Posting clinical cases on social media

Dentists often ask me if they should upload cases to social media. They are asking me as they feel a pressure to do so as they see others uploading cases and wonder whether they should or not. At the same time they feel uncomfortable about doing so.

I always ask why they are uncomfortable, and why do they need to upload cases? Most are uncomfortable as they feel they would be showing off. I always respond with ‘if you are proud of a case and want to show it (with patient consent) then go for it. But if you are entirely uncomfortable with doing so on your own profile and you do not need to then don’t’.

There are amazing Dentists on social media who upload cases they have completed, they do this mainly to market themselves as a teacher, they build substance in their brand and to create a buzz around them so that they may convert clinicians into delegates. It is marketing.

You have to respect the clinicians who upload cases, if for nothing more then the have great systems with every new patient to ensure pre-op photographs are taken as a standard record. There are too many occasions where dentists and therapists finish a restoration and wish they could turn back time and have taken that a pre-op to build the case into a nice portfolio.

If you also have great systems for pre and post ops then use them for your website and the practices social media as this is where you may convert a patient. This way you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable as the practice is showing the case not you personally.

As always do not feel pressure to copy others, even if what they are doing is great, do what works for you and if you have great cases build them into your brand with the aim of getting patients excited about the Dentistry that you offer.

Laura

Why the patients story is the biggest thing you need to pay attention to

I am continuing to pinch myself at the moment as I celebrate 10 years in business. A business that was born out of Treatment Coordination and now supports practices whole-heartedly with the patient experience and business development. So for this post I wanted to share with you an aspect of the role that is vital to its success.

For me the portfolio of pre and post pictures was the most powerful thing that we displayed in practice; the most powerful tool I had as a Treatment Coordinator. It was not merely a case of showing the photographs it was a case of telling the real story associated to the photos I was showing. I was not showing teeth ‘a case’ pre or post ops, I was telling a story about a real patient, the patient in these photographs.

When I work with new TCOs building a portfolio is always top of the list prior to training, this in itself can be a laborious task. Photos are still on cards, unknown teeth are displayed and it is a minefield to work through. Some are luckier than others, as photos have been downloaded but where everyone struggles is in the creation of a verbal proof story. This shows that the TCO role is vital in the practice – if no-one knows the story of the teeth from the jpeg, this shows that no-one has been listening in the first instance.

My role as a TCO was to spend an hour with the patient via a free consultation. In this time I was doing a huge amount of listening, I was listening to the story of the patient, understanding their motivating factors and goals.

If that patient went ahead with treatment and agreed to be a case study I therefore knew their story, I knew where they started as a person not as a set of teeth (or in some cases no teeth).

We also had outstanding end of treatment systems that meant that I could find out how the patient had benefitted from treatment and bring those benefits to the finale of their story.

Stories can never be fabricated, and stories must be learnt by the entire team, but most importantly the story of the patient should be at the heart of everything you do for them.

If you are not currently focused on taking pre-op photographs and using stories while showing post-op photographs try for one week to implement both and you will see it will pay dividends. If as a dentist you are thinking that the time restraint is too much then you need to look at developing the Treatment Coordinator role into your business, as having a portfolio of cases with real stories attached to them is one of the most powerful things you can do to showcase your clinical abilities and validate what you really do as a Dentist.

Laura

Effective scheduling for the New Year

By Michael Bentley.

I am often asked about how I achieve so much? People say I make them ‘feel tired’ that they ‘couldn’t do it’.

My first response is that I genuinely love everything that I do and you can do it too, it’s not magic. Yes there are always aspects of work that you don’t enjoy doing, I am not that passionate about, constant travel, my accounts, filing, but I do get them done by planning for them.

It is a great time of year to get yourself organised for the year ahead and make sure that you have your goals and plans in place to give you every chance of success. Personally I have most of the year set up already and options on things so I can be flexible, maintaining a work life balance is a priority for me too sustain what I do and remain healthy. If I didn’t do this extensive diary planning I literally would do nothing, trust me.

As a practice manager and working with my business owners, I always enjoyed January, making sure that everything was in place for a cracking year.

Here are my top 10 hints and tips on scheduling so that you can get a good year underway:

1. Holiday and CPD bookings for all providers need to be in the diaries now (ideally a year ahead) but at least 7 months in advance so that patients are not being re scheduled. With changes in 5 year PDP’s, CPD bookings should be so much easier to book out as courses will have been researched in advance, so get these booked out to.
2. With providers holidays and CPD actioned, it means that the rest of your team members can now schedule their holiday’s. I would encourage early booking for team members so that you are not left with cramming holidays in at the end of the year. Also regular breaks are good for health, even if it’s a week of relaxation at home, so encourage this culture.
3. Get Christmas and New Year opening hours sorted for 2019/2020 now. The team like to know where they stand and how much individual annual leave they need to use in taking all or part of this key time off.
4. Schedule all meetings in the diaries now, business meetings with practice managers/owners and separate meetings with the team, weekly and monthly, whichever is in your vision plan. Also plan weekly One’s to One’s with all team members, or split them between coordinators.
5. Schedule all appraisals (I would recommend twice a year if you can) and Personnel development plan reviews once a year. I would recommend summer months for these July and August, it also falls nicely around the teams CPD cycles in the main.
6. Schedule all the CQC audits for the year, have flexibility for repeating audits that require more work and additional audits, this is happening a lot with clinical note audits. Great audit months are: February, May, July/August, end of December.
7. Marketing plan for the year with campaigns scheduled and monthly actions required to make sure each campaign is implemented on all platforms.
8. Schedule review of monthly membership subscriptions, with review of your dental price lists in line with membership review. This should happen in June/July and your membership provider should be around to support you. You can finalise fee increases later, I recommend January for implementation of new price lists, however mid year price increases are sometimes needed (Brexit may force practices to do that this year) or it has been several years since your last price increase.
9. Schedule monthly reviews of financial data, monthly, trading account and KPI’s
10. Schedule a meeting with dental providers every month, to go through all aspects that effect their diaries, new patient conversion, marketing investment, diary zoning.

Here’s a bonus tip – set a budget now for team social activities so that it is clear what you have available to spend. Plan events based on budget, activities don’t have to be pricey to be brilliant.

Hope that helps you to get your new year underway in style, scheduling takes time but really pays off.

Michael

When technology becomes emotional for the patient

I took my dog Betsy to the vets a few weeks ago to decide on the options for having her spade. Betsy is 6 months old and of course I want the very best for her as any pet owner would, they are a member of the family after all. Although Betsy is unable to have a say on her options it is important that as the owner I understand how to make the best choice for her. Any operation is emotional for me and I am careful in these situations. 

Ian our vet, is so in tune with emotional connection, combing his continual investment in technology and training, which drives his passion in delivering first class communication. When Ian talked about the options for Betsy he presented two. The first option was a traditional surgical procedure and the second option was for a laser surgery removal of Betsy’s ovaries.

When Ian talked about option two, he built in the ability to talk about the training he has undertaken, the results he has achieved using the laser and the benefits, better recovery time, less pain, smaller wounds and less time spent at the vets. This explanation was combined with him showing me the laser in action, he showed me a video of another dog he had treated Martha. He explained how he had used the laser for Martha and I could see for myself how it seared the skin tight when cutting, there was no blood spillage and it was clear to me it was a totally clean and safe procedure.

Expense is always a factor when making a decision but the way he discussed it with me and the way he presented the options to me, allowed me to make a very easy decision. I wanted the best for Betsy and I chose the laser surgery. At this stage the cost had not been confirmed but I had already chosen my option and the reason is because he took the time to explain and show me evidence of success.

When he told me the investment, it was double the price of conventional surgery, however he didn’t apologise for the fee being higher for the laser, he just confirmed and re outlined the benefits and asked me what I wanted to do for Betsy.

What I find in dental practices is that you to have technology to show your patients, to make it easier for you to communicate to your patients what is going on. The use of Intra oral camera’s, full mouth pictures and testimonials of patients is so powerful and yet in many cases are not being used, even when available! Dentists I find are still relying on a traditional conversation alone to confirm options and for me, when we live in a world where technology is at our finger tips, you really should be using this to your advantage. Every patient would benefit from you sharing your successes in picture or video form, as it is so powerful and patients will see how passionate and confident you are in getting amazing results.

When you do talk about investment, if you have already made the time to share your recommendations in this way, the price will not be a principle factor. Remember if you invest in new technology this must go hand in hand with you being able to communicate all the benefits surrounding predictability, longevity and giving great guarantees. At the end of the day your patients in the main do want the best, but they can’t always see what you can see, or know, so you really do have to show the patients what you can achieve.

My vet Ian is so confident with his ability that he filmed the entire surgery that Betsy had. After her procedure Ian took me through the procedure that was filmed and I saw the laser being used with the removal of each ovary, what Ian had said in the consultation was exactly what happened, clean removal, no blood, minimal wound. He also showed me all Betsy’s internal organs and confirmed the health of each and because of the relationship he has built with us, he asked if he could use his new ultrasound machine to scan Betsy’s heart. Of course I said yes and again he went to the trouble of sharing with me the ultrasound and how it really is going to help with so many animals at the practice. This experience has blown me away, I am not easily impressed, but the care by Ian and his team really shows, in his ability to mix patient skills, with animal love and a thirst for cutting edge technology to improve his success.

I meet so many dentists that have so much technology and then don’t go that extra mile to really take the time to show patients the very best that they can do and get frustrated when they have to go back to traditional methods of treatment as the patients don’t understand the benefits of investing more, to receive the very best that you have to offer.

You will be pleased to know that Betsy has now fully recovered and Ian will get a great testimonial from me, Now thats a great emotional technology outcome.

Michael