by Addressing Efficiency in a DSO Setting
It was inevitable that we would craft a cover story that addressed the name of our publication. We named our DSO publication, Efficiency in Group Practice, for a couple of reasons. We wanted the title to include a description of the audience. We decided on using the term group practice, not dental support organization or DSO. The reason we did this is that our readership encompasses both large and small groups, some managed by dentists, while others using a more formalized corporate structure for the service and support aspects of those practices. Furthermore, when we launched the magazine three years ago, the term “dental support organization” had just started to become part of the dental industry vernacular. Once we had the audience included in the name of the publication, we then incorporated a guiding principal, efficiency, which is essential to the success of today’s healthcare providers.
There are four tough questions that our cover story, Emphasis on Efficiency, addresses:
- What is efficiency?
- How do I get it?
- How do I measure it?
- How do I maintain it?
We get help answering these questions from Great Expressions, Heartland Dental, Aspen Dental and a host of other dental industry personalities.
How to define the word “efficiency” may be the most difficult of the four questions to answer. I believe when many people hear the word efficiency, they immediately think of ways to speed up processes and procedures, seeing more patients while reducing costs. What I learned from our cover story is that efficiency means many things to many people. Everything in our cover story ties back to better patient outcomes and superior patient satisfaction. Efficiency is measured in everything, from patient communication, to the use of today’s latest dental technologies in order to shorten procedure time and reduce the number of patient visits.
Efficiency in the dental industry should not be looked at from a negative perspective. As pointed out in the cover story, patients don’t want to spend any more time at the dentist’s office than they have to. If you can shorten patients’ time in the chair, and reduce the number of needed patient visits, all while providing a better patient outcome, then you have provided a positive, efficient dental experience.
I am sure that your group practice’s view on efficiency will be broadened after reading the input from DSO and dental industry leaders who helped us craft this article.
Efficiently yours,
Bill Neumann
