CATEGORY AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST 113 BEST PRACTICES Q&A it “evenmore safe”. Sometimes they’ve been trained in infection control by different former DAs in the practice and no-one now knows the current correct way to do things. Regardless of why it’s occurring, I can see you know that it’s important to have an accurate, consistent approach to infection control. Here are some ways to help. Step 1: make sure you do have a current version of your country’s guidelines. If you need to, get online and find the latest infection control guidelines. And, if you haven’t already done so, make sure that you’ve signed up for some sort of alert or email that tells you when there’s been an update. Step 2: turn the guidelines into a protocol for your own practice. This might mean updating your current documentationor creating a newdocument if yours is too outdated. Consider taking photos of anything that would help team members (both existing and new) learn it. You could even create videos of the specific steps and upload them to a training portal (a YouTube channel or Vimeo). Step 3: get the DAs to use your protocol to make sure that it’s accurate and that it works as a training manual. Step 4: update the protocols (both the documents and videos) on an ongoing basis, and make sure all team members have current training. Dear Dr Toni, With so many costs increasing at the moment, I’m worried that my spending is getting out of control. What should I do? Dr AR I totally understand your concern. It’s a very real problem for many practices. Here are my suggestions for helping keep expenses under control. 1. Know your budget for each month. There are some fixed expenses (e.g. rent) that need to be paid regardless of what you’re collecting, so these are easily predicted. Make sure that you know that your collections for each month will be able to cover those expenses. 2. Some expenses, e.g. lab, usually go up with production. Make sure that you’re not discounting bigger production items and undermining your own ability to pay that type of expense. 3. Have a budget for staffing, and make sure that the person who’s doing rosters knows the budget. They may need to be trained in creating rosters with a budget in mind. You may also need protocols for ensuring that overtime is kept to a minimum. 4. Know your budget for dental supplies. This will increase with production, but you need to make sure that your ordering system is efficient, timely and kept to budget. There is a lot of variation from one practice to the next, so there’s no one-size-fits-all system for ordering. Design your own in such a way that you’re never understocked, but also that unnecessary delivery costs are reduced. 5. Some costs need to have a justifiable return on investment before you engage in them. This includes some marketing activities and some equipment purchases. In other words, only spend money on these if you can see that they generate more income than they cost. It’s usually cheaper, for example, to make sure your internal marketing is working well than to spend on external marketing. So if cash-flow is tight, only conduct external marketing once your customer service and systems are really good. 6. Shiny toys that don’t have a quick return on investment only get purchased if you are sure you can afford the lease and/ or you’ve saved up for them! Be honest with yourself about this. Maybe avoid trade shows if you have trouble walking past the fun things! Finally, track your actual expenses each month to make sure that each step is being followed, and adjust accordingly. As a parallel process, make that your systems support strong production and collections,w and that your fees support you being able to run a healthy business. u For further information on Momentum Management, visit www.momentummanagement.com. au or call 1300 510 000 for details on short courses, Momentum’s Management Program, coaching packages, short courses, in-practice visits, or other ways in which Momentum can assist you. “ Dr Toni Surace the Managing Director of Momentum Management. Momentum is the premier dental practice management consultancy and training firm in Australia. Momentum has been empowering dentists in Australia and New Zealand to reach their professional, personal and financial goals for over 20 years. On average, Momentum clients increase production by 30-40% and achieve a 579% return on investment from the Momentum Practice Management Program. If you would like to learn more about Momentum Management programs, call 1300 519 000, and request a free 1-hour consultation with an experienced coach.
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