Just as a routine dental checkup is vital for overall oral health, an organizational checkup can offer benefits to your practice.

Taking the time to do a periodic overview of your systems, operations and practices can help your practice run like a well-oiled machine.

Discover challenges lurking under the surface

Not all problems affecting your practice are very visible. An organizational checkup can help identify issues that could be bogging down efficiency or having a negative impact on patient experience. Some examples:

• Your patient wait time has slowly increased. Patients might not be complaining yet, but they’ve noticed.
• More patients are behind on payments than you realize.
• Your supply cost is too high overhead has crept up over time.

Keep small problems small

An example of how a small issue can become a serious problem is ordering dental supplies. If the person in charge of managing supplies is not forecasting future need, a crisis can ensue. Paying too much for dental supplies is one thing but running out of something you need is another. An organizational checkup highlights scenarios where small slipups can grow into a major concern.

Keep your team members accountable

Trusting your staff is vital. You must delegate and encourage autonomy in order to free up time to do what you do best, which is provide clinical care. But going too long without reviewing employee performance can be a mistake.

Every member of your team needs to be held accountable for a specific set of tasks and responsibilities. Implementing tracking systems keeps everyone at their best and conducting periodic employee reviews makes it easier to find team members who require additional training or may not be the best fit for their role.

Realign systems

From marketing and billing to a positive waiting room experience, every aspect of your business should align with the overall vision. An organizational checkup highlights areas where someone or something has strayed from the course.

Set new goals

What your dental practice needs to grow today may not be what it will need next year and probably be pretty different than when you first launched. Revisit your goals and rearrange your hierarchy of needs as appropriate. Don’t presume that what worked before will work tomorrow.