Cliff's Notes

“Over Head vs Work Flow” & “The ADA Peer Review, A Win-Win”

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Cliff’s Notes for January 13, 2013

Cliff Marsh, Henry Schein ……Cell: 201-321-7494……Fax: 201-262-2210…..E-mail: cliff.marsh@henryschein.com

http://www.cliffsnotesblog.me

http://www.youtube.com/cliffmarsh100

The reason we do what we do, is so that we can to do what we want to do, when we want to do it!

It’s a tongue twister, but working as a team and making informed decisions, will get us there.

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“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Will Rogers 

 

 

This Week’s Feature on the Cliff’s Notes Channel

“DentalFoto Digital Camera System”

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Over 130 Dental Videos

http://www.youtube.com/cliffmarsh100

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In This Week’s Issue

• The Office Manager – Office Fees, Be Proactive not Reactive!
• American Association of Dental Office Managers – Behavioral Interviewing!
• This Week in Healthcare News – Healthcare Law, Taxes & Fees from C-Span!
• This Week from the ADA – Peer Review a Win for Dentists and Patients!
• “The Root of It Commentary – Reduce Overhead With a Proper Work Flow?

• Product Review – Implicare II, New from Hu-Friedy!
• The Henry Schein Outlet Store – Special “Galaxy Dr’s Stool”

• Give Kids A Smile – Friday, February 1, 2013!
  

 

 

The Office Manager Blog:………………………………………………………

Office Fees, Be proactive not Reactive!

The New Year is in full swing, so what better time than now to take a good look at your office fees? When was the last time you raised your fees and by how much?

Many doctors won’t even touch their fees because they’re afraid that it will upset  their patients. However, if done responsibly, most of your patients will not even notice the raise. 

Many years ago, before I started consulting, I went to a course and the speaker told the audience, “On Monday morning, you need to go back and raise your fees by 25%,” but this speaker didn’t give us any real system or method of how we should go about raising fees in the future. When I went back to my office on Monday and started doing the math, I said to myself, “Yep, our patients will get upset.” So I took a different approach about raising our office fees that most dentists are afraid to do. I started raising our fees about every 12-18 months … no matter what. You know what? Most of our patients didn’t even notice. They didn’t notice because I was only raising our hygiene fees about 1.5% – 2% and our operative fees 2% – 3%. We kept it consistent, we kept it small, and we did it regularly. When our patients asked, I gave them the same answer every time … and it wasn’t “because our consultant said so.”

To read the rest of Dayna’s blog, log onto

http://thedentrixofficemanager.blogspot.com/

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Tips from the AADOM:…………………………………………………………..

 The American Association of Dental Office Managers
Behavioral  Interviewing, A Great Tool  for Managers!

By, Paul Edwards
CEDR Solutions, CEO  & Co-Founder

A great tool that all managers should have in their hiring arsenal is the “behavioral interview.” What is a behavioral interview, you may ask? To fully answer it, let’s first look at a “traditional” interview.

In a traditional interview, prospective hires are asked a series of straightforward questions like, “What are your strengths and weaknesses,” “How would you handle this hypothetical situation,” or “Describe your ideal work week.” Traditional interviews generally work well, but they also tend to elicit “stock” answers that the employee heard or picked up somewhere as an ideal interview answer.

In comparison, during a behavioral interview an employer has decided what skills are vital for the ideal person for that position and develops questions geared to find out if the candidate has those skills. Instead of asking how an employee would behave, they will ask how he/she behaved in a prior work experience. The behavioral interviewer seeks to know how the interviewee actually handled a situation, instead of what he or she might do in the future.

In other words, behavioral interview questions are more pointed, more probing, and more specific than traditional interview questions.

For example: To read the rest of this article, log onto: http://www.dentalmanagers.com/en/art/1809/

 

 

 

This Week in Healthcare News:……………………………………………..

Healthcare Law, Taxes & Fees

 Libby Casey C-SPAN | Washington Journal

January 7, 2013

Jay Hancock talked about increased taxes and news fees in 2013 as part of the Affordable Care Act (the health care law). He explained who would be affected, and the purpose of the fees and taxes. He also reviewed other ways .. Read More

Jay Hancock talked about increased taxes and news fees in 2013 as part of the Affordable Care Act (the health care law). He explained who would be affected, and the purpose of the fees and taxes. He also reviewed other ways health care would change in 2013,, and he also responded to telephone calls and electronic communications

To view this interview, log onto: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ActTa

 

 

 

This Week in Dentistry from the ADA:…………………………………..

Peer review a win for dentists and patients

By Kelly Soderlund, ADA News staff

January 07, 2013 

A dispute with a patient over his or her dental care can prove frustrating to everyone involved. 
 Dr. Bauman …. Tensions are high, fingers are pointed and many times, both parties come to a standstill. The patient’s instinct may be to seek legal assistance, but it’s important for him or her to be aware of a more economical and helpful path to a resolution.

“From the patient’s point of view and the dentist’s point of view, it’s best to adjudicate the complaint through the peer review process,” said Dr. Jeffrey Galler, chair of the Council on Peer Review and Quality Assurance Committee for the New York State Dental Association. “From a patient’s perspective, they want the complaint taken seriously, evaluated fairly, impartially and expeditiously and, if justified, have their fee returned. Dentists want their work to be evaluated by unbiased peers and, in the event of an adverse finding, limit their financial liability to only the money paid by the patient. The dentist would also like for the incident to never be recorded in the National Practitioner Data Bank.” 
Peer review is offered to members through most of the state dental societies. Each state has a unique program and rules that it follows.  

To read the rest of this article, log onto:  http://www.ada.org/news/8117.aspx      

 

 

 

Product Review – Implacare II………………………………………………

New From Hu-Friedy

The general topic of implantology continues to be a significant focus in dentistry. As an industry leader in manufacturing high quality, effective scaling instruments, Hu-Friedy introduced the original Implacare scalers backed by thorough research of the proper instrumentation and technique for scaling implant abutment surfaces. Today, Hu-Friedy continues to innovate with the launch of Implacare II. The creation and design of Implacare II has been largely based on customer feedback, partnerships with Key Opinion Leaders in implantology, and, once again, continued research by Hu-Friedy to ensure that they are giving clinicians exactly what they need to protect their patients’ investments. 

Each Implacare II tip is now 20% thinner than the original. This will allow for improved adaptation and access to implant abutment surfaces, and, in turn, will provide more effective implant maintenance solutions to clinicians in order for them to deliver optimal care to their patients.

Implacare II also features two new tip designs for a total of five options for implant scaling. The Langer 1/2 and Barnhart 5/6 universal curette designs join the universal Columbia 4R/4L, as well as the H6/7 and 204S sickle scaler designs. Hu-Friedy developed more designs for Implacare II so customers could choose which instrument best suited each patient’s individual needs.

Implacare II scalers are made from PLASTEEL™—a high grade, unfilled resin, which causes the least amount of alteration to implant abutment surfaces during scaling. When abutment surfaces are altered, they can be a source for plaque accumulation—leading to more serious conditions such as peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis.

Made of PLASTEEL™: A high grade, unfilled resin that causes the least amount of alteration to implant abutment surfaces.

20% thinner tip design: Allows for improved access to implant abutment surfaces and allows for more effective maintenance and care of implants.

Two NEW universal curette designs: The Barnhart 5/6 and Langer 1/2 join the Columbia 4R/4L, 204S, and H6/H7 to provide a well-rounded set of options so you can select the instrument best suited for each patient’s needs.

 For more information log onto:

http://www.hu-friedy.com/resource/viewResource.aspx?ResourceID=632

 

 

 

The Henry Schein Outlet Store:……………………………………………..

Special of the Week!

Outlet Store offers are limited in quantity and only available on a first come-first serve basis. The inventory is very fluid so it pays to check back frequently for new listings.

http://www.henryschein.com/us-en/sites/outletcenter/

Galaxy Enterprises DOCTORS STOOLW/AIR-LIFT-TUMBLEWEED Condition: Overstock  Part Number: 393-6271-N Manufacturer Part Number: 1060 Catalog Price: $300.00 Special Price: $99.00Warranty: 1-Year
Color: Tumbleweed 16″ diameter, 3 1/2″ thick round seat with air lift and height adjustment. Comfortable back support for enhanced ergonomics. High resilien foam. Adjust from approx. 18 to 23″

Product Categories

OVERSTOCKED:	New Products that are in the manufacturer’s original sealed package SAVINGS UP TO 35%
DEMO MODEL:	Open-box products that have had no clinical use SAVINGS FROM 35% TO 50%
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All products include comprehensive warranties backed by Henry Schein

 

 

The Root of It Commentary…………………………………………………..

Reduce Overhead With a Proper Work Flow!

 Work flow is something that is overlooked in most dental offices and maybe the biggest drain on productivity and the most fixable! You see, work flow consumes staff time and as we all know, time is money. Now, if you have a slow practice and gaps in appointments the work flow issue is not as critical, however, that situation requires you to address other issues within you business. But if you have an active schedule then a proper work flow will increase your production ability and positively affect your bottom line almost immediately.

Let’s start with Hygiene production. How long do you give a hygienist between appointments? I don’t mean how long they have to properly treat a patient, because that amount of time is debatable. What I am referring to is total time including operatory clean-up and used instrument processing. Proper room clean-up time takes about 5 minutes, not including instrument management. Most offices give the hygienist 45 minutes of clinical time. If the hygienist sees  8 patients a day that adds up to at least 40 minutes of non-productive clinical time. At $45.00/hr (NJ/NT rates) that equates to about $720.00 on a 16 day month (4 days per week).  Now, if you had another chair available and had a $20.00/hr staff member clean the room, you just generated $120.00 to $240.00/day and that equates to as much as $3,840.00/month.

Now that may seem like an extreme example but an investment in proper work flow, `at any level, increases the ability to produce. As I have said in the past, increasing revenue generating production is the only way to effectively reduce overhead and increase disposable income and we all love disposable income.

The two most time consuming and revenue “robbing” activities in any dental office are re-care & instrument management. I can spend an hour talking about each of them but today I will focus re-care systems. Although instrument management save a lot of “big” dollars, most dentists won’t consider doing it correctly because it requires an investment in durable goods and on a day by day basis the consumable investment in staff hours appears easier to swallow.

Re-care is the greatest challenge that every dental office faces. It consumes hours of time and dramatically effects work flow and production at every level. I would compare a re-care system to the starter in a car. It starts the office engine and burns the largest amount of fuel. Let’s face it; nobody answers the phone any more. With caller ID on every communication device your patient’s have the ability to ignore you, and more often than not, forget or chose not to return a call. So, where do you go from here? It’s simple, text & e-mail! I find that text messages are the most effective because we have become a mobile society and social (physiological) protocol has turned texting into a personal conversation. E-mails have become more like junk mail and are too easy to delete and forget about. Hey, how many of the Cliff’s Notes e-mails have you deleted or saved and never read?

Automated re-care is the way to go. It is not the future, it is the present and the investment in a system (approx. $10.00 to $15.00/day) will pay for its self 10 fold. There are many systems on the market that work well for a dental office and they all offer extra bells and whistles that will enhance you marketing efforts.

For more information on automated re-care or to arrange for a free work flow evaluation please feel free to contact me directly at any time @ 201-321-7494 or cliff.marsh@henryschein.com.

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Give Kids A Smile……………………………………………………………………

Today is Sunday December 23rd. Give Kids A Smile is scheduled for Friday, February 1, 2013. You don’t have to be registered to participate.

“I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. I will go to the people and the programs that are the brighter points of light, and I will ask every member of my government to become involved. The old ideas are new again because they are not old, they are timeless: duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its expression in taking part and pitching in.”

George H.W. Bush

“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”

Ronald Reagan

Join the ADA on Friday, February 1, 2013 to Give Kids A Smile

Call Cliff @ 201-321-7494 for details…It’s feels good to “give back”

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January 13, 2013 - Posted by Cliff's Notes Blog | Uncategorized