DEBRA MILLER
DIRECTOR OF COACHING
Success in every endodontic practice is the result of a series of factors: teamwork, systems, scheduling, clinical productivity, marketing, revenues, expenses, etc. How these factors come together ultimately determines whether the practice is effectively responding to opportunities and challenges … or falling short in some way.
There are multiple ways that a practice can under-perform. For example, it can under-perform in terms of daily enjoyment, team unity, or professional satisfaction. However, it’s no surprise that the most common measure of performance is financial. A business is a means to an income for the owner, and income supports the rest of their life and their family.
Defining under-performance
Fundamentally, the financial success of an endodontic practice comes down to how well the doctor’s time (as the only revenue “producer” in the practice) is scheduled. At Endo Mastery, our goal is for doctors to efficiently utilize their team so that they can provide diagnosis and treatment to patients while being neither rushed nor idle during the day.
If you consider how long the typical endodontic procedure takes from bur-to-tooth to obturation, most practices are under-performing. In an 8 or 9-hour day, a doctor properly supported by their team and systems should be able to comfortably and predictably complete at least 6 to 8 cases per day by minimum standards.
By comparison, the average practice is completing 3 to 4 cases per day. So that’s a 50% performance gap. Even though doctors often sense their practice is under-performing, they often don’t realize the full extent because their existing processes, systems and team utilization obscure (or even suppress) their true potential.
Lost opportunity costs
Since expenses are sunk costs, increasing practice performance by just 1 more daily case completion adds as much as $250,000 to the practice’s bottom line, assuming typical fees and days worked per year. 2 cases add half a million dollars to practice profits, which easily more than doubles the income of the doctor.
Over 10 years, improved practice performance can result in a $5 million bonus for the doctor. That’s a very real number that isn’t based on becoming a root canal factory, but simply improving your existing team and systems to be more efficiently aligned to the practice’s potential.
With so much opportunity for income growth, the cost of waiting to act is so much higher than the cost of investing in your team and systems to achieve your potential. Almost any meaningful effort you make to close your performance gap is going to pay off very quickly because endodontics is almost 100% profit beyond your breakeven point on expenses.
Where to begin
For most practices, closing the performance gap is about enhancing the teamwork and systems that you already have. Better marketing, scheduling and delegation are essentials on that path to growth. Because most doctors are already time broke, limits around self-implementation are frequently the biggest barrier preventing growth.
Almost always, the best approach is choosing the right advisers to work with the team. Endo Mastery coaches are experts in guiding practices to evolve to the next level of success. We use a team-driven approach that frees the doctor to focus on great clinical care.
The best place to begin is with a practice analysis, so you have a clear understanding of your practice potential along with the income and lifestyle potential for the doctor. Endo Mastery offers a complimentary practice analysis that you can schedule with me at the link below.
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Schedule your free practice analysis with Debra Miller
Schedule your free practice analysis with Debra Miller