Begin With the Patient in Mind

In a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies, Nathan Mlot, a Mechanical Engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, published an article about fire ants. While a single fire ant struggles when exposed to water, a group of the same fire ants when working closely together can float effortlessly for days. The

ants accomplish this by literally linking their bodies together. The fire ants actually create “waterproof rafts,” and as a whole the

rafts are significantly more buoyant than an individual fire ant floating alone – much like a happy, productive dental team can outperform an unhappy dental team any day of the week.

The life of a dental student is rather selfish, isn’t it?

Seriously, think about it... After countless hours of your day spent in classrooms and clinics, the remainder of your time is usually allocated to studying and lab work. With so much of your schedule and energy monopolized, the most important people in your life get the short end of the stick – a version of you that’s devoid of energy and propped-up just long enough to make an appearance. Home life suffers during an exam-heavy week as dirty laundry and dishes pile up. Plants and pets are lucky to survive a finals week! Though you may not realize it, your decision to pursue a dental degree obligated those around you to years of sacrifice and compromise toward your cause.

Now, please don’t take this the wrong way. The nature of the “dental school” beast demands a level of selfishness. It’s a reality

Ryan C. Dulde, DDS Power To Succeed

all dental students share, and my story was no exception. Like you, my success as a dental student was defined by my ability to improve and advance my skills. It was a system that legitimized self-mindedness, and even rewarded it. For a long time, the primary mission was simply to work on me.

and style. The criterion that rose to the top of my list, however, was “the patient experience.” Thinking about my own experiences as a patient, I wanted to work for an office that, without question, kept its patients as the primary focus.

During the course of interviews, I encountered practices that ran the gamut – a few were more staff-centered or money-centered, and some were, well, “My most recent vacation”-centered. I did find, however, a few offices that seemed to concentrate on the patient experience, first and foremost. Fortunately, the opportunity to join one such office arose. In the whirlwind of my transition from residency to private practice,

Then I entered the private practice world, and all the rules changed.

As associateship interviews approached, I began nailing down a few priority items I was looking for in a prospective practice. The list included a great staff, a boss interested in mentorship, a thriving business with ownership opportunity and an overall compatibility with the practice philosophy

I almost overlooked the true significance of what I had discovered.

I was beginning a new game, with new rules. In order to succeed in this new system, I would need a whole new mindset. Unlike the student experience, success would no longer be a function of things I did for me. Success, from this point forward, would depend on my ability to be patient-centered. A patient-centric practice philosophy positions the patient as a singular center, and then derives all aspects of the practice from that center. In other words, consideration for the wants and needs of the patient permeate every aspect of practice behavior.

The Patient-Centric Business

A patient-centric philosophy is a simple concept, but “simple” and “easy” are two completely different things. The challenge to “think like the patient” can be formidable for an emerging practitioner. The new dentist’s mind is already quite busy just trying to “think like a dentist”! Making that critical shift from a self-focused to a patient-focused mindset is not easy. However, I believe it is

ADS HAS THE LOCAL MARKET EXPERTISE AND A HISTORY OF OVER 2.8 BILLION DOLLARS IN PRACTICE TRANSITIONS.

START YOUR PRACTICE SEARCH WITH A PROVEN PARTNER.

TO BEGIN YOUR PRACTICE SEARCH

Find ADS listings and more at adstransitions.com/buyer

the most impactful way to squarely position yourself on a path to successful practice, and to get moving down that path. The sooner you overcome this mental hurdle, the better!

beginning. While the two philosophies could yield similar end results, the conceptualization of the patient-centric practice is entirely different.

In his instant classic, The E-Myth Revisited, Michael Gerber contrasts the entrepreneur and technician mindsets. He describes the “Fatal Assumption” as the belief that one understands a business that does technical work because one understands the technical work itself. Dentists seem exceptionally susceptible to this line of thinking. The technician applies an ego-centric mindset, responding primarily to the needs of himself/herself; the entrepreneur applies a patient-centric mindset, responding primarily to the needs of the customer.

While good customer service is standard, few practitioners conceptualize it to the extent that the value of customer service actually shapes and defines the practice. Generally, the dentist starts by establishing the practice as he/she sees fit. Then, he/ she begins tweaking his/her administration and management of the practice as a result of trial-and-error, good advice from colleagues, and something she learned from a continuing education course. Eventually, through experience enough positive changes have been implemented so that patients are satisfied. This is an ego-centric approach, in which the practice is created by the doctor for himself/herself and retrofitted to the patients’ needs. The patient-centric mindset takes the polar opposite approach, creating the practice for the patient from the very

The challenge for new dentists entering business is two-fold: 1) Obtain the knowledge needed to function effectively as an entrepreneur and manager, and 2) Resist the urge to abdicate away your business in order to play the comfortable role of technician.

PRACTICE LISTINGS

The Chair-Side Mindset

As a fresh face in an established practice, building my patient base relies on the relationships I establish at new patient exams. Thinking that I was winning patients over, I was actually making a mistake that many students and new grads make: my new patient exam was a miniature version of a dental school lecture. At some point in the conversation about the pros and cons of various dental materials, the eye contact from the patient fades. The patient isn’t asking questions. We’ve run out of time. I walk away thinking, “Wow, I think I really nailed it.” I totally did not nail it. I can’t thank my business manager enough for calling me out on this early Who knows how long I could have gone on like that?

My new patient exams were ego-centric. I was doing that exam for me. I was more concerned with demonstrating my knowledge of dentistry than how to tailor the message to perfectly suit the patient’s wants and needs. I was processing treatment plan options out loud, probably leaving my patient feeling confused and overwhelmed. With some coaching and the adoption of a patient-centric mindset, my new patient exams now revolve around the short- and long-term benefits of treatment, rather than the properties of various ceramics.

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited

Patient-Centric Conflict?

In more than one interview, I was questioned about conflict. Do you see any value in it? How do you handle it with a staff member? How do you handle it with your boss? The best answer I have is that which derives from the principle of patient-minded practice: “If we’re truly 100-percent patientfocused and patient-centered, I just don’t see how there can be any room for staff conflict that isn’t constructive or beneficial for the patient experience”.

This response was met with overwhelming signs of approval from the entire team. If everyone commits to making patients the central focus, internal conflict is more than just a squabble. It’s a damaging violation of the practice’s core value. A credible and consistent leader, rooted in patient-centric philosophy, has the power to swiftly diffuse conflict.

In summary, gone are the days when patients were referred to as “my denture-

“The Entrepreneurial

Model has less to do with what’s done in a

business and more to do with how it’s done...

[It] does not start with a picture of the business to be created

but of the customer for whom the business

is to be created. It

Please reach out to our authors

and our advertisers. They care about you and keep us in print.

understands that without a clear picture

of that customer, no business can succeed.”

over-partial” rather than by name. The new challenges ahead will require a new patient-centric mindset. Make the patient experience your first concern, and your long and happy career will be off to a successful start. ■

comments, or responses to our

magazine, please connect with us

on Dental Entrepreneur Magazine

— our official Facebook page!

Read us online

Send your questions or

comments to aduff2@aol.com