If you work in a dental practice then you’ll know more than most as to what your biggest challenges are throughout your day-to-day life, for sure, nobody needs to tell you, if you’re already in it! Clearly challenges are important to have because, without them nothing would really move forward, it’s those challenges that usually present the best opportunities for success, should they be addressed that is. Quick fixes, avoiding or, simply covering up the crack with a filling won’t work this time;
Can you relate?
If you relate to any of the following ‘most common’ challenges that dental staff come up against from day to day, then you should really address the matters as soon as possible. For most, they simply don’t have the time, patients need seeing to and appointments must be met which brings us to the most prevalent challenge. Dental IT support, which is, no doubt something you wish was taken care of before a potential issue occurs and, in an emergency, such as equipment failure that couldn’t have possibly been foreseen, help is at hand to help you deal with the matter right there and then.
Nobody, especially your patients, want to be hanging around for longer than they need to, most people don’t particularly jump for joy at the thought of visiting their dentist anyhow. Not to mention, if you are a dentist yourself and are in the process of administering dental care to a patient, time constraints are a challenge in themselves.
The last thing you need is to have somebody in ‘the chair’, job half done, struggling to stay awake, as a technical issue takes place which means you cannot continue until it’s resolved. Some people freak out which will throw a spanner in the works when it comes to the success of your day. Other patients will be in need and, the person in ‘the chair’ may require you to become a councillor in order to settle their nerves whilst things get sorted out.
Getting the right help
Employing the correct, or most suitable staff for the various job roles needed to run a dental practice is also amongst the top of the challenge list. Some choose to handle everything themselves, although, no matter how well qualified you are it does take a special level of understanding and experience in the field of recruitment to make sure that you have the most efficient back up staff.
Will all the best will in the world, it probably isn’t an area of expertise for most dentists, as such there is a growing interest, and need for outsourcing, especially with IT support. Mainly because, without it, everything would likely hit a brick wall, and cost you valuable time and money, there is also the benefit of the industry being highly regulated so you can be sure to receive the service you pay for.
It’s not personal
Of course, any decisions you make are personal, however, when it comes to your business and its success, one needs to be free of emotion, clear minded and to think practically about the best solution. After weighing up the various options, most practices say they entrust that side of their business to a team of dedicated support staff who work solely on making sure that IT is not the cause of your future downtime.
