Blind Spots: After practice purchase, now what? Part 3

In this three-part series, practice management consultant Jan Keller explores what dentists who have recently purchased a practice can do to avoid common pitfalls and facilitate lasting success. In part three, she discusses practical patient communication, billing, and marketing ideas.

The practice is now yours, and so are the bills. Now is the time to "start out as you mean to go on." For instance, have you done the following?

Practice management consultant Jan Keller.

• Made sure your website and social media reflect your vision and philosophy.
• Updated or created your About the Doctor page. (More about this below.)
• Updated your About the Team page, especially if members are new to the practice as well. Included good photos and short bios.
• Considered holding an open house or "Get to Know Me" event.
• Promoted any new procedures or equipment you are implementing into the practice.
• Instructed your team to discuss, with enthusiasm, all of the above with the patient, whether on the phone or in person.
• Made sure that you and your team are demonstrating "value" at every patient visit. (This is the part that will help the most with those pesky bills.)

Remember, the first page patients will look at and read on your website is the About the Dentist page. Make sure yours is current, well-written, and includes appropriate personal information so patients have the opportunity to see you as a person, not just a dentist. Make sure to include a good and recent photo.

Demonstrating value is vital to the success of any long-term doctor-patient relationship. If a patient leaves your office thinking, "Wow, that's a lot of money just to look around in my mouth for a few minutes," you clearly need to rethink how to better communicate what value you are truly providing that patient.

Mrs. Smith's 1st appointment

Here is a common scenario: At Mrs. Smith's first appointment with Dr. Green, he and his team do the following:

• Perform an oral exam, including an oral cancer screening.
• Perform a caries risk assessment.
• Provide a treatment plan and explain the consequences of delaying or declining that treatment.
• Provide oral hygiene instructions.
• Take x-rays or intraoral pictures.
• Explain why she needs to come back, if sooner or more frequently than normal.

The patient, however, leaves with walkout papers showing only a charge for the oral exam.

If the patient does not have a visual record of the procedures that were performed, even though the service may have been included in the cost one aspect of the appointment, your patient has no way of placing a value on that service.

Fast forward a year or so and now Dr. Green is recommending to this same patient that she goes ahead with treatment for extensive restorative work. Unfortunately, it is much harder for her to see value in the treatment plan, because he and his team have not shown her, visit by visit, what they are actually doing to protect her oral health and why she should trust him now with significantly more expensive treatment.

Pictures can speak louder than words, and intraoral pictures speak volumes. They should be shown to patients at every visit, especially when restorative work is recommended.

As a new owner, you and your team need to recognize that your new patients are used to being treated in a certain way and now the rules are changing. The tendency for a new doctor can be to overwhelm the patient with treatment recommendations before getting to know the person.

Maybe the previous owner was lax in certain areas, or maybe Dr. Green's new diagnostic equipment has uncovered something. Either way, it's imperative for you not to frighten patients away with excessive and enthusiastic treatment planning. Spend time with them. Build relationships. Gain trust. Most patients will proceed with dentistry if they are not hit over the head with it. Make sure your team is on the same page, especially as patients will naturally look to hygienists and assistants for verification if they worked for the former doctor.

Payment options

Consideration must also be given to payment options. Will there be a change in the way you expect patients to pay at the time of service, or will you continue to balance bill them after insurance, a service offered by the former doctor? As a consultant I do not recommend this. The downside far outweighs any benefit to the practice.

And finally, will you have patients sign a consent form, or a declination of consent form, which basically states that they will not hold you liable for their choice not to proceed with treatment?

A well-thought out transition plan is vital if you hope to keep patients you have inherited from a previous owner active and invested in their oral health and your practice. From their point of view, a change in ownership might be the perfect time to go elsewhere, without worrying about hurt feelings.

Don't let this happen to you. Make sure your patients know who you are; what changes, if any, you plan to make; and, finally, how important they -- and their oral health -- are to your practice.

Jan Keller has more than 25 years of experience in dentistry as an office manager and a software trainer. She is a member of the Speaking Consulting Network and the Academy of Dental Management Consultants. Contact her at [email protected].

The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.