Providing patient-friendly financial options

Having flexible payment options ensures that patients will have all of the motivation and information that they need to accept care in your office. An HCCC simply offers you the chance to make more expensive treatment available to those who need or want it. The small cost of using a HCCC program more than pays for itself--in fact, it costs less than one-third of what you would spend if you were to bill these patients instead. Having consistent financial policies and flexible payment options can dramatically increase your office's productivity and profitability, while expressing your commitment to customer service and high-quality dentistry.     

How to institute and develop a strategic marketing plan for your pediatric dental office

As what may be the most important element in a successful pediatric dental practice, marketing is often misunderstood. It requires careful planning and a long-term commitment. Before implementing your marketing plan, understand the definition of marketing and what it will mean to your practice. To develop your plan, ask yourself several important questions that will help you analyze where you are now, as well as where you want to be. Then, promote your practice by incorporating 12 important qualities into your plan. The plan is the blueprint for your efforts to repeatedly, consistently, and positively communicate with your market for the long term.     

Practicing implant dentistry profitably

The success of dental implants has opened up countless treatment possibilities for restorative dentists to offer to their patients. Just as our clinical paradigms have had to change because of this new technology, so too must our paradigms concerning the way we communicate with our patients change if we are to get them to say "yes" to treatment that we know that they need. Success in clinical treatment using implants requires a systematic approach. A systematic approach to communicating with your patients will allow you to have the same high degree of success with treatment acceptance that is possible with dental implants. The key to the systems we have discussed is Relationship Centered Care. A relationship is fostered and enhanced through a Comprehensive Examination Process, a structured Consultation Process utilizing the influencing process and Financial Arrangements that allow the patient to receive what they want while the office maintains the profitability that it needs. A system for calculating rational fees can be utilized that allows the practice to have control over an area that traditionally was controlled by anecdotal factors. The Pride Institute has developed this material and is presenting it to the profession so that restorative dentists can truly practice implant dentistry profitably.     

Risk communication: how to answer tough patient questions

Patients are asking: Can I catch AIDS in your office? Should I have my mercury fillings replaced? Are my children in danger from fluoridated water? If X-rays are so safe, why do you leave the room when you take them? Strategies for addressing these and other tough patient questions are discussed.     

The future is now! Five steps for making it happen

In today's market, dentists need to be open to using different approaches for increasing patient awareness of how dentistry can benefit them. The five key areas of practice management addressed here are just a few of the many ways to keep your practice healthy in our changing profession. Dentists who are committed to improving patient communication and accommodating the needs of their patients will be the ones for whom the future is bright.     

Cosmetics and the esthetic patient and laboratory communication

With increasing consumer awareness of the innovative procedures available for cosmetic dentistry, this area of practice is growing rapidly and has become an excellent source for patient referrals. Unfortunately, it can also be a large source of stress for the practitioner. Esthetics has been described by The Pocket Oxford Dictionary as "the philosophy of beautiful"; its perception varies from individual to individual. In the field of dentistry, there are criteria which define one tooth as being more esthetic than another and one individual's smile as more pleasing than another. However, that which is esthetically pleasing to the clinician may not be esthetically pleasing to the patient.     

Images of your future

Would you buy something without seeing it first, and without any real idea of what it was you were buying, or whether you really wanted it? In the past, that is what dental patients have been expected to do when their dentist has offered them restorative dentistry, but now, using a dental imager, you can show your patients quickly and simply just what you can do to improve their appearance; and they can show you exactly what it is they want.     

Pencil and paper: the simple solution to getting the numbers you need to effectively manage your practice

Once you have mastered the basics by going through the monitoring exercise once or twice, you will find it takes little time and effort to start finding out just where your practice stands. You only solve a problem after you have found out that there is one and you might find that this simple monitoring exercise shows you areas of your practice where a little attention from you will pay big dividends. Monitoring is like a fine wine: it improves with age. As you begin to compile more and more months of data, you will be able to start comparing this month's performance with last month's, or this quarter with last quarter, this year with last year. One of the most useful things monitoring will do for you is to allow you to compare your practice's performance with that of other practices. Averages, norms, and performance survey results are to be found in a range of practice management publications. Using your monitoring information in this comparative way helps you to identify those areas in your practice management that are holding you back from achieving your true potential. This lets you focus your management time and effort on the truly important issues, which, when solved, will help you turn your practice into a less stressful, more enjoyable, and more profitable place to work.     

Review of Strategic marketing: How to achieve independence and prosperity in your mental health practice.

Reviews the book, Strategic marketing: How to achieve independence and prosperity in your mental health practice by Kalman M. Heller (1997). The author of this book believes there is ample opportunity for solo and small group practices not merely to survive but to thrive; you don't have to sell out to big business in order to maintain or create the small but successful practice that is your chosen way to help others. What you do is develop a marketing-driven practice. He promises that if you do, you will (a) become a more competent therapist, (b) increase your referrals and revenues, and (c) have more fun! In an extremely well-organized and concise fashion, he presents what you need to know about strategic marketing and what you have to do in the form of proactive behaviors to succeed. This is a relatively short book of 137 pages divided into 11 chapters. The first eight are devoted to laying the groundwork for the concepts of marketing, accepting that mental health practice is a business, the utility of developing a business plan, and selecting a practice strategy and specialized "products." Heller, unfortunately, has made promises and expressed optimism which are incompatible with the marketplace realities of private practice in the United States and in that sense may be dangerously misleading to the younger practitioner. Like the APA Guidelines for Practice, to follow all of Heller's planning, evaluation, and practice promotion activities would likely leave little time to treat patients, at least not enough hours to generate the revenue to live, which of course is the objective of the book. This is not a fatal criticism, but certainly is one for the reader to understand beforehand in order to avoid a panic attack by book's end. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practice management applications

Even though you will never find a dental management system that will do exactly what you want, there are a tremendous variety of systems out there with some incredibly powerful features. Look for a system that can handle most of the tasks you need. Keep your eye on other technologies that you may want in your practice. The system you purchase now should be able to handle whatever technologies you decide to add on in the next 3 to 4 years. Once you have made the decision to purchase, the transition to automated management begins. It will be necessary to train you and your staff on how to use the system. Depending on the system chosen, it may be necessary to adjust your management strategies in a number of areas to take advantage of the system's features. This may cause a few adjustment problems at first, but things will work out with a little time and effort. In the next few years, advances in technology integration will allow you to seamlessly blend practice management, voice charting, intraoral cameras, CAD/CAM, lasers, EDI, video imaging, etc., into a single potent system for complete clinical and practice management. A dental practice management system is the first step to realizing that future. Shop wisely and invest your time in learning the terminology and techniques of automated information management.     

Evaluating health plans and marketing the gastroenterology practice under managed care

More patients will have managed care in the future. Therefore, every practice should have a strategy for working with managed care organizations (MCOs). Learn how to evaluate an MCO and how to obtain detailed information about MCOs in your area. Know how to market your practice and build relationships between your group and MCOs. Develop a practice profile that outlines all the benefits that your group can bring to an MCO. Plan how you will respond when an MCO says, "No."     

Dental ethics in the culture of the 90s: from creed to action

There are six proven ways to integrate a healthcare financing program into your practice. Challenge yourself to maximize your financial service. You will see more people receive valuable care. You will grow your practice. You will reap financial reward. You will provide more of the quality dentistry that makes the art and science of your profession a joy.     

The sleep of long-haul truck drivers

Antibiotics may be a helpful addition to your therapy for IBD. Although it sounds as if there are a number of side effects, most patients do well, without any problems. If you develop new or worsening symptoms, or if you have other concerns, feel free to discuss them with your physician.     

Juggling nursing school and family. A snowstorm and a missing shoe take their toll

You can dramatically increase your profits by: extending credit and earning interest on the unpaid balance; doing all of the undone treatment in your practice; providing financing for everyone who deserves it; treating bigger cases; and avoid treating deadbeats. These five cash stream strategies will revitalize your practice with more new patients, better case acceptance, and increased cash flow. But bottom line, you must get good at financing. You must have in place an organized, proven, financing system--just like the finance companies do.     

Patient restraints

This is the first column in a new feature that focuses on the questions health care managers ask the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Both the JCAHO and Nursing Management's editors urge you, the readers, to submit your questions (see address at end of column).     

A decade's experience with a preceptorship. A model for gastroenterologic education

I have conducted an experiment in medical subspecialty education during the last 10 years in the division of gastroenterology of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the form of 3-month preceptorships during the second year of the fellowship. I recognized that our training program, along with other subspecialty training programs, was no longer a purely hospital affair, but its future lay as well in the outpatient setting. I wanted to have the fellows participate in the daily care of patients in the realistic setting of practice. I hoped to offer them the excitement, as well as the problems, of daily gastroenterology practice. By seeing new and established patients with gastrointestinal problems in four daily sessions, and caring for hospitalized patients, including those being operated on, the fellows were to participate in every aspect of a busy office. The flavor of reality was to be heightened by their exposure to the preceptor's uncensored discussions with the patient, the family, the radiologists, endoscopists, and referring physicians. Here I report what the fellows and I have learned from experience, and I address the problems we all must face in the era of managed care, with the ongoing reduction in the number of specialists. I also consider who will do the teaching and who will pay them to protect the time they need.     

No passport is required to incorporate cultural appreciation into perioperative nursing practice

As you read this issue of the Journal and celebrate OR Nurse Week, think about your daily opportunities to practice the principles of international nursing. Look for chances to appreciate cultural values different from your own as you provide patient care and interact with visiting international colleagues. Adopt a global perspective to perioperative nursing.     

Basic slit lamp techniques

Get the patient comfortable in the chin rest by manipulating the machine distance, elevation of the chair, and correct angling of the machine to the patient. Elderly patients need time and assistance to get positioned. Make sure they are elevated enough to get their foreheads against the headrest with comfort, or they will tend to easily drift backward during the exam, and your focusing power will be inaccurate. A little time taken positioning the patient can mean a more expedient and efficient exam. Align the eye marker on the headrest to the lateral canthus of the eye. Always speak calmly and logically to your patient. As soon as you have positioned the patient's chin on the rest, tell the patient to look at your right ear when examining the patient's right eye, and vice versa. The patient needs something to concentrate on as soon as positioned. Practice makes perfect. If you can visualize the three main components that make up the slit lamp--the head and chin rest for the patient, the microscope, and a housing for the illumination and the diaphragm controls--the machine becomes less overwhelming and better understood. Utilizing the biomicroscope effectively can allow great views of the dynamics in ocular anatomy and physiology.     

Getting out of the box.

Like an actor who is typecast, each of us has probably experienced the frustration of becoming over identified by a client with one service or product. Often a first, or highly visible, piece of successful work becomes the exclusive way in which our client defines our services. This in turn becomes a limitation and obstacle to broadening our impact. Getting out of the box is important to building a practice. This is particularly true in the service industry where the cost of finding a new client far exceeds the cost of maintaining a current one. While most consultants caution against devoting more than 25% of billable time to one client, selling multiple services to an existing client is a useful way to leverage your business development efforts in those situations where you want to increase your time. There are many tactics for getting out of the box, but one of the simplest is based on good quality practice—asking your client for feedback on your work. The payoff will be apparent in an improved client relationship that will translate quickly to a stronger practice and steadier revenue stream. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)