February 12, 2025 • 15 mins
Busy January? If your office struggled to keep up, you’re not alone. In this episode, we discuss why hurrying may be to blame and how slowing down can actually help you reduce stress, boost productivity, and provide better patient care. Let’s explore how packed schedules, inefficient systems, and understaffing impact both your team and your patients—and what you can do to fix it!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Paul Etchison (00:02):
Have you ever noticed that when you're rushing
through your day at the officeand the faster you go, the more
things seem to go wrong?
We all want that busy practicebut, let's face it, sometimes
the level of care we want toprovide is not in line with the
amount of patients that we needto see at our office.
In this episode, we break downwhy being in a hurry at the
(00:22):
office is hurting your team,your patients and your profits,
and what you can do to turnthings around.
You're going to learn how totake control of your schedule,
your time and your stress sothat you can leave the office
each day feeling accomplishedinstead of exhausted.
You are listening to DentalPractice Heroes, where we help
you create and scale your dentalpractice so that you are no
(00:44):
longer tied to the chair.
I'm Dr Paul Etcheson, author oftwo books on dental practice
management, dental coach andowner of a $6 million group
practice in the suburbs ofChicago.
I want to teach you how to growand systematize your dental
practice so you can spend lesstime practicing and more time
enjoying a life that you love.
Let's get started.
Life that you love, let's getstarted.
(01:05):
Welcome back to Dental PracticeHeroes.
I'm your host, dr Paul Etchison,and I'm joined here today by my
DPH coaches, dr Steve Markowitzand Dr Henry Ernst, and we were
just having a littleconversation talking about how
this January it kind of feelslike there might be a lack of
compassion in the world and atour practices in some points Not
(01:27):
saying that we're all horriblepeople, but just something that
we picked up on a notice and weall kind of shared the same
feelings on it and you know itled us to talking about you know
where does that come from?
And we think it kind of comesfrom being in a hurry.
So, steve, I'll pass it to.
And man, what are you seeingand what are we even talking
about here?
Like, what am I saying here?
Steve Markowitz (01:49):
I feel like January is always a busy month.
I mean, people insurancebenefits renew, people took time
off, they didn't want to go tothe dentist around the holidays,
and December is always one ofour slowest months of the year
and January is always one of ourbusiest months of the year.
And what I'm noticing thisJanuary is that there's a lot
more patient complaints andbilling complaints and our
(02:11):
schedules are busier thanthey've ever been.
And I think when you're busyand when there's a lot going on,
it's harder to be empathetic,because you just have more
stress and that's normal.
But when you are losing thatability to lead with empathy and
truly listen, you're forgettingthat we're in a people business
(02:31):
, trying to take care of people,and that empathy is the only
thing that we got for them tounderstand, for us to understand
what's truly going on with ourpatients, and I think that's why
we're getting more patientcomplaints than we typically see
.
Paul Etchison (02:46):
So what's interesting is something I
noticed not that long ago, and Iread this in a book, and I
can't remember what name of thebook was.
It was something about hurrying.
But essentially what it says isthat if you can think about
this is anytime you are in ahurry, none of the positive
emotions will ever show up, youwill never be compassionate, you
will never show empathy, youwill never be happy, in a good
(03:08):
mood.
When you are in a hurry, it islike fight or flight, get the
hell.
You have only one thing focusedon is getting to the next thing
, and it's really hard to behappy with this.
And that was the whole premiseof the book was that in order to
be happy, we've got to stophurrying.
But when we're talking abouthurry at the dental office, I
think we've really got to lookat some of the systems.
Like where is that hurry comingfrom?
(03:29):
What have you noticed in yourpractice, Henry?
Like about just workloads,people's emotions and just what
we're talking about.
Steve Markowitz (03:38):
Paul, that book was the Ruthless Elimination of
Hurry, by the way.
Paul Etchison (03:41):
Oh, the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
Thank you, Steve.
Henry Ernst (03:44):
Thank you, google, you're welcome.
So actually our practice islike interesting.
Steve, you mentioned all thatstuff because I don't know if
it's our area, but our area iskind of like the opposite,
believe it or not.
Oh wow, december is our busy,busy, busy month.
Everybody's waiting until theend.
We do a lot of surgery and wedo a lot of surgery.
Everybody wants to have surgeryright before the break and all
this stuff here.
(04:04):
So I have time to heal and allthis stuff.
And January is kind of like Iwouldn't say it's like amazingly
busy, but it's like it's good.
But I think I'm always thatperson.
I'm trying to find the solution, like what's the problem?
And, yes, we incur the samethings.
You're busy and sometimesyou're running around.
You're just like why am Irunning all this routes?
Why am I doing this stuff here?
I always tell our associatesthey look at their schedule,
(04:27):
like, oh, look at this, look atthat.
Dude, you're the one that's incharge of your schedule.
Right, look at your schedule.
Look at it.
Two weeks ahead of time, a weekahead of time, did they give
you 30 minutes to do a rootcanal buildup in Crown?
Right, dude, extend it, make itwhat you want.
Did they give you like twohours to do an MO on number four
(04:47):
?
That's crazy, that's ridiculous, that's not being efficient.
Make it what's right.
And then I think that, no matterwhat happens, if we have a busy
practice, you're going to bebusy and as a doctor you have to
handle this.
And, like I'll give you somerules that we have If I'm in a
room working on a patient, Inever, ever want an assistant
walking in the room sayingdoctor, we're ready for you in
(05:08):
room six.
That never happens in mypractice.
It's a huge no-no, because youknow what that makes me feel
like I'm in a diner andsomebody's like table number
four.
Right, dude, we're in a dentalpractice.
Have your assistants walk in theroom, give you a rounding slip
and we have rear delivery.
So our patients don't even knowsomebody's coming in.
They come in very quietly, theyjust put the slip down and I
(05:31):
see the slip, I make eye contact, I mean that's just a couple of
examples in my head that cankind of not give the perception
of being busy.
But also, on the front end, asa doctor, you're in charge of
your schedule and we trust ourhygienists too, and we don't
have hygiene divas, we have thehygienists that are respectful
and we trust them to make theirschedules like tweak them, tweak
(05:51):
your schedule.
Don't just be a victim to yourschedule.
Paul Etchison (05:54):
Yeah, it's true Like we are a victim of our
schedule and that's one of thethings we have 100% control over
, and I think so much of thehurry on the clinical end comes
from the schedule.
I mean, I think about whenhygienists get behind.
Why do hygienists get behind?
Well, they either don't haveenough time scheduled, but most
of the time they do, usuallyit's they're waiting on the
doctor.
So how can we not make thehygienist wait?
(06:14):
And then, when we're looking atour clinical with us and our
assistants, it's man, are wejust overbooking ourselves?
Are we so production hungrythat we think the idea is to see
more patients?
And I did this for years with myortho nights.
I would do one or two orthostarts and I would do like a
million 30-minute ortho checksin three columns.
(06:34):
And every single Monday it wasSunday night I was just like ill
, I didn't want to go into work.
I woke up pissed off, I walkedin pissed off, I went seven
hours of being pissed off alongwith three assistants who were
all pissed off.
And we did it for years and allwe had to do was take that
30-minute ortho slide, extend itto 40, and see like four less
(06:58):
patients that day or somethinglike that, and it made all the
difference in the world.
It was like a cloud had lifted.
So if you're running around youroffice and you're just busy as
hell being pissed off andwondering why you're so pissed
off at your office, it's becauseyou don't have enough time.
And to another extent, I wantto talk about what about when
we're just the office stuff,like the front desk stuff, like
(07:20):
all this administrative stuff?
Sometimes we need to schedulesome time for that.
You know, I found that if wedon't schedule time for it,
people will just, when theydon't have anything else to do,
they pull out their phone andthey should be working on these
other things.
But that's just not the way itworks in the real world.
That's what I think about.
I just try anything I can do tokeep people out of a hurry.
Steve Markowitz (07:40):
Yeah, I love that, paul.
I think it's important for us toknow the best way to save time
is to solve the issue.
So if there is an upset patientor an issue that's happening in
the office, putting it off orlike no, I don't want to go talk
to that patient because they'remean, only makes it bigger, and
then we're going to be in moreof a hurry.
So I tell all of our team, allof our doctors if there's an
(08:04):
upset patient and it's yourpatient, walk towards it, get
your ass in there.
Don't go in there with factsabout a study that you read
about in JADA in the early 90s.
Talk to the patient, understandwhere they're coming from, ask
them questions and tell themthat you're going to try and
make it better and just sitthere and listen.
When we put it off any of thosethings and that can be
(08:27):
administrative or clinical itbecomes an office topic, it
becomes a bigger thing.
The negativity spreads becausethat negativity is so contagious
.
And then we are now in a biggerhurry because we spent 45
minutes talking about somethingthat we never even started.
Paul Etchison (08:42):
It comes down to completion.
Spent 45 minutes talking aboutsomething that we never even
started.
It comes down to completion.
We've got to complete things.
If we got an upset patient,start it, end it.
Make sure everybody's happy.
If we're collecting a balance,collect the balance.
Collect the whole balance, ifyou can.
I had one client where theyweren't inputting fee schedules
into their system.
So this is what they were doingwith every single treatment
plan.
They were doing a pre-treatmentestimate for every single
(09:05):
treatment plan and then, whenthey got it back, they would
send the claim out with the UCRsfor every single treatment plan
and for every ELB they got back, they would adjust every single
code and they would fix thebalance, either send a refund or
call the patient for more stuff, mail a statement.
And it was a mess because allthose things were incomplete,
(09:26):
whereas all they had to do is goback and look at the system
that caused that incompleteness.
Henry Ernst (09:31):
Yeah.
So I would say look and see ifyour systems are actually stupid
, right?
Because if I was coaching thatperson I would say these systems
are stupid, right?
That makes no sense.
This is wasted time.
This is being bad busy, right?
I want to be good busy.
There shouldn't be such a thingas I'm too busy, right?
Are you understaffed?
Can you add more staff?
Dentists are so hesitant to addmore staff.
(09:51):
For example, we've been doing100 ortho starts Invisalign
starts for the last three years.
So what happens?
You develop so many patientsthat are in the middle of
treatment in the middle oftreatment.
So we said you know what?
We're going to create a wholecolumn or two some days where we
have one assistant that's percolumn that is just treating
those orthodontic in the middleof treatment patients.
(10:14):
Because essentially withInvisalign, you know, we have to
remove the buttons.
We got to do IPR.
But most of the stuff ourassistants can do.
So that's an example of if wenever did that my schedule would
be so full of all theseintermittent ortho things that
are just somebody else can do it.
We could be so much moreefficient.
So look at your schedule tooand see is there stuff?
(10:34):
Can I have an assistant, havean emergency column every day.
Do we have the volume for thatGreat and don't feel pressure,
right, we do this on Saturdays.
This is a hallmark of ourpractice.
On Saturdays, we're in thepractice from eight till two,
and I'm not joking on a Saturdayfrom eight till two.
We will see, like with a normalschedule too, 10 emergencies,
eight emergencies, and I don'ttax the schedule.
(10:57):
Right, if I know that I cansqueeze in a crown or two, I'll
do it because I've got enoughstaff that I can do it.
But if that's going to tax myschedule and make everybody
crazy, I'm going to say hey, youknow, I want something to be
productive.
So they got a broken tooth, I'mgoing to smooth it.
Hey, jane, let's get you on theschedule when I have time.
This way the patient isunderstanding and say, hey, he
(11:18):
wants more time to do it.
Right, if it's somebody that'sgot an infected tooth, hey, I'm
going to give you an antibiotic.
Let's get you on the schedulenext week.
You know that kind of thing.
So you have to.
You're in charge of theschedule.
But also, don't be that personthat can't look ahead and say
maybe I should hire somebodyelse to make this, so I'm not
feeling that busy and strainedand stressed.
Paul Etchison (11:37):
Well, you know what's a good punt as well as
I'm going to throw this tip outto the listeners is that we see
a patient with a lot of veryjust decay everywhere Big case,
okay.
And we look at it and we gottwo patients in the other room,
we got two people in the otherhygiene chairs, and we look at
it and we say, man, this is abig treatment plan.
Okay, look at, we say, man,this is a big treatment plan.
Okay, we got to do this, this,this, this, this, this, this.
Okay, okay, do you have anyquestions?
Blah, blah, blah.
Look at that patient and be likeyou know what I mean.
(11:59):
Your case is pretty complex, asyou might know, and maybe they
don't know, but you could showthem.
There's a lot going on.
You know, I really would loveto look at your records's.
Okay, if we get you back and Ican present all these different
options to you on a differentday, they would be happy to do
that and then you can sit downwith those records, come up with
(12:21):
a larger treatment plan, butinstead of just firing something
off or staying in that roomforever for a patient that
really needs a lot of doctortime.
Henry Ernst (12:30):
And I'll tell you this besides the time factor
you're in a practice that hasyounger associates, maybe
associates that aren'tcomfortable with big things like
that that also gives them apunt we'll call it a knowledge
punt to say, hey, you know whatI want to sit with my senior
doctor and what do you thinkabout this?
And it's another topic, butassociates should be comfortable
doing that and that also givesyou that comfortable thing where
(12:52):
you can give them good aspectsto go through this complex case.
Steve Markowitz (13:01):
I was going to add to that.
Sometimes I'll even if it'sdecay and there's just quadras
of decay everywhere and thepatient's going to need some
time.
I'll just pick a tooth and say,like tooth number 29, there's a
cavity there.
I need some more time with you.
Let's extend that appointmentby 10, 15 minutes and I just
want to make sure I have enoughtime to sit with you, but we get
the process started for themand we show them that dentistry
(13:22):
isn't that scary, that's not allthe time.
That's not ideal, but it's moreideal than me feeling like I'm
in a hurry or feel like I'm notgiving this person everything
that they need to make the bestdecisions for themselves.
So there are and I think thatcomes with experience, there are
compromises that we need tomake to eliminate that hurry,
which I think we should justpublish that book, paul, because
it really is.
We can't make the bestdecisions, we can't be the best
(13:45):
doctors, if we feel like we'rein nine places at once.
And if there are little tips ortricks that we can do or
systems that we need to put inplace, like Henry said, or
people we need to hire, then wecan definitely reduce the hurry
and then be able to be morepresent, and maybe that's what
it is Just be more present forour patients and for our team to
(14:05):
really deal with the issues orthe most pressing things in
front of us.
Paul Etchison (14:08):
Totally so.
Yeah, if you've sent some hurryat your practice, sit down,
write down what happened.
Just get really granular onwhat is the situation here and
try to come up with why ithappened and look upstream what
caused these situations.
We want to avoid hurry at allcosts because it takes us away
from being present.
It takes us away from beinghappy, being in a good mood.
(14:29):
There's nothing good that comesfrom hurry and it's all fixable
things that can be fixedupstream with some different
protocols or different systemsor perhaps a different way of
looking at it.
So if you're interested inworking with a coach with Dental
Practice Heroes, you can workwith Steve Henry or myself.
Please check out our website atdentalpracticeheroescom.
Thank you so much for listeningand we'll talk to you next time
(14:49):
.
Have you ever noticed that when you're rushing
through your day at the officeand the faster you go, the more
things seem to go wrong?
We all want that busy practicebut, let's face it, sometimes
the level of care we want toprovide is not in line with the
amount of patients that we needto see at our office.
In this episode, we break downwhy being in a hurry at the
(00:22):
office is hurting your team,your patients and your profits,
and what you can do to turnthings around.
You're going to learn how totake control of your schedule,
your time and your stress sothat you can leave the office
each day feeling accomplishedinstead of exhausted.
You are listening to DentalPractice Heroes, where we help
you create and scale your dentalpractice so that you are no
(00:44):
longer tied to the chair.
I'm Dr Paul Etcheson, author oftwo books on dental practice
management, dental coach andowner of a $6 million group
practice in the suburbs ofChicago.
I want to teach you how to growand systematize your dental
practice so you can spend lesstime practicing and more time
enjoying a life that you love.
Let's get started.
Life that you love, let's getstarted.
(01:05):
Welcome back to Dental PracticeHeroes.
I'm your host, dr Paul Etchison,and I'm joined here today by my
DPH coaches, dr Steve Markowitzand Dr Henry Ernst, and we were
just having a littleconversation talking about how
this January it kind of feelslike there might be a lack of
compassion in the world and atour practices in some points Not
(01:27):
saying that we're all horriblepeople, but just something that
we picked up on a notice and weall kind of shared the same
feelings on it and you know itled us to talking about you know
where does that come from?
And we think it kind of comesfrom being in a hurry.
So, steve, I'll pass it to.
And man, what are you seeingand what are we even talking
about here?
Like, what am I saying here?
Steve Markowitz (01:49):
I feel like January is always a busy month.
I mean, people insurancebenefits renew, people took time
off, they didn't want to go tothe dentist around the holidays,
and December is always one ofour slowest months of the year
and January is always one of ourbusiest months of the year.
And what I'm noticing thisJanuary is that there's a lot
more patient complaints andbilling complaints and our
(02:11):
schedules are busier thanthey've ever been.
And I think when you're busyand when there's a lot going on,
it's harder to be empathetic,because you just have more
stress and that's normal.
But when you are losing thatability to lead with empathy and
truly listen, you're forgettingthat we're in a people business
(02:31):
, trying to take care of people,and that empathy is the only
thing that we got for them tounderstand, for us to understand
what's truly going on with ourpatients, and I think that's why
we're getting more patientcomplaints than we typically see
.
Paul Etchison (02:46):
So what's interesting is something I
noticed not that long ago, and Iread this in a book, and I
can't remember what name of thebook was.
It was something about hurrying.
But essentially what it says isthat if you can think about
this is anytime you are in ahurry, none of the positive
emotions will ever show up, youwill never be compassionate, you
will never show empathy, youwill never be happy, in a good
(03:08):
mood.
When you are in a hurry, it islike fight or flight, get the
hell.
You have only one thing focusedon is getting to the next thing
, and it's really hard to behappy with this.
And that was the whole premiseof the book was that in order to
be happy, we've got to stophurrying.
But when we're talking abouthurry at the dental office, I
think we've really got to lookat some of the systems.
Like where is that hurry comingfrom?
(03:29):
What have you noticed in yourpractice, Henry?
Like about just workloads,people's emotions and just what
we're talking about.
Steve Markowitz (03:38):
Paul, that book was the Ruthless Elimination of
Hurry, by the way.
Paul Etchison (03:41):
Oh, the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
Thank you, Steve.
Henry Ernst (03:44):
Thank you, google, you're welcome.
So actually our practice islike interesting.
Steve, you mentioned all thatstuff because I don't know if
it's our area, but our area iskind of like the opposite,
believe it or not.
Oh wow, december is our busy,busy, busy month.
Everybody's waiting until theend.
We do a lot of surgery and wedo a lot of surgery.
Everybody wants to have surgeryright before the break and all
this stuff here.
(04:04):
So I have time to heal and allthis stuff.
And January is kind of like Iwouldn't say it's like amazingly
busy, but it's like it's good.
But I think I'm always thatperson.
I'm trying to find the solution, like what's the problem?
And, yes, we incur the samethings.
You're busy and sometimesyou're running around.
You're just like why am Irunning all this routes?
Why am I doing this stuff here?
I always tell our associatesthey look at their schedule,
(04:27):
like, oh, look at this, look atthat.
Dude, you're the one that's incharge of your schedule.
Right, look at your schedule.
Look at it.
Two weeks ahead of time, a weekahead of time, did they give
you 30 minutes to do a rootcanal buildup in Crown?
Right, dude, extend it, make itwhat you want.
Did they give you like twohours to do an MO on number four
(04:47):
?
That's crazy, that's ridiculous, that's not being efficient.
Make it what's right.
And then I think that, no matterwhat happens, if we have a busy
practice, you're going to bebusy and as a doctor you have to
handle this.
And, like I'll give you somerules that we have If I'm in a
room working on a patient, Inever, ever want an assistant
walking in the room sayingdoctor, we're ready for you in
(05:08):
room six.
That never happens in mypractice.
It's a huge no-no, because youknow what that makes me feel
like I'm in a diner andsomebody's like table number
four.
Right, dude, we're in a dentalpractice.
Have your assistants walk in theroom, give you a rounding slip
and we have rear delivery.
So our patients don't even knowsomebody's coming in.
They come in very quietly, theyjust put the slip down and I
(05:31):
see the slip, I make eye contact, I mean that's just a couple of
examples in my head that cankind of not give the perception
of being busy.
But also, on the front end, asa doctor, you're in charge of
your schedule and we trust ourhygienists too, and we don't
have hygiene divas, we have thehygienists that are respectful
and we trust them to make theirschedules like tweak them, tweak
(05:51):
your schedule.
Don't just be a victim to yourschedule.
Paul Etchison (05:54):
Yeah, it's true Like we are a victim of our
schedule and that's one of thethings we have 100% control over
, and I think so much of thehurry on the clinical end comes
from the schedule.
I mean, I think about whenhygienists get behind.
Why do hygienists get behind?
Well, they either don't haveenough time scheduled, but most
of the time they do, usuallyit's they're waiting on the
doctor.
So how can we not make thehygienist wait?
(06:14):
And then, when we're looking atour clinical with us and our
assistants, it's man, are wejust overbooking ourselves?
Are we so production hungrythat we think the idea is to see
more patients?
And I did this for years with myortho nights.
I would do one or two orthostarts and I would do like a
million 30-minute ortho checksin three columns.
(06:34):
And every single Monday it wasSunday night I was just like ill
, I didn't want to go into work.
I woke up pissed off, I walkedin pissed off, I went seven
hours of being pissed off alongwith three assistants who were
all pissed off.
And we did it for years and allwe had to do was take that
30-minute ortho slide, extend itto 40, and see like four less
(06:58):
patients that day or somethinglike that, and it made all the
difference in the world.
It was like a cloud had lifted.
So if you're running around youroffice and you're just busy as
hell being pissed off andwondering why you're so pissed
off at your office, it's becauseyou don't have enough time.
And to another extent, I wantto talk about what about when
we're just the office stuff,like the front desk stuff, like
(07:20):
all this administrative stuff?
Sometimes we need to schedulesome time for that.
You know, I found that if wedon't schedule time for it,
people will just, when theydon't have anything else to do,
they pull out their phone andthey should be working on these
other things.
But that's just not the way itworks in the real world.
That's what I think about.
I just try anything I can do tokeep people out of a hurry.
Steve Markowitz (07:40):
Yeah, I love that, paul.
I think it's important for us toknow the best way to save time
is to solve the issue.
So if there is an upset patientor an issue that's happening in
the office, putting it off orlike no, I don't want to go talk
to that patient because they'remean, only makes it bigger, and
then we're going to be in moreof a hurry.
So I tell all of our team, allof our doctors if there's an
(08:04):
upset patient and it's yourpatient, walk towards it, get
your ass in there.
Don't go in there with factsabout a study that you read
about in JADA in the early 90s.
Talk to the patient, understandwhere they're coming from, ask
them questions and tell themthat you're going to try and
make it better and just sitthere and listen.
When we put it off any of thosethings and that can be
(08:27):
administrative or clinical itbecomes an office topic, it
becomes a bigger thing.
The negativity spreads becausethat negativity is so contagious
.
And then we are now in a biggerhurry because we spent 45
minutes talking about somethingthat we never even started.
Paul Etchison (08:42):
It comes down to completion.
Spent 45 minutes talking aboutsomething that we never even
started.
It comes down to completion.
We've got to complete things.
If we got an upset patient,start it, end it.
Make sure everybody's happy.
If we're collecting a balance,collect the balance.
Collect the whole balance, ifyou can.
I had one client where theyweren't inputting fee schedules
into their system.
So this is what they were doingwith every single treatment
plan.
They were doing a pre-treatmentestimate for every single
(09:05):
treatment plan and then, whenthey got it back, they would
send the claim out with the UCRsfor every single treatment plan
and for every ELB they got back, they would adjust every single
code and they would fix thebalance, either send a refund or
call the patient for more stuff, mail a statement.
And it was a mess because allthose things were incomplete,
(09:26):
whereas all they had to do is goback and look at the system
that caused that incompleteness.
Henry Ernst (09:31):
Yeah.
So I would say look and see ifyour systems are actually stupid
, right?
Because if I was coaching thatperson I would say these systems
are stupid, right?
That makes no sense.
This is wasted time.
This is being bad busy, right?
I want to be good busy.
There shouldn't be such a thingas I'm too busy, right?
Are you understaffed?
Can you add more staff?
Dentists are so hesitant to addmore staff.
(09:51):
For example, we've been doing100 ortho starts Invisalign
starts for the last three years.
So what happens?
You develop so many patientsthat are in the middle of
treatment in the middle oftreatment.
So we said you know what?
We're going to create a wholecolumn or two some days where we
have one assistant that's percolumn that is just treating
those orthodontic in the middleof treatment patients.
(10:14):
Because essentially withInvisalign, you know, we have to
remove the buttons.
We got to do IPR.
But most of the stuff ourassistants can do.
So that's an example of if wenever did that my schedule would
be so full of all theseintermittent ortho things that
are just somebody else can do it.
We could be so much moreefficient.
So look at your schedule tooand see is there stuff?
(10:34):
Can I have an assistant, havean emergency column every day.
Do we have the volume for thatGreat and don't feel pressure,
right, we do this on Saturdays.
This is a hallmark of ourpractice.
On Saturdays, we're in thepractice from eight till two,
and I'm not joking on a Saturdayfrom eight till two.
We will see, like with a normalschedule too, 10 emergencies,
eight emergencies, and I don'ttax the schedule.
(10:57):
Right, if I know that I cansqueeze in a crown or two, I'll
do it because I've got enoughstaff that I can do it.
But if that's going to tax myschedule and make everybody
crazy, I'm going to say hey, youknow, I want something to be
productive.
So they got a broken tooth, I'mgoing to smooth it.
Hey, jane, let's get you on theschedule when I have time.
This way the patient isunderstanding and say, hey, he
(11:18):
wants more time to do it.
Right, if it's somebody that'sgot an infected tooth, hey, I'm
going to give you an antibiotic.
Let's get you on the schedulenext week.
You know that kind of thing.
So you have to.
You're in charge of theschedule.
But also, don't be that personthat can't look ahead and say
maybe I should hire somebodyelse to make this, so I'm not
feeling that busy and strainedand stressed.
Paul Etchison (11:37):
Well, you know what's a good punt as well as
I'm going to throw this tip outto the listeners is that we see
a patient with a lot of veryjust decay everywhere Big case,
okay.
And we look at it and we gottwo patients in the other room,
we got two people in the otherhygiene chairs, and we look at
it and we say, man, this is abig treatment plan.
Okay, look at, we say, man,this is a big treatment plan.
Okay, we got to do this, this,this, this, this, this, this.
Okay, okay, do you have anyquestions?
Blah, blah, blah.
Look at that patient and be likeyou know what I mean.
(11:59):
Your case is pretty complex, asyou might know, and maybe they
don't know, but you could showthem.
There's a lot going on.
You know, I really would loveto look at your records's.
Okay, if we get you back and Ican present all these different
options to you on a differentday, they would be happy to do
that and then you can sit downwith those records, come up with
(12:21):
a larger treatment plan, butinstead of just firing something
off or staying in that roomforever for a patient that
really needs a lot of doctortime.
Henry Ernst (12:30):
And I'll tell you this besides the time factor
you're in a practice that hasyounger associates, maybe
associates that aren'tcomfortable with big things like
that that also gives them apunt we'll call it a knowledge
punt to say, hey, you know whatI want to sit with my senior
doctor and what do you thinkabout this?
And it's another topic, butassociates should be comfortable
doing that and that also givesyou that comfortable thing where
(12:52):
you can give them good aspectsto go through this complex case.
Steve Markowitz (13:01):
I was going to add to that.
Sometimes I'll even if it'sdecay and there's just quadras
of decay everywhere and thepatient's going to need some
time.
I'll just pick a tooth and say,like tooth number 29, there's a
cavity there.
I need some more time with you.
Let's extend that appointmentby 10, 15 minutes and I just
want to make sure I have enoughtime to sit with you, but we get
the process started for themand we show them that dentistry
(13:22):
isn't that scary, that's not allthe time.
That's not ideal, but it's moreideal than me feeling like I'm
in a hurry or feel like I'm notgiving this person everything
that they need to make the bestdecisions for themselves.
So there are and I think thatcomes with experience, there are
compromises that we need tomake to eliminate that hurry,
which I think we should justpublish that book, paul, because
it really is.
We can't make the bestdecisions, we can't be the best
(13:45):
doctors, if we feel like we'rein nine places at once.
And if there are little tips ortricks that we can do or
systems that we need to put inplace, like Henry said, or
people we need to hire, then wecan definitely reduce the hurry
and then be able to be morepresent, and maybe that's what
it is Just be more present forour patients and for our team to
(14:05):
really deal with the issues orthe most pressing things in
front of us.
Paul Etchison (14:08):
Totally so.
Yeah, if you've sent some hurryat your practice, sit down,
write down what happened.
Just get really granular onwhat is the situation here and
try to come up with why ithappened and look upstream what
caused these situations.
We want to avoid hurry at allcosts because it takes us away
from being present.
It takes us away from beinghappy, being in a good mood.
(14:29):
There's nothing good that comesfrom hurry and it's all fixable
things that can be fixedupstream with some different
protocols or different systemsor perhaps a different way of
looking at it.
So if you're interested inworking with a coach with Dental
Practice Heroes, you can workwith Steve Henry or myself.
Please check out our website atdentalpracticeheroescom.
Thank you so much for listeningand we'll talk to you next time
(14:49):
.
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