Dental News - Staying focused in a dental environment

Dr. Bob Clark, USA

Mon. 5 January 2015

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Being productive in a dental office requires a combination of events that eventually becomes the heart of a healthy dental practice. No single event is predominant over another, and nothing can be left out. These “events” are areas of our practices that we, from time to time, try to bear down on to make our practice and our daily lives better. That point at which your practice starts to show signs of being non-productive is not the time to initiate the drive.

So take a look at one issue each month, and try to make things work as efficiently as possible. If you are looking for the list — it’s not here. Every practice has a different list based on the priorities of the dentist and his or her staff. For this article, the focus is on focus.

“Focus” in a practice is the ability on a day-to-day basis to get rid of distractions that seem to worm their way into the fabric of our practices. In my practice, for obvious reasons, I use DrQuickLook™ SD to allow me to focus on the practice of dentistry by creating a situation where the business of dentistry goes more smoothly. Practicing dentistry is what we all want to do. It would be great if we all had a personal assistant following us around and making sure that the business stuff gets done.

We want full schedules of patients who really are interested in getting quality work done. You know — the ones who actually show up on time for their visits.

I noticed in my office after I began using the new DrQuickLook SD units that the business side of care seemed to have a life of its own, and I could focus more on the care side, which I like. I took a step back and objectively looked at what was going on. With all my staff using DrQuickLook SD, I was spending a lot less time reviewing treatment options and making sure the patient truly understands the need for care. I noticed we are saving more images to send to insurance companies (exit one distraction) for quick approvals, and I’m spending less chair time discussing proposed care, which keeps me more on-time with patients (exit a couple more distractions). My staff became quickly adept at “show-and-tell-and-save,” enabling me to achieve that higher level of focus.

The ability to draw on the images and provide patient education chairside at a moment’s notice makes every day run much more smoothly. These features found on our DrQuickLook SD Plus™ units are worth their weight in gold. We have also gotten better about asking if patients would like the images emailed to them so they can explain to a spouse what is going on. Before, I had been fielding at least one or two calls a month from spouses who weren't sure what the situation was. The fact that I had to review the proposed treatment, check out the HIPPA page and then follow up was not something I looked forward to. I did it — I just found that it seemed to take a chunk of time out of my day.

In summary, as I looked at the introduction of the new DrQuickLook SD models in my office, I found that the most important effect was to get rid of a lot of distractions so I could focus on the work at hand. When that happens, the dentist is happy, the staff is happy, and the office is more productive. Win. Win. Win.

This article was published in Dental Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 9 No. 12, December 2014 issue.

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