Signs Your Practice Needs Help

One of the best times to consider hiring a consultant is when you are having trouble defining a problem in your practice clearly enough to see the solution.  There are of course good reasons why you may be unable to define problems accurately.

        1)      One reason may be lack of time.  You are constantly busy with decision to be made, conflicts to be ironed out, emergencies to be attended to.  You may never have time to reflect upon the underlying problems that may be keeping your business from realizing maximizing problem.

        2)      A second obstacle to accurate problem definition may be lack of analytical talent. Many dentists are very good at patient care, and certain aspects of management like making decisions and managing people but not good at gathering and synthesizing information.

        3)      A Third obstacle is bias.  Like everyone else, yo have blind spots, vested interests and prejudices.  Having put the time, effort, and money into doing things in one way, you may be unwilling to consider a different way of doing things. 

When are Consultants Necessary?

1)      Consultants are necessary when you have a problem in your business that you have not been able to solve.  Your inability to find a solution may be due to any of the following reasons:

     a)      You have not had the time to analyze the cause;

     b)      You do not have the skills or tools to study the problem;

     c)      You know or believe you know the cause, but you need help working out a solution;

     d)      You know the cause and the solution, but you need expert help in the implementation;

2)      You have the capability within your practice to solve the problem, but an outside consultant could do the job in less time without disrupting too many of your work days.

3)      Service businesses, being more labor intensive, also need help with marketing, but their most vexing problems usually involve labor issues and human relations, compensation, training and motivation.

Red Flags For Practice Concerns

Tangible Red Flags:

1. Poor Patient retention;
2. Not knowing if you have good patient retention;.
3. Episodic months of high and low productivity;
4. Poor cash flow;
5. Patient complaints;
6. Complaints from referrals;
7. Lack of regular new patients;
8. Not knowing how many patients are leaving your practice;
9. Excess overtime;
10. Frequent turnover;
11. Not earning enough income for your personal life;
12. Lack of organization;
13. High absenteeism;
14. No marketing strategies in place;
15. Low collections to production ratio;
16. You’ve experienced an embezzlement and only handled it by improving your accounting procedures;

Intangible Red Flags:

1. Low morale;
2. An uneasy feeling inside the practice;
3. Staff conflicts which do not go away
4. You are overwhelmed with management work;
5. Slow decision-making;
6. Partnership problems;
7. Owner and Associate Problems;
8. Difficulty communicating needs and wants to employees;