Perhaps one of your top “can’t-wait” moments for your dental practice or dental organization right now is “starting fresh!” After 2020 you might agree that your top goal is to reimagine your practice in 2021.
Seeing yourself and your practice(s) or organization with fresh eyes will help you reset for the months ahead. Healthy analysis of your systems, workflows, and overall productivity can produce some useful insights.
Leveraged comparison
You might be among those who are wrapping up 2020 feeling more like a survivor than a conqueror. And as always, there are plenty of articles that spotlight the top performers in dentistry each year—this year is no exception.
Although the perspective is helpful it’s perhaps more vital that you set your sites on something other than landing in say…the top 10 percent. Since we’re on the subject of reimagining your practice here’s a better general goal target for 2021:
Leverage instead of compare!
Levin Group founder, Dr. Roger Levin, noted in a Dental Economics article his discoveries from the organization’s 30-year ongoing study of the top 10% performing dental practices in production,
”We felt it was important to understand what makes top practices successful and distill this information into practice management categories that would allow other practices to improve performance. By analyzing the systems, methodologies, and behaviors of top 10% performing practices, we were able to identify commonalities and determine which strategic approaches would help increase production for almost any practice across the board.”
The essence of his point: find the common top-performance elements and leverage them for your purposes. That’s a better approach to reimagining your dental practice(s) or organization…especially following a year like 2020.
How to leverage top performance principles and reimagine your dental practice in 2021
Reaffirm your “core values”
If you learned anything from 2020 – a year dominated by COVID-19 – it’s patient-centric dentistry. What’s new about that you ask?
Well, generally speaking, nothing. But strategic reflection would reveal that you were somewhat forced into a patient-first mindset in 2020.
- Patient safety through heightened awareness of infection-control protocols
- Patient comfort through providing treatment alternatives that helped alleviate fear and anxiety
- Patient engagement that focused on their expectations rather than your services
- Patient-facing technology that provided them access to care related resources outside of standard care modes
An ongoing and enhanced emphasis on building and maintaining patient trust will continue keeping you focused on the core of why you’re in dentistry.
Your dental practice(s) in 2021: what are the unquestionable core values of your patient care?
Innovate around patient-facing solutions
Innovation unlocks new opportunities. But not all innovation is well-timed or appropriate to every season of dentistry in your practice or the industry in general.
It’s best to upgrade and innovate around those solutions that provide consistent patient-facing impact.
- Stick with innovating around the basics such as practice management, team education/support and productivity, clinical efficiency, patient experience, and patient engagement.
- Explore and test-drive products and services that provide the most value for your patient care standard and your patient-base.
- Overdeliver through your systems, workflows, and protocols that impact patient communication, billing, insurance, clinical procedures, and PPE.
Your dental practice(s) in 2021: what innovations or upgrades will improve your patient-facing culture?
Show your true “colors”
Your professional and personal integrity was on-display in 2020.
How?
Consider the decisions you were somewhat forced to make as COVID-19 created new challenges and shifts in standard operational processes. You were pressed to make decisions quickly and efficiently.
- Closing for a recommended and/or necessary period of time
- Re-opening responsibly
- Implementing new protocols for patient safety
- Supporting your team through industry and practice uncertainties
- Engaging patients around their fears and heightened anxiety
- And more…
It’s no less vital leading your dental practice in 2021 to rely on and drive your operations forward with the same level of integrity and responsiveness to present challenges.
- Think strategically about your dental practice(s) and how you occupy a vital (and essential) place in healthcare.
- Affirm your team and their role as it aligns with being essential healthcare providers. Routine conversations in team meetings, morning huddles, and one-on-one will help keep them feeling secure and supported.
- Upgrade your care standard with an increased level of compassion regarding your patient’s emotional connection to dental appointments. Embrace technology and ideology that assures them security and safety.
Your dental practice(s) in 2021: how can you increase yours and your team(s) confident role in healthcare landscape?
Much of 2020 has schooled you about what was once second nature. But more so, the challenges you faced have prepared you for a reimagined future starting with how you lead your dental practice and/or organization in 2021.
Check out the following resources as preparation for the months ahead:
Track and Maximize the Trends in Dentistry for 2021 (and Beyond)
Part 2: Trends in Dentistry for 2021 That Could Shape the Industry’s Landscape
Dental Trends in 2020 That Could Have Staying Power Beyond COVID
Platform support and innovation for reimagining your dental practice(s) in 2021 and beyond
Planet DDS’s Denticon is the proven cloud-based Dental Practice Management Software in today’s market among solo private practices, private group practices, and top DSOs.
From contactless options to cloud-based solutions Planet DDS is a leading technology provider among emerging and sustained dental trends now and in the future.
- Manage your practice workflows with cloud-based practice management software. Experience secure anytime-anywhere, remote access to your patient information.
- Consult with your patients using teledentistry. Cloud-based technology enhances your ability to provide initial diagnostic appointments. Patients will value the convenience and contactless option prior to a potential next-step, in-office treatment.
Contact us for more information about how Denticon can streamline your workflow systems and operational tasks that can help you stay productively on trend now, in 2021, and beyond.