CATEGORY AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST111 There have been many authors who have written extensively about how to build and maintain a $10 million dental practice. In fact in the early days of my career a colleague of mine, and a dear friend, Doctor Robert LaVoy, taught me exactly how this was to be done and he did this in an interesting and personal manner. His view was that there were so many variables, including the personality of the doctor, personalities of the sta , the desires of the patients, the needs of the patients, the geographical area, the monetary area, the decided social factors. And so he decided to lay this out in an interesting manner which he has now referred to as the Ivory Tower Attitude (ITA) dentist, I would like to share my view on this now. e rst thing to understand is to diagnosis whether a dental practice is well or not. Money and service are not mutually exclusive and what I hope to present in this article is how to recognise yourself in the context of your practice. E ects of life in the professional world past and present. Laymen are no longer impressed by the professional superior knowledge. e fallacy of a better personality as a practice builder I hope to expose and rebuild. Coming down to earth doesn’t lower you in the eyes of your practice sta and consultants. Today’s patients want to be understood as a person rst and as a patient later. Around about the time that I started in 1972 the idea of making money as a professional was still lingering in the background of many people’s minds. I was convinced that a great many professional people needed to be shocked into taking a di erent perspective at some of their own attitudes, traditional assumptions, values, goals and motives. Why? Because now and then I was also convinced that the idea of having an antigrowth policy which I will refer to as an ITA was causing many professional people to both cheat themselves and their patients and clients. One of the main symptoms of ITA is a complete disinterest in money matters or rather feeling that one ought to be completely disinterested in money matters. e professional feels that he is above money making; this is not something that he was taught at dental school and therefore does not need to show any interest or fascination or preoccupation with it. e trouble is that from this lofty perch where many people sit, it also tends to place this particular professional person above, remote and isolated from many other things. ese include his patients and clients and the very human down-to-earth problems and concerns that they have. I want to make one thing clear at the beginning the ITA is not the villain the ITA is the victim. I have never met a dentist who has sat down and deliberately said that they decided to adopt an ivory tower attitude. e onset of this is so gradual and natural, most never even realised they had it until they see a survey of their patients hit them in the face with the facts. is same professional is a victim of the fast paced jet age society of outworn and outmoded traditions and his own science and technology. All of which have robbed him of the human touch and so doing they have also robbed him of much of his power and e ectiveness in dealing with his patients as well as his earning potential. I took a di ering approach at the very beginning. My view was to provide superior service, superior skill sets, and for those skill sets I did not have, I was very much comfortable with the idea of hiring people who did and I’ve looked both here and overseas for people who had the skill sets in key areas Areas such as orthodontics, implants, the science of caries and some sophisticated oral surgery procedures, and bring them to Australia and make them comfortable in our building. When I was approached by one of the major health funds and a suggestion was given to me that I could become what was then called a preferred provider I did not hesitate. I felt this was another way of simply providing an entry point into having patients come to the practice. As it turned out it was a goldmine. All those patients who were concerned about dentistry and the costs started ooding in. And quite literally that’s when it hit me I had been communicating all the wrong things. I had been communicating dentistry 101 as it was taught to me at dental school. Find a cavity, point it out and produce lling. Let us talk about the rst phase of this by examining this one statement. Perhaps you are thinking that the primary goal of a professional dentist should be to do the best for the most people, and I would have to agree with you. But let me ask you another question: how much good would you really like to do? Would you rather make a $10,000 contribution or a $100,000 contribution when I think about the 1 million or the $10 million practice? I’m talking about your output in terms of total service as well as your income. is is the jumping o point for most people. In today’s professional world money making and doing the best for most people need not be mutually exclusive. But how do you diagnose whether or not you are in fact an ivory tower professional? Because you are reading this article it is a pretty good indication that you’re not an ivory tower professional. But what my research has shown is that to some degree almost all of us are at some level, or at some point, an ivory tower professional. is is quite interesting because we are the only reason that we are not being as successful as we can be because of our own attitudes. Let’s take a good look at the ivory tower issue, let’s mull it over and discuss it amongst ourselves and become totally familiar with it. It will serve as some sort of a frame of reference as we explore attitudes and changes that I think will be meaningful and practical. u In the next article we will explore the 10 symptoms of a sick practice and we will decide on the best method of xing them. COLUMNISTS How to build the 10 million dollar practice Dr Harry Marget By Dr Harry Marget
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