Australasian Dentist Magazine Nov Dec 2021

Category 112 AustrAlAsiAn Dentist D ear Dr Toni, What are your top tips for integrating a hygienist? Dr NN, NSW. Many dentists are really busy at the moment, and it makes a great deal of sense to make sure that your scale and clean (preventative care) appointments are out of the dentists’ books. there are a few things to do as parallel processes to get a hygiene department up and running. As soon as you’ve decided to get a hy- gienist or OHt, start talking to your patient base straight away about your plan. Do this even if you haven’t even started the hiring process. let them know that, in future, their preventative care visits will be done by a dedicated professional. Be as excited as you can about it, so that you’re really giving the impression that you think it’s a great thing for your patients. Give the patients time to respond, and make sure that you handle their objections and answer any questions. Patients sometimes worry that they’re going to be abandoned by the den- tist, so reassure them that you will still be seeing them and that it’s your privilege to oversee their health, and that you have the best of intentions for them. Also let them know that you’ll be going through a really thorough recruitment process because it’s important for you to find someone who will be exactly right for your patients. Make your recruitment process thorough. You’re looking for someone who is not only a good clinician, but also who is caring, a strong communicator, and a great team player. the hygienist needs to be able to communicate with patients in a way that has the patients feel supported, not judged, and the hygienist also needs to be able to support the dentists’ diagnoses as well. it’s a good idea during the hiring process to get the hygienist to clean your teeth so you can experience what it’s like to be in their chair. Further, do a thorough reference check to make sure that previous practices have been happy with their overall performance. Get your systems in place, while also realising that you need to be flexible in the first few months to make sure that the integration is as seamless as possible. it’s a good idea in the short term to have longer appointments in your own books so that you can effectively hand patients over to the new hygienist. Make sure that your appointment book is well-structured, and that you have built in time for huddles and admin time. (Contact me for more information about those systems.) Be aware that the first few months can be a bit bumpy, but there are immense benefits to both you and your patients to have a well-recruited hygienist. D ear Dr Toni, Can you suggest some strategies for rebooking patients? With everything going on at the moment, we have to rebook patients a lot, and it’s worse because some of them have been rebooked a lot in the past when we’ve had turnover of producers. Dr ALN, WA. this is a common problem at the moment! Whether you’re moving people because of restrictions, or because of a change of clinicians, always make the conversations as personalised as possible and really acknowledge how the patient is feeling. to personalise the call, the FOC should look up the patient’s records to see their history, and to identify what that individual patient would want to hear in order to make the change more palatable. if that FOC is the one who has spoken to them in the past about changing times, they can call and say, “Hi Patient, it’s lee here from Momentum Dental. i’m really sorry to be doing this again, but we’re going to need to find a new time for that appointment.” Or, if the FOC can see that the patient has been moved a lot already, but they themselves are not the ones who made the call, change the language slightly. For example: “Hi Patient, it’s lee here from Q&A with Dr Toni Surace BeSt PraCtiCeS q&a It’s always best practice to develop business skills, systems, techniques and industry knowledge that could impact your practice. BEST PRACTICES Q&A is a forum allowing you to ask the tough questions to Australasian Dentist columnist Dr Toni Surace. Dr Toni Surace BDSC (Melb) Managing Director, Momentum Management Mentor, coach and international presenter. Momentum Dental. i know that we’ve moved your appointment more than we’d like to in the past, but i’m ringing to let you know that we are going to need to find a new time for that appointment. i’m really sorry about this.” the next bit takes some courage, but here it is: let the patient vent and blow off a little bit of steam if they need to. FOCs need to avoid taking it personally if the patient feels a bit frustrated. Following that, it actually works best to agree with the patient. After all, you don’t like this situation either! so it can be useful to say, “i couldn’t agree more. We’re finding this really frustrating too. We really want to be able to give you times you can rely on, and consistency of clinicians”. the next bit depends a bit on why you’re rescheduling. if it’s because of a turnover of clinicians, you can say something like, “Dr toni has asked me to tell you that she’s really committed to making sure that you can have someone long-term. that’s why she’s running such a thorough recruitment process; we’re looking for someone who’s really going to fit in here and be able to build the sort of relationships we love you to have. While we’re waiting for that right person, she’s asked me to book you in with [herself, or another stable clinician]. How does that sound?” if you’re rebooking because of restrictions, it smart to offer an alternative time rather than let the patient fall out of the system. say something like, “i know things are unpredictable at the moment, but if you don’t rebook, i’m worried that you’ll miss out on the times that work best for you. Once restrictions are lifted, we’ll get lots of patients calling, and it will be way harder for you to get back in. so let’s secure you a spot now, and if things change, i’ll give you another call.” in short, the best idea is to give your FOCs time to make calls that leave the patient feeling validated and understood. Good luck! BEST PRACTICES 4 “ “