Anna-Lisa Palmer, Dr Phillip Palmer, October 2011 - There are literally hundreds of oral health myths and beliefs that dentists and their teams are faced with from their patients: “If it doesn’t hurt, I don’t have a problem”; “There is no need for me to revisit every six months”; “I am pregnant- the baby is sucking the Calcium from my teeth”; ”Dentists only want people to come in every 6 months to line their own pockets”, etc. Re-educating patients about the truths of oral health and dentistry is almost a full time job on its own. Interestingly, dentists have their own beliefs when it comes to folklore about other professions, especially practice management. Below we demystify the top 6 misconceptions about practice management:

1) The problem with my practice is the team members. Once you have fixed my team, my practice will be fine!

One of the fundamental shifts a dentist or any business owner needs to make is to understand that their business looks the way it does because of them. ‘Fixing’ the team is not the answer to making changes to your practice. The change needs to come from the top down.

Giving your team best practice skills and procedures to run their part of the practice more effectively/efficiently is absolutely worthwhile. However, without the support of a good leader, over time, these skills will eventually be watered down or lost in translation with new team members. The practice owner needs to take responsibility for their part in shaping the team’s behaviour and attitude to translate into long term change for the better.
Without this, any improvements to the team from training will be limited.

2) My team will feel threatened by a practice management company.

Dentists are often afraid of ‘rocking the boat’. They fear that by undertaking training and management support their team will get upset with the changes and abandon ship. Your team is critical to the success and the smooth running of your practice. The aim of a practice management company aim is not to antagonise and micromanage them. In fact it is quite the opposite.

A good practice management consultant will help you inspire your team so that they share your vision for practice success.

A good practice management company give you the skills and tools to empower your team members so that they feel a sense of ownership and pride in the smooth running of the practice.

A good practice management company helps you to see the potential in existing team members, and helps you give them acknowledgement for the work they do and the role they play in the success of your practice.

3) My team is happy with the status quo:

Are they really? Many team members that we speak to (before they undertake some type of practice management training) feel stressed out and under-acknowledged. Many feel that they are juggling too many roles, and frustrated with the lack of systems and procedures in the practice.

It is doubtful that many team members would say that they prefer the status quo to the many changes that a good practice management company can bring, for example:

• Implementing systems and procedures so that work days are more predictable and less chaotic.
• Getting job descriptions and performance reviews so that their contributions are able to be properly acknowledged and their hard work rewarded.
• Regular staff meetings so that internal issues can be dealt with quickly before they grow into arguments.
• Working with an empowered team that has pride in their workplace.
• Increasing their skill set.

A good practice management company should be able to provide these benefits.

4) I can do this all myself- what do I need you for?

Most dentists would assess themselves as above average in their clinical skills, and as able and competent dental practitioners. Equally, most see themselves as being average at best in their proficiency as business people.

Despite this, there seems to be a negative stigma among many dentists about getting business training and coaching. It’s like the complaint women often make about men never wanting to ask for directions when they are lost. As if somehow asking for help, coaching, directions or education in something indicates a weakness and/or fault in the person. That it is better to not ask for help… stumble your way through and learn for yourself, it even if it means knowing that for the time being you aren’t doing things as effectively or efficiently as you could be.

Top CEOs of multinational companies have business training and coaching, as do the top athletes. Does that mean that these people are inept? Of course not!! It means that they are so serious about succeeding and achieving their goals that they have sought out someone who can keep them focused on getting there.

A good practice management company will help push your team to succeed and achieve the goals you once thought were unattainable.

5) You don’t understand my specific circumstances

A common misconception we are faced with is that practices think their circumstances render them incomparable to other practices and incompatible to practice management support. Some of the circumstances that we are given include: “we are too rural”, “we are too small”, “we are too busy”, “we are specialists”, “we have too many problems” and the list goes on.

Nobody should take a cookie-cutter approach to solving practice problems. While the fundamentals of business, leadership and management are universal every business is unique and has their own identity that they need to be true to. Every business has a different vision for success and different personalities will need to approach problems in the different ways.

An experienced practice management company will recognise and respect these differences and will be able to support and help dentists in all of these situations,

6) Where is the business improvement going to come from? I am already working as hard as I can/ want to!

Dentists are a hard working bunch! But that’s not to say that they always work smart. There are tried and tested best practice solutions for dental practices. These include systems and procedures for dealing with appointment book scheduling, answering the phone, dealing with cancellations etc. All of these systems help by making otherwise potentially laborious work systemised and seamless, ie: more efficient. The end result of learning and implementing all these systems and skills is that you and the practice ends up working smarter not harder.

It is clear that many practices get held back by some of the beliefs of the practice owners. Before you believe any myths about practice management, it is best to speak to one of your dental fraternity who have used a practice management company first. You may be pleasantly surprised.