Pearls of Wisdom: Dental Practice Management Tips
Dental Practice Management Tips from AADOM’s Practice Administrator of the Year
As the driving force behind Katy Trail Dental, a general practice in Dallas, TX, Emily Estrella has steered her team toward success and helped their office grow and prosper. Her leadership philosophy, centered on fostering individual growth and cultivating a cohesive team, has not only elevated the practice’s performance but also earned her the admiration of her peers. AADOM has recognized Emily as this year’s 2023 Practice Administrator of the Year and we’ve invited her to share her dental practice management tips for office efficiencies and team engagement to help you, as well.
1) Have systems in place for each role in the office.
Having a checklist in place for each position in our practice was key to our practice’s success following COVID. Honestly, it was and still is the best thing we have done. We now have specific checklists of each team member’s role, including our doctors.
- Front Office (daily checklist)
- Back Office (daily and monthly checklists)
- Hygienists (daily, weekly, and monthly checklists, as well as a checklist for what’s to be done during each patient visit)
- Dental Assistants (daily and what’s to be done during each patient visit)
- Dentists (daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly checklists
- Office Manager (daily, weekly, monthly checklist
- We even have a temporary doctor checklist for notes and patient systems.
Defined job task lists provide clarity for employees who like to work independently as well as for those who need some direction as to what to do next when they have downtime. Plus, having these checklists ready to go makes it easier when you have temporary help coming through the office. They can hop right in and help by following the systems.
You’ll want to review and revise these lists with your team each year to keep your systems up to date. I find that reviewing them when we update our HIPAA and OSHA manuals works best.
Be sure to communicate that everyone’s role is IMPORTANT for the practice to succeed. The front office cannot function without the clinical team, the clinical team cannot function without the doctor, and the dentists cannot function without both the front office and clinical teams. Creating these systems ensures that every role and responsibility is in place and empowers each team member to help where they can.
2) Take time to listen and learn about your team.
Everyone new that comes through our office does a let’s be friends questionnaire and either in the morning or at our monthly meeting we review it with the team. These questions are fun i.e favorite breakfast or lunch foods, favorite restaurant, favorite hobby/pastime, favorite store, favorite place, how do you “treat” yourself, what makes you smile on your toughest day, favorite cake/dessert, who inspires you, do you have any pets, biggest fear, favorite season, any phobia? Etc. When reviewing with the team we typically all just go around saying our favorites. A Lot of times these change throughout the years.
Another favorite is the 16-personality test and 5 workplace love languages. Everyone is different and I’ve come to learn that everyone understands and responds differently to communications. There are many ways to communicate and I think that learning the way others communicate sets you apart from the rest of the leaders and builds great teams.
Highly recommend doing this at least once a year or every two years.
Warning: There will be at least one person on your team who will roll their eyes and huff and puff about doing this. You probably already know who they are. Set a deadline, make it mandatory, and do it anyway. More people will benefit from this than you think.
3) Celebrate big & small wins, birthdays and anniversaries.
In our office, we make a point to celebrate birthdays and acknowledge employee’s work anniversaries. This can be something as simple as a card from the team or a shout-out on the office’s social media pages to show our employees how much they mean to us. Treating employees with respect and showing interest and appreciation is key. If your office can take time to buy a cake and sing Happy Birthday, your team members will really appreciate it.
4) Set boundaries.
My work email and phone go on Do Not Disturb from 7 PM- 6 AM. Events that happen during these hours can wait. There is literally nothing that can be done before 6 AM or after 7 PM at my office. If an employee calls in after hours or before 6 AM, there’s nothing you can do except wait for the temping agency to open up or rearrange/reschedule your patients. COVID has trained me not to stress out about things I could not prevent. You just have to adapt and keep on keeping on. This has saved me from the Monday scaries and the burnout.
I used to stress over who was calling in on Monday morning or showing up late.
The after-hour calls of I need a temp, and I need them now; most temping offices didn’t get back to us until 8 AM, and most temporary employees already had a long list of offices needing help.
Also, setting a time of when your employee should come to you for assistance, questions or concerns. I typically prefer the morning, so I have the day to come up with a solution or get their questions or concerns answered by the end of the day or first thing the next morning.
5) Morning huddles/whiteboards.
Morning huddles are extremely important because it allows everyone to get on the same page with patient care for the day. Adjust and make changes if needed. This time also gives everyone the opportunity to ask questions in regards to their patient on the schedule. I can not stress this enough on how important morning huddles are to the flow of the schedule and where and what patients the employees need to be with and at what time. Many opportunities are missed when there is not a morning huddle.
Morning huddles consist of the patient coming in, any med alerts, patient’s treatment on the schedule, any pending treatment not scheduled or can be completed while the patient is already in the office, any x-rays needed for treatment pending or photo of the pending tooth that needs treatment, any family or patient balance on the account and lastly something personal that was discussed the last time this patient was in the office.
An example would be “Today, Emily is coming in for her periomaint, the patient has a bad gag reflex and needs to take a pre-med, she is getting married in December, she’s due for an exam and she has pending night guard and whitening, the patient has a balance of $50, last pano was taken in 2013. Dr. B, would you like me to update the panoramic x-ray or photos of the patient’s teeth?” Doing this allows the whole team to get to know our patients and to have everyone on the same page sometimes during check-in we will even ask our front desk to ask the patient if they would like to take care of any pending treatment or if there time complete same day treatment through the years more and more of our patients request same-day treatment. We are finding it more difficult for patients to request time off to come back for treatment, especially during our Monday-Thursday office hours.
Figure out what works best for your office and your schedule.
Reviewing the day before is also very important. I simply ask before the meeting starts if there were any patients the day before who had concerns/feedback or needed a little extra TLC. This allows us to make notes and adjust our systems with patients.
An example would be a patient complaining about receiving too many text messages and phone call reminders regarding their appointment. That’s great we’ll have the front customize their reminder messages and put a note on their account.
Stressed the importance of the cleaning in the presence of gingivitis and needs to be seen in 3 months.
The patient needs a blanket and headphones during cleaning and doesn’t like the sound of the cavitron.
The patient was not happy with how little insurance paid and was very upset when they left the practice.
Stay Tuned for Next Month’s Dental Practice Management Tip
Is Your Dental Office Manager Our Next Practice Administrator of the Year?
Each year, AADOM recognizes a member as the Practice Administrator of the Year who exemplifies leadership, actively pursues professional development, education, and community service, and has demonstrated the ability to increase practice efficiency and profitability through the implementation of systems, technology, and marketing strategies. Does this sound like the office manager of your dental practice? Nominate your candidate for 2024 Practice Administrator of the Year by July 5, 2024 to be recognized at the 2024 AADOM Conference this September.
