Socks or Coffee?

 

A couple I know divorced after 21 years of marriage. (Yes, this is a book for dentists. Read on.) They had a "good" marriage but as so frequently happens in relationships, they never learned to clearly communicate their needs to each other.

 

For 21 years the non-coffee-drinking wife arose early to brew fresh coffee for her sleep�ing husband. She hated getting up before dawn, but she enjoyed pleasing him. Truth be known, her husband hardly noticed the coffee ritual. What he did notice was that she never sorted and folded his clean socks! He hated rummaging through the laundry basket every morning searching for a matching pair.

 

Silly? Yes. She could have folded his socks while watching a late movie, skipped the pre-dawn coffee ritual, and both of them would've been much happier. A sign of bigger com�munica�tion problems? Absolutely. During the divorce proceedings they laughed about the socks and cof�fee, but not about other missed expectations that led to their split-up.

 

The point is, we set others and ourselves up for failure when we don't clearly communi�cate our expectations. It's no different in dental offices. What I've seen repeatedly in the 20 years I've worked in the dental profession (the last ten as a consultant) is the dentist and the staff both trying to please each other, and the patients, with�out clearly knowing what the other wants or needs. How do we clar�ify everyone�s expectations, then effectively collaborate to not only meet them but to surpass them?

 

That's where Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) fit in. They are the living, ever-adapt�able documents that answer the burning question, �What are those expectations? What is our standard of care, performance, and service for every task we do in our dental office? Who does what, when, where, why, and exactly how to meet or, better yet, surpass those expectations?� SOPs can be expanded, changed, or even totally replaced. But while they are in effect, they pro�vide a common unspoken denominator that allows peak efficiency and satisfaction to reign.

 

Congratulations on your investment in Standard Operating Procedures for All Dentists. This book with its accompanying computer disk(s), is the creative, multi-tasked tool that makes writ�ing SOPs and assembling them into a comprehensive operations manual not only do�able, but also fun. For both the new dentist and the veteran with an experienced staff, SOPs are a great launching pad. Read on to learn how to collaborate with your team to set standards, write SOPs, evaluate their effectiveness, and reap the benefits of happier patients, more personal satisfaction, increased profits, and better dentistry. Socks or coffee? You decide. Then tell others through SOPs.

  

 

 

Some Important Points

 

The outline style used in this book is merely a suggested format. There is no �right� for�mat for your procedure manual. It can assume whatever style you select. Whether you choose to begin with numbers or letters; put peri�ods at the end of each item listed, each sentence, or use none at all; enclose the most important ele�ments inside boxes, in capital let�ters, in bold type, or under�lined, or you want your book divided and subdivided, it�s your choice. However you choose to format your final manual, make it clear, explicit, and easy to follow.

 

An important point best made here is that all of the examples used�operating proce�dures, forms, and charts�are based on information gathered from actual dental practices and advice from other dental professionals. They probably dif�fer to some degree from what you do in your practice. We are not suggesting these SOPs represent the �best� way to do each task. Rather, we have used actual exam�ples so you can see precisely how they are written and the degree of detail we think is needed to make the operating procedures most helpful. This completeness will not only enable a new employee to per�form the function while they learn it, but also allow use by regular em�ployees striving for continuity in excellence. Our purpose is to provide you a sample manual that can be adapted to your own protocols and that acts as a guide to making your own manual. We feel that by seeing another dentist�s manual it might serve as a guide to making yours better and more useful.

 

 Samples from Standard Operating Procedures for All Dentists
(Contains over 470 pages + software)