Focus on Dental Staff Training, Development, and Engagement to not only deliver quality dental care to patients, but also to increase staff retention
Gap 1: Gaps in Staff Development, Training and Engagement
Shortage of well trained dental support staff and a huge gap in the market in terms of quality, practical training provisions for support staff such as dental assistants, receptionists, practice managers, clinic coordinators, and treatment coordinators – all of whom play a pivotal role in the success of a dental practice. Most of the recruits in these support positions are trained on the job under great pressure and stress and the outcome is often unsatisfactory for all parties showing up in a huge turnover in staff.
The couple of accredited courses available to train as a Dental Assistants is very basic and does not scratch the surface of current dental industry standards of requiring to assist for all procedures including crown and bridge work, dentures, root canal procedures, implants, and even orthodontics offered by General Dentists. Accredited Practice Management courses are not adapted to meet the needs of the Dental Industry either. Many Dental Practice Managers have risen from the ranks or are spouses with little or no understanding of all that is involved with practice management and without proper training in this role, suffer burnout rapidly.
It is this gap in the market of quality, practical training that my company Just Excel Dental Training tries to bridge. I have developed focussed courses for every staff member on your team. The quality of training I provide is at the standard that definitely meets industry requirements currently. With my vast experience in providing regular weekly in-house training to my clinical and non-clinal staff members, I know what it takes to train staff well in every role, and how to train them to deliver top notch quality care and run a profitable business. I have trained staff for 11 years regularly and have the framework to transfer my learnings and teachings quickly to another practice.
When staff feel confident in their roles, they are more engaged and when that happens, the delivery of good quality care to patients knows no bounds. Staff development and engagement should be a number one priority in all practices.
Increase Clinician's focus on increasing case acceptance & reappointment rates in delivering the highest quality of care to patients
Gap 2: Gaps in Clinician's Focus on Case Acceptance and Reappointments
There is also a big gap in the knowledge and competencies of new dental graduates and hygienists and Oral Health Therapists that join the team. If this gap is not bridged early, it leads to disastrous results – both in care provisions and production. It becomes critical to be able to know how to onboard, train, coach and mentor dental graduates and OHT/Hygienists to work independently and together to deliver the best quality of care to all patients of all age groups in a private setting. Delivering good quality care was only one half of the success. The other half was to ensure that patients returned for appointments be it preventative or for treatment and that we retain our existing patients. This reduces the heavy reliance on new patients, although they are required too. This formula of good quality care + increased retention applies not only to new graduates but also experienced dentists and OHTs.
Overcoming the barriers to treatment, educating patients, and making them aware of the cost of inaction and return on investment and deliver the treatment the patient needs to maintain healthy teeth and gums in an affordable manner is what I teach clinicians. This experience comes from having hired many new dental graduates and hygienist/OHTs myself and learning how to bridge the gaps in their knowledge and understanding of patient care in a private setting.
Increasing Practice Owner's knowledge of key Dental Business Processes required to run an efficient, smooth, happy & productive dental business
Gap 3: Gap in Practice Owner's Knowledge of key Dental Business Processes
The biggest gap is in the practice owner’s (or their substitute’s) own understanding of operating a private practice profitably. When I first set up my 1-chair dental practice, I did not fully comprehend all the challenges I would face. I quickly realised that every thing we did as a team in the practice repeatedly, needed a sound process or else we were simply chasing our tail. To develop these processes took brainstorming, planning, time and patience. There was some trial and error and failures in implementation and that all added to my strength in rolling out changes successfully.
Change management is one of those processes often ignored, but plays a huge hand in how well a practice operates. To achieve the huge growth as I did as I went from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 chairs in a span of 5 years, I had to be able to replicate nearly 50 key dental business processes that worked not just for me, but more importantly for my team and for patients. After all, if the team does not support an idea then it never works long-term. Changing patterns, attitudes, outcomes were driven largely by numbers (KPI reports) in my practice as I truly believe that what you don’t measure you cannot change.
I help other practice owners develop a strong understanding of what processes a dental business (nearly 50 of them) needs to operate efficiently. I set up solutions that allow teams to automate tedious tasks and improve flow and work efficiencies. I teach practice owners how to analyse, report, and monitor 12 key performance indicators closely that impact on production such as reappointment rates, overtime, quality of work and many more things.
All my dental training courses can be tailored to suit your practice needs
Trying hard to run a successful, productive and happy practice, but overworked, stressed, having staff problems, or spinning wheels and wanting to takeback control of your life? Want peace of mind and realise your dreams ?
Looking to improve your communications skills with patients to build better relationships and increase your dental case acceptance rate? Just graduated, trying to find your feet, overwhelmed, need to build confidence?
Wanting to develop better skills in dental patient handovers and improve patient communications for increased case acceptance? Finding it stressful to manage apprehensive children or adults with low pain threshold?
Wanting to improve phone skills and talk to patients with confidence? Lacking the knowledge of Dentistry? Wanting to convert more calls to appointments? Have so much to do and so little time or help? Feel stressed when patients demand an appointment?
Looking to improve your communications skills with patients and don’t know what to say? Want to be a better assistant and anticipate the needs of the dentist better? Know very little about setting up for RCT or fixed pros or Orthodontics? We have the advanced training for you.
Wanting to do a better job explaining dental procedures and costs to patients in a way that they are more accepting of treatment? Feel frustrated when patients come up with numerous objections and don’t make an appointment? Increase case acceptance.
For all Practice Management courses including Managing Staff, Dental Business Processes, Dental Production, Dental Overheads and Monitoring KPIs please see the section on Dental Practice Consulting
Benefits
What you get on signing up for a Just Excel course?
Certificate of attendance/completion
Certificate of completion is issued by JUST EXCEL DENTAL TRAINING.
CPD points
Each hour of training is assigned 1 non-clinical CPD point.
Access to Private Facebook group
Each course has it's own Private Facebook group where you can post your questions and get answers from me and from the group.
Live Online Q&A fortnightly
I go online every fortnight at a set time to answer your questions
henry ford said ...
“The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.”
Team members who are thriving in your workplace, will have both a sense of feeling energized and alive (vitality) and a sense that they are continually improving and getting better at what they do (learning).
Those that thrive are engaged at work.
Provide opportunities for learning and growth. Train together as a team. Increase staff retention.
Create a well trained high-performing team
Let me Take Care Of all Your dental staff training needs, staff development & staff engagement
Increasing Staff Retention is going to become more and more critical given the dearth of trained dental staff to choose from.
Just Excel