Thomas L. Snyder, DMD, MBA Managing Partner The Snyder Group, LLC Printer Friendly Version

Integrating Your First Associate—Part I

When you hire your associate there is a lot of work that needs to be done. We’ll present solid suggestions in this two-part series to ensure that your relationship will be profitable and successful.

1. Determine the number of patients to be assigned to your associate. As we’ve mentioned in previous articles, saturated practices usually have an active patient base of 1,500 to 1,700 patients. To determine which patients to assign to your associate, you should designate those patients you want to retain. The remaining balances of patients are those to be assigned to the associate. Many of these patients most probably are patients who have to be reactivated first.
2. Reactivation Hygiene. Saturated practices usually have retention problems, meaning many patients are past due for their hygiene appointments and that means adding hygiene days to your practice. But before hiring a new hygienist to meet this backlog, have your new associate conduct the reactivation hygiene appointments. This is a smart economic decision, too, because reactivation efforts are never guaranteed to be 100% successful. Before you hire another staff member along with your new associate, we suggest that the associate be the first provider patients see when they return to the practice. This is an excellent way to meet the patient because the recare appointment is a non-threatening visit in most instances, and thus gives the new doctor a comfortable way to be introduced. Obviously, if dental treatment is needed, it can be scheduled with the associate. When the patient is scheduled for the next recare appointment, it should be with a hygienist. If you follow this approach, you’ll have a more precise way of determining the additional hygienists that you need to meet the new demand, upon a successful reactivation campaign.
3. Facility Utilization. If you only have four operatories and two hygienists, chances are you will need to do some creative scheduling to allow the practice to be utilized fully. If you are planning to reduce your clinical schedule, that will help. Creating two doctor schedules for the majority of the week, for example, early morning to afternoon and mid-day to early evening, may be the most appropriate way to get maximum use of your facility as well as optimize production.
4. Staffing Requirements. Most likely, if you are a solo practitioner, you’ll need to hire a new dental assistant, particularly if your associate is full time. We strongly recommend that after you hire your associate, you assign your most experienced dental assistant to work with the young doctor. You can then train the new assistant. This will ensure two things: first, the associate will learn your practice’s routines and second, it provides a better forum in which to have your associate introduced to patients. Chances are your experienced assistant knows many of your patients. When the associate leaves the operatory for a hygiene exam, for example, it provides a chance for the assistant to answer questions about the new doctor or to talk about his/her background.
5. Scheduling Templates. Believe it or not, many dentists just schedule an associate without any consideration for the actual time that may be required to perform clinical procedures. If your associate has just recently graduated from dental school, chances are he/she needs a lot more time to prepare restorations, crowns, etc. than you do! Therefore, before the associate starts working in your practice, discuss clinical time management and develop realistic time units for treating patients. There is nothing worse than having a reception room of annoyed patients because their new doctor has fallen behind schedule. Also, once you have determined your associate’s break-even point, it’s easy to set realistic production goals. Typically, our production goals for new doctors vary anywhere from $800 up to $1,200. Associates with experience would have production goals set higher than this range. These goals can be modified after the first three to six months of employment to more accurately reflect the production goals of the associate.

As you can see, integrating an associate takes a good deal of planning and attention. Taking the time to properly induct your new associate will pay big dividends!

In part two of this article, we’ll present ideas for marketing, effective communication and mentoring/clinical training for associates.

Dr. Thomas L. Snyder is Managing Partner of The Snyder Group, LLC, a nationwide practice transition and financial management consulting firm. With more than 75 years of experience in the field, The Snyder Group can provide you a full range of services relating to practice transition matters and retirement planning. They can be reached directly at 1.800.988.5674.

If you would like additional help, email Dr. Snyder at drsnyder@thedentistsnetwork.net.

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