by The value in creating a strong business dialogue among team members in group practices
By Heidi Arndt
I recently had the opportunity to network with some of dentistry’s best office managers. There is no question these office managers realize the importance of dental hygienists. However, there seems to be certain topics that are a continuous struggle between the office manager and hygienist.
During our time together, I asked the group of office managers this question: “Do your dental hygienists understand their production goals, and why they are important to the practice, and to them personally?” A few of the attendees shook their heads agreeing with where I was going with my questions, but then there were a few that said: “No, every time we try to talk to our hygienists about numbers, they get really upset and tell us that we only care about the money.” Another participant said: “We have chosen not to talk about numbers or money with our hygienists, because we do not want them to focus on that.” Does this sound like your practice? Are you afraid to talk about numbers with your hygiene team, too?
The numbers battle
For as long as I can remember, there has always been a battle within dental practice. The battle of whether the dental hygiene team should know and understand the “the numbers” of the practice.
The dental hygienists working within your practices have likely never been educated on the business of dentistry, and therefore may believe that the numbers are not something they should know or be responsible for.
The numbers and the financial aspect of dental hygiene is crucial for the dental hygienist to understand, as this ties into their accountabilities and responsibilities to the patients, the practice and to themselves. Why? The dental hygienist is a care provider, a revenue generator, and a business within the business, a profit center. And yes, everything they do can be measured. Just like in any other industry. Here is an example: We know that more than 80 percent of patients have a moderate or high caries risk. Knowing that fluoride varnish is one of the best things we can provide these patients, shouldn’t we be seeing 80 percent of the patients receiving it? Yes, numbers like these are important for the dental hygienists to see, to understand and to be accountable too. Numbers tell the real story of how well we are caring for patients.
In order to measure the success of your dental hygiene team, you need to look at patient care metrics, but also the revenue side of the business. Because we know that comprehensive care equals revenue. There is no hiding this fact, and it is a fact your hygiene team needs to know, understand, and be accountable to.
Measuring
Part of understanding the numbers requires the hygiene team to understand what is being measured, why they are measured and what they mean to them as a provider.
If you are just starting to communicate numbers to your hygiene team, start with 3 basic statistics to start. Our recommendations would be: Periodontal Percentage, Fluoride Per Patient and Production Per Day. Before discussing the numbers, it is important to help your team understand how the numbers and patient care correlate. No, we are not talking about numbers so your treatment plan meets certain production goals. No, we are not asking you to provide care that is unnecessary. But, we are asking you to understand the needs of the patients based on current research, and understand dentistry as a business. And within every successful business, the team needs to understand how the money comes in and how it goes out. Without a profitable business, there will be no new technology, no staff lunches, no continuing education, no bonuses, etc.
If we continue to waver around whether or not to talk about numbers, we will lose sight of important oral healthcare statistics and how they relate to our patients and the practice. Not only will the patients lose, but the hygienist and the dental office will lose too. The discussion of numbers is not always a comfortable one, but when you use the concepts above, you will be able to create a strong dialogue within your office about why the numbers are important, and how they support quality patient care.
