As a dental practice management consultant, we can help you to assess the current capacity and capabilities of your team to identify gaps in your current model. We can also list ways to become more efficient. It can be difficult to conduct this type of assessment when so close to the situation.
It can be far easier for a third party to review and analyze current staffing levels based on the best practices of the industry. The results of doing so can have significant financial benefits, making it wise to speak with a consultant when looking to either save money or expand a practice.
Reviewing staff roles
When making observations of how the practice operates, we need to complete a review of current staffing roles. We complete the review by observing what each staff member does on a day-to-day basis and listing out all of those activities. Very often, there are crossovers that are simply inefficient.
For example, by having one person tasked with a specific duty, other people can focus on a niche. By dividing responsibility, we can help increase the speed of how team members complete tasks. Since people are not going back and forth from one activity to the next throughout the day, we can help maximize efficiency. To find out if this is happening, we need to make careful observations.
Skill levels
Each staff member will benefit the business best by utilizing their individual skill set. Assigning staff members to things that they are not trained on or comfortable with can cause problems within the practice, stress with staff members and cause things to slow down. In these situations, professionals need to create new training programs or reassign tasks according to the strength of the team. If training is necessary, we can help to facilitate it as a dental practice management consultant.
Work levels
Each team member needs to have a full day of work activities. If there are too many people assigned to the same position, they may end up wasting time on things like social media or constant tidying, rather than dealing with tasks that produce revenue. At the same time, too many tasks in a single work day often leave other members of the team overworked and stressed.
Determining the work level of each team member allows for some task reallocation to increase overall productivity.
The role of the dentist
A dentist is the most skilled and highly trained professional within the practice. As such, it is important to maximize the use of their time. If the dentist is spending time doing things that could be completed by a dental assistant, hygienist or office manager, that is a waste and will result in a clear loss of revenue.
In situations like these, it is best to identify who should be hired to take over those roles or if the existing team can begin to take on additional responsibility to free up the dentist to actually treat patients.
Start today
Earning more money could be as simple as making changes to the current staff model to accommodate additional patients. To discover ways to become more efficient or make staffing work for your practice, schedule an appointment with one of our dental practice management consultants.