTER 3. DESIGNING YOUR FUTURE: “Visioneering”
Your Dental Practice
CHAPTER 4. THE PRACTICE PHILOSOPHY
CHAPTER 5. COMMUNICATING YOUR PHILOSOPHY
CHAPTER 6. ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION STANDARDS
CHAPTER 7. PATIENT-CENTERED COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER 8. CREATING POSITIVE PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER 9. SYSTEMS AND THEIR APPLICATION
CHAPTER 10. SCHEDULE BUSTERS: Communication with Your Oral
and Maxillofacial Surgeon
CHAPTER 11. THE BLACK TRIANGLE: Problems of Periodontal
Communication
CHAPTER 12. BANDING TOGETHER: Solving Orthodontic Problems
CHAPTER 13. THE PATIENT IN PAIN: Endodontic Referrals and
Follow-Up
CHAPTER 14. ELMO GOES TO THE DENTIST: Pediatric Practice
and Referrals
CHAPTER 15. IT’S OVER MY HEAD: Coping with the Complex
Patient
CHAPTER 16. SAYING GOODBYE: Not All Relationships are Forever
CHAPTER 17. AFTER THE INK DRIES: Keeping the Dream Alive
EPILOGUE A DAY ON THE BAY
SAMPLE CHAPTERS
Introduction
ACHIEVING YOUR DREAM
Do you remember the goals you had in dental school? Have you achieved
the life you used to dream about? How many of us ever get there?
Tough questions, I know. But if you believe there is a better world
in your imagination than the one in which you actually live, and you want
to make it a reality, then this book is for you. It will give you some
answers to those important questions about how to achieve your dreams in
your practice and your life.
On a recent poll of dentists, over 50 percent said they would not select
the profession of dentistry, should they have the opportunity to live their
lives over again. Less than 30 percent said they were highly satisfied
with their profession. Isn’t this a sad commentary? Yes, but not the end
of the story!
Most of the anxiety dentists feel has a familiar source—stress. Ask
any dentist if he or she can name two things that will solve most of his
or her problems, and nearly every one will have the same answer. “Help
me find more patients and reduce my stress!” Or, “get rid of managed care
and reduce my stress!” Or, “get this staff working with me, not against
me, and reduce my stress!” “Lower my overhead and reduce my stress!” Stress
is always the common denominator. Why should that be? We work in environments
of our own creation; we provide helpful services to our fellow humankind,
earn an enviable living, and enjoy enormous social and professional respect.
The answer is simple. 1) There is no longer the stable, predictable
environment that once existed in our profession. 2) Dentists have lost
control of their professional and practice lives. 3) Picture the typical
dentist, trying to maintain a professional demeanor in the face of the
pressures we all feel today!
Practice management is a chore; it seems to yield far too little return
on investment in many dentists’ minds. Practice overhead expenses are going
crazy, rising at more than double the rate of inflation, and fees are under
huge downward pressures from consumers and third parties. Patients are
now “clients” at best, or “consumers” at worst, demanding accommodation
of days and times. They’re ferocious too, in their expectations of perfect
results.
Of course there is OSHA, the CDC, your State Board, CE requirements,
even Environmental Safety regulations, and soon waterline sterility and
standards for sewage effluent coming from your office. Insurance companies
are positioning themselves to be the primary care providers of all health
care as soon as market forces allow. The result is either a severe erosion
of the dentist’s income or a changing pattern of practice to increase the
number of days and hours worked just to keep up.
Loss of control causes the dentist to focus on the next problem, on
the daily crisis, reacting to the situation and the environment until burnout
occurs. Yet this elusive idea of a controlled professional life in dental
practice remains alive in the minds of most dentists as a viable dream.
The dream can be attained! It’s simple in concept and can be accomplished
with sustained effort and commitment. Decide what you wish for yourself,
your family, your staff and your patients. Then make it happen according
to your own design. This book tells you how.
Let’s begin by introducing you to a friend of mine…
Chapter 1
ONE DENTIST’S STORY
Dentists share a misconception. The misconception is that we somehow
are gifted enough to create, manage and succeed at the very complicated
and dynamic enterprise of dentistry without any training or expertise.
Yet dentists come in all kinds of packages, and they bring their skills
and weaknesses to the practice every day. Each dentist’s practice is a
reflection of that skill set he or she brings to work.
If the dentist is well organized, so will be the practice.
If the dentist is poorly organized, so will be the practice.
If the dentist has poor communication skills, the practice will not
have a clear message that is conveyed to the public.
If the dentist is motivated solely by money, his or her staff will be
greedy as well.
If the dentist is lazy and avoids unpleasant tasks, letting them build
to crisis proportions, his or her staff will also procrastinate.
If the dentist is interested in the quality of care, the staff will
be too.
If the dentist finds the enterprise of dentistry fascinating and challenging,
and makes a study of small business management, the practice will be well
managed.
I met Steve MacPearson, D.D.S., after he was in practice for nine years.
Steve gets up each morning with high hopes for the day. After nine years
in college and dental school, and another nine in practice, Steve feels
like he should be in the peak years of his practice life. Yet at the end
of each day he sits at his desk, defeated. He has a good practice, not
what he would like it to be, but it has provided him with a living and
many of the trappings of the successful health professional. He has not
created a business. Nor has he created a professional life. He has created
a personal job, and one that has begun to consume him.
“I went into dentistry because it offered me a chance to be my own boss
and have a career in the sciences,” Steve told me. “I was really a good
student. I even thought about going into medicine for a while when I was
in college. But I felt that the life of a physician was too demanding,
and I really like to sail more than anything.”
Steve was a high school record holder in four swimming events, was his
high school valedictorian, and went to college on a swimming scholarship
to one of the top universities in the country. While he was an undergraduate
he took up sailing, joined the sailing club and became an exceptionally
accomplished sailor.
“I really had very little time in college to plan my future,” he said,
gazing out the window to the bay over the stack of charts on his desk.
“Yet I think this was a very good choice for me, knowing my aptitude for
science and all. Do you realize how few jobs there were for science majors
when I graduated in ’83? Most of my friends and frat brothers went on to
get a masters or something. Some of them are teaching; one is a college
professor. A whole bunch of them are lawyers. The ones who were in the
sciences and didn’t pursue a professional career in medicine, dentistry,
or teaching are not working in the sciences now. Some of my close friends
wanted to work in an environmental science or resource job, or for Jacques
Cousteau or someone like that. But there were more life sciences grads
than dolphins left to study when I graduated. I only know of one who is
actually working in the field. I think he’s a forest manager.
“So when I went to see my advisor about careers, he suggested I consider
dentistry. I had never even thought about dentistry before, other than
being a dental patient as a kid. I had braces when I was a freshman in
high school and hated every minute of it. I thought the girls wouldn’t
like a guy with braces, even though a lot of other kids had them. But I
looked into it, even visited my family dentist when I was home on a break.
Dr. Jennings was really enthusiastic about what he did. I was impressed
with that, especially since he seemed to still really like what he was
doing. He was even much older than my Dad, who was always complaining about
his job. What I didn’t realize was that old Doc Jennings was the last of
an era. He worked virtually alone in a small office, probably with almost
no overhead, and had earned and kept a small fortune many years before
my visit with him.
“The next thing I knew, I was signing up for the DAT and applying to
dental schools. Once I began that process, all my energy was focused on
getting in to a good school. I never really questioned why, or if it was
the correct choice after that.”
I looked at Steve’s diploma hanging over his desk. “You went to a great
dental school,” I said.
“Yes it is great, and I did very well there. I was in the top of my
class, and actually enjoyed my dental studies. I think it prepared me very
well for the clinical side of things. But it was very expensive, and I
still am paying off some of my loans.”
Steve was quiet for a moment.
“But you know, Jay, I’m really not very happy with the way things have
turned out for me,” he said, glancing my way. “I expected so much more.
I don’t know if I feel betrayed, but it seemed like this would be a lot
more rewarding than it has turned out to be! Nobody in college¾not
my counselors or professors—had any idea about the profession they were
steering me toward.
Their knowledge was based mostly on their own personal experiences with
their dentists. They really have no true knowledge of the profession and
its challenges. It seems so trivial, but I guess I feel misled. Even the
dental schools did nothing to help me understand what I was getting into.”
He began to shuffle some of the mail on his desk. There was an enormous
stack of journals and newsletters mixed with dozens of unopened envelopes.
Even some patient charts were in the pile. The latest issue of Dental Economics
was open to page 39.
You’ll be hearing more about Steve as the book unfolds. Many dentists
share similar difficulties putting it all together. The clinical side of
things is often the easiest, because that is where our training is the
most complete. The assumption among university professors and deans is
that the quality of student who enters and completes dental school is a
person who can “figure out” the rest of the problems and challenges of
private practice. I have even heard the academic’s excuse that dental students
have no interest in learning practice management, so the deans and committees
have not pushed it in the curriculum. Having been a dental student, I can
attest to the fact that a great deal of the curriculum does not interest
the students. But you sit there and learn it anyway. Nothing learned in
dental school has as great an impact on a doctor’s life, if he or she is
in private practice, as the lessons learned from whatever resource about
practice management.
Dentists are not clones of one another. There is no “typical” dentist,
although we do share a lot in common. All happy dentists, however, are
alike in several respects. They love their profession, and they have achieved
economic success according to their own personal definition. Their lives
are in balance. They are not consumed by their own practice. The practice
is simply an important function in a balanced life, perhaps an element
of great importance, but not the sole defining characteristic of the dentist’s
self image. Family, friends, spiritual life, recreation, intellectual pursuits,
community activities, and much more are the elements and components of
the lives of balanced dentists.
A prominent university dental school recently offered to its faculty
the opportunity to enroll in graduate studies leading to an MBA, with instruction
provided on site at the dental school. About 20 of the faculty enrolled.
I wonder if this group includes any of the same faculty that have prevented
a serious study of business management in the dental school. A dentist
should not have to return for two years of graduate study and obtain an
MBA in order to run a small business. Yet that may be the message in this
faculty example. These “experts” in dental education themselves feel incapable
of instructing the students in the business application of their clinical
skills to make a profit, feed their families, send their kids to college
and retire.
Dental practices are small businesses. The theories of small business
management are very accessible, and dentists certainly have the aptitude
and intellect to perform the duties of a small business owner/manager.
That is not to say that small business is simple or effortless. Over 80
percent of all small business start-ups fail in five years. Dentists are
far more successful at survival than that grim statistic. Yet dentists
could be far more successful in the prosperity they derive from their efforts
in small business if they would take it upon themselves to be as complete
an expert about their business enterprise as they are about their clinical
profession. This book is one component of a personal quest each dentist
must begin in order to understand all the fundamental principles of the
management of a private practice. It is not a comprehensive guide to practice
management.
The following chapters will teach you the fundamentals of dental enterprise
design. Steve will help illustrate the problems, and I’ll help illuminate
the solutions. It’s up to you to implement the knowledge in your own life
and dental practice.
