The Dentist's Network #23, Dental Practice Management, Orthodontic Practice Consulting, Team Building, Business Consulting, New Dental Practice Startup Consulting, Practice Appraisals, Transitions


	Remote Access Overhead Control

Dr. Lorne Lavine
Dental Technology Consultants
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Remote Access: You Can Take It With You

As dentists, we find that our professional lives are often very busy. We travel to trade shows, take CE courses, and take time off on weekends and holidays to be with family and friends. However, we also want to be available to our patients after hours for emergencies, and in most cases, have access to their data. Sure, you can always drive over to the office if it’s a few block away, but in this modern world, there are alternatives that may make more sense for accessing our data when we’re not in the office:

Personal Digital Assistants. PDAs and Smartphones are very popular in our society. Recognizing this, most of the better dental practice management programs offer a module to allow the practice to take information home with them. This is the ideal situation for offices that don’t have high speed Internet at home and just need the basic information. There are, however, a few limitations. The practice management programs will integrate with either a Pocket PC or a Palm, but not both. Meaning, if you already use one of these and your software doesn’t support it, you’ll need to buy another one. Also, due to the much smaller memory capacity of these devices, the amount of information you can bring with you is often minimal. It may be limited to just that day’s callbacks, or a few days of your schedule. It won’t have a list of all patients, for example, with medical history and progress notes.

If you have high speed Internet access at home, then there are a number of software options available. While you certainly can use dial-up, the graphic nature of practice management software would make this process painfully slow.

The one that most people are familiar with is PC Anywhere. While this program has been around a long time, it’s not one of my favorites as it only allows you to access one computer at the office and I find it a bit clunky to use. The software costs about $200 but one of the main advantages is that you can transfer files from one location to the other.

An easier option is to consider a web-based system, such as LogMeIn.com. There is a free version that allows remote access, or a paid version ($199/year) for the ability to transfer files. The beauty of this system is the ease-of-use to set it up: you don’t need to know anything about firewalls or port forwarding to use this system.

Another good option is Remote Desktop. If you use Windows XP Professional at the office (It doesn’t work with XP Home as the “host” computer), then you can log into the system with this built-in software. This is a true remote desktop situation; you work on the remote or host computer as if you were right in front of it, and can use the mouse and keyboard normally. Since the software comes with XP (the client software is on all versions of XP and will work on any version of Windows if you download it from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx), you can’t beat the price. The main downside is that when you connect, it blanks out the screen of the person who is using the computer at that location. So you can’t, for example, use Remote Desktop and have the local user watch what you are doing. This is not an issue for after hours remote access, of course.

VNC is another excellent program for remote access. Some versions are free, but the ones with better security and passwords are not. There are many variations of VNC…I like RealVNC.

To use most of the above programs, you’ll need two things: an open port on your router, and a fixed Internet address (called the IP address) for the office computer. You can pay extra to get a static IP address, but you don’t need to. You’re better off with a dynamic IP address and then get a free service, such as No-IP which allows you to associate a name you choose with the IP address.

Through use of PDAs and remote access, dentists can easily have access to critical information that they may need after the office is closed.

Lorne Lavine, DMD is the Founder and President of Dental Technology Consultants. Dr. Lavine holds two prestigious certifications, the A+ Certified Technician designation and the Network+ Certified Professional. These designations demonstrate proficiency in computer repair, operating systems, network design and installation. Dental Technology Consultants provide dentists a full range of services relating to the implementation of technology.

Dr. Lavine can be reached directly at 1.866.204.3398.

Interested in speaking to Dr. Lavine about your technology concerns? Email him at Drlavine@thedentistsnetwork.net

Interested in having Dr. Lavine speak to your dental society or study club? Click Here.

Sally McKenzie, CEO
McKenzie Management
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Overhead: Staff Inefficiency Will Cost You Big

Okay, I’ll admit it; overhead is not exactly an exciting issue. Your Profit & Loss statement is probably not a compelling read, except perhaps the ending, which tells you whether you’ve made money or lost it. And “knowing the numbers” is not nearly as interesting for most of you as “doing the dentistry.” That is until those numbers start interfering in your day-to-day practice. You’re not sure you can afford that new piece of equipment, or you want to move into that fabulous new office but can’t handle the payments, or you start to seriously consider cutting staff to control payroll.

Oftentimes, until there’s a real problem, overhead is left unchecked to silently climb higher and higher. Many dentists dismiss early warning signs with comments such as “It’s just part of running a dental practice.” Not necessarily. Or dentists may be concerned about it but don’t want to rock the boat. “I think my staff does a pretty good job and I don’t want to upset anyone.” You think your staff is doing a pretty good job but the numbers don’t exactly back that up. And even if they are, there is always room for improvement. Or dentists will make some overture to staff to improve overhead systems only to run into barriers such as, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” This a convenient smokescreen designed to shut down your inquiry fast.

But how do you reach past the excuses – both your own and your team’s – in order to make more and spend less? First identify your goal. The gold standard for overhead for general dentistry is 55% of collections and to get there, you’ll need to establish the following budget targets:

Dental supplies -	5%
Office supplies -	2%
Rent -	5%
Laboratory -	10%
Payroll -	20%
Payroll taxes and benefits -	3%
Miscellaneous	10%

Payroll tends to be one area that drives overhead up significantly. It should be between 20-22% of gross income. Tack on an additional 3-5% for payroll taxes and benefits. If your costs are higher, here’s what may be happening:

Too many employees.
Raises based on longevity rather than productivity/performance.
Under producing in hygiene.

Let’s look at #1 because it’s a major culprit. Oftentimes, doctors are talked into hiring “helpers.” However, helpers are not producers. They tend to increase expenses, not profits. That is unless the “helper” is a patient coordinator who is going to make sure the schedule is full and production goals are met.

If tasks aren’t getting done, and the team is crying for more hands on deck, look at staff efficiency before you hire yet another employee. For example, check in/check out takes approximately 10 minutes per patient. There are 480 minutes in an eight-hour workday. If your practice is seeing 15-22 patients per day, which would total 150-220 minutes of patient contact, one person should be able to effectively handle front desk duties. But if the business employee is spending more than 240 minutes handling patients – or half the day, an additional staff member is warranted.

Next, look at the division of responsibilities among your business staff. Preferably, one person has uninterrupted time to handle billing and delinquent account follow-up as well as insurance claims. That person takes responsibility for the financial aspects of the business. The other person, serving as a patient coordinator, handles telephones, schedules treatment, and is responsible for making sure patients are in the chairs. Having clear job descriptions is essential in ensuring accountability and spelling out who is responsible for what.

Patient dismissal should take two minutes. Covering counters, chair switches, and light handles requires less time than spraying to clean and disinfect surfaces. While the doctor is anesthetizing a patient, the assistant can effectively use the time to ready the second treatment room, sterilize instruments, and prepare to seat the next patient. In addition, if your state allows expanded functions for assistants, take advantage of it.

The next time you’re tempted to hire another employee to “help out,” look first at increasing staff efficiency. You’ll likely make more and spend much less.

Sally McKenzie is CEO of McKenzie Management. a nationwide dental management, practice development and educational consulting firm. Working “on-site” with dentists since 1980, McKenzie Management provides knowledge, guidance and personalized systems that have propelled thousands of general and specialty practices to realize their potential. Sally can be reached directly at 1.877.777.6151

Interested in speaking to Sally McKenzie about your management concerns? Email her at Sally@thedentistsnetwork.net