Client interview, November 2015 - Interview with Dr Jin Kim - Principal Dentist at Helensvale Dental

How were you introduced to Prime Practice?

It’s a long story… The second ever employer I ever had was involved with Prime Practice, so I was introduced to the concept of practice management fairly early in my career. You could say I started being primed with workshops, pre-blocking and scheduling from about 2003.

My career as an employee dentist involved working for two Prime Practices before I eventually transitioned into (with the help of Dr Phillip Palmer and his transitioning program) owning a practice in Helensvale in 2010, which was also a Prime Practice.

I now own my own practice, whose doors opened on March 2 this year.

Was there a difference between working at a Prime Practice and not?

Definitely! As an employee dentist, I worked for 2 non-Prime Practices and 3 Prime Practices. The differences were huge and after having worked at just one Prime Practice, I then actively sought out employers who worked with Prime. For 2 reasons:

1)    I liked the appointment book systems which ensures some level of productivity and predictability in each day.
2)    In Prime Practices, it seemed that the team knew what they were doing. As a dentist, it takes a load off your shoulders as you feel more supported and relaxed knowing that the team has everything under control and you can focus on the dentistry.

How is your new practice going?

Honestly, it was quite nerve wracking at first… even though my existing patients came with me to my new practice, it was still a new venture and I had never ran a practice on my own. But now, 6-7 months on, we are in a good place. We have just added an ED 2 days a week, we have an increasing number of hygiene patients and new patient numbers are also steady.

How are you finding the Prime Practice Engine and numbers tracking?

As a dentist, you are never told the ins and outs of running a business and as a result I never enjoyed these things. But now as a business owner, I need to track numbers and really stay on top of my business to make sure I know what’s going on. Learning these skills has been very challenging and rewarding. The Prime Practice Engine and numbers tracking has helped a novice to understand the workings of their business.

How do you think Prime Practice has helped you with setting up a new practice?

I re-joined Prime Practice as soon as I opened the doors to my new practice realising that to implement systems and train new staff members (there was going to be 3 new team members), Prime Practice was going to be essential in order to:

1)    Help set up the systems in my practice
2)    Train my new team to provide excellence service
3)    Keep me on track.

Prime has definitely helped to achieve these goals. We are doing really well. We have attended workshops and our team is really solid. We have spent a lot of time and effort getting them on board with all the systems.

Our team are constantly seeking ways to improve. It is time consuming and hard work to get the practice running like a well-oiled machine, but month by month, we are looking at different aspects of the patient experience to make sure it is a smooth one.

Our new DA and dentist actually just attended Primespeak, and it is great to have them totally on board and ready to work together with my team.

Speaking of Primespeak, has this course had an impact on your business?

I did Primespeak first in 2006 in Sydney. 9 years on, what it has done is it has allowed me to have good relationships with patients and allowed me to do good dentistry. It is honestly the single most significant thing that has happened in my dental career and has paved the way that I do dentistry. I am able to practice dentistry well, and complete high end dentistry while preserving all the relationships with my patients.

How are you finding the coaching experience?

My coach is a good sounding board. My coach and I work out monthly action plans which help me get things done and completed. Being in a new practice, there are lots of things that need to be done on a daily basis and things can easily slip between the cracks. My coach is able to see the bigger picture, point out any gaps in my plans and make sure I am always kept to task.

If not for Prime Practice, where do you think your new practice be?

I did say to Phillip some years ago, I just don’t know how to run a practice without the Prime Practice systems. Clinical dentistry and the running of the practice are pretty much opposite roles, so it is good to have help with the business side.

Because of Prime, I can’t see any other way of running a practice.

I feel very fortunate to have come across Prime Practice when I did. I never anticipated doing anything like this, but am glad to have been able to see how a good practice can be run and know what I need to do to achieve it.