Are You Monitoring Your Practice’s Vital Signs?
Vital signs? Are you suggesting my dental practice has a heartbeat, blood pressure, temperature, and respiratory rate? Absolutely! As with the human body, if studied over time and compared to standards, these vital signs can alert you to weakened operating systems, work culture dysfunctions, threatening trends, and money leaks.
Some practice monitors are obtainable from your software reports; others must be gathered manually or digitally mined. The key is knowing which signs to follow and how to use them. Without monitoring your practice’s vital signs, you will never truly understand the health of your practice. You may never exceed patient expectations, create a desirable workplace for your employees, and satisfy your career goals.
“So what?” some may say. I am paying my bills; that is what is important. Wrong! Monitoring your practice’s vital signs can do so much more. Here are four benefits of tracking performance metrics to measure practice health:
1) Creates Accountability
This is a complaint I hear often from dentists: “There is no accountability for my employees.” Monitoring your practice’s vital signs is the answer. Reviewing monitors with the team each month directly and objectively reflects their performance. No one wants to hear they didn’t make their goal, or that what they do is below the industry benchmark. However, it is rewarding for employees to be recognized for exceeding their goals and outperforming the benchmark. That is accountability - and motivation!
2) Establishes Team Goals
Without common goals and a unifying mission, there is no team. You simply have a group of people all playing on different fields trying to accomplish their goals, whether working as little as possible, doing things as easily as possible, or using their creative accounting skills (a.k.a. embezzling).
3) Enables Early Detection of Problems
Employees in healthcare know that, the earlier you detect a disease, the easier it is to treat and the greater the chance of a successful outcome. The same goes for your practice. Monthly monitors allow you to see inside the interactions of your business and pick up on problems early. Sharing this with the team helps everyone get on board, and motivated to resolve the issue. Seeing the results of this team effort brings your team closer together in ways that little else does.
4) Provides a Basis of Comparison
Dentistry, like most industries, studies its highest performers and sets best-practice benchmarks. These benchmarks allow you to compare your practice performance to others in your specialty. Comparing your performance measurements (or vital signs) to industry standards each month helps you determine if you are maximizing the potential of your practice. Without that, you could coast, survive, and face the consequences at some unknown point in the future. Is this your plan?
The power of obtaining and following measured data is profound. Without it, you and your team are blind and groping aimlessly in the dark.
If you are ready to transition your dental practice from simply surviving to thriving, we can work together to identify your practice’s vital signs and establish corresponding benchmarks for comparison. Establishing this framework will coalesce your team around the same mission with common goals and create the accountability required to achieve exemplary results for your practice - and patients.
