Managing Dental Drama

To have a manager or to not have a manager – that is the question! After years of functioning with the traditional office manager model, Dr. Kuba found herself anxious about what would happen if her manager decided to leave. When her manager was finally burned out and done with managing, Dr. Kuba and Bethany had to incorporate a new model. In this episode, the details of how the team lead model concept works in Dr. Kuba’s office are discussed. 

Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• How to spot leaders on your team 
• The concept behind a leadership team and how to develop one
• The importance of investing in training, coaching, and time into your leadership team
• Learning to trust the feedback from your leads and incorporate their thoughts and ideas into the practice 

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What do patient personalities have to do with anything? Our answer – personalities impact EVERYTHING including our interactions with patients and/or patient guardians. Continuing the conversation on personalities, Dr. Kuba and Bethany describe the specific ways that customizing communication based on the patient’s personality not only makes the communication more effective but also saves time and energy. Patients give clues to their preferred communication style. We must attend to these clues, acknowledge their values, and adjust our communication style to meet our patient’s needs. 

Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• How to recognize a patient’s personality. The clues will be discussed in detail. 
• How to recognize our own personality at play in our communication. Discussion of how to suspend these communication preferences to accommodate the patient is addressed. 
• Once we identify the patient’s communication preference, the details of how to communicate with each specific personality type is laid out. 
• Molding our style to meet the patient is exceedingly important. There is specific value to treatment acceptance and time/energy saved. 

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Do personalities really matter? The non-surprising answer – absolutely. After discussion of the four main personality types and then revealing their own personalities, Dr. Kuba and Bethany reflect on the various ways that the four distinct dispositions have impacted the practice. They discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each type and the difficulty a practice owner might have when he or she fails to consider the impact of each staff member’s personality. //Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• Utilizing the personality plus descriptions of Choleric, Melancholy, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic. The strengths and weaknesses of each are broken down into detail. 
• What happens when a team is too weighted with one personality type? 
• How should personalities impact our hiring decisions? 
• Recognizing an employee’s personality allows the practice owner to develop realistic expectations and better roles for the employee. 
• Recognizing our own personality weaknesses provides the opportunity for flexing our weaker muscles. 

Although we know it, we often forget just how important clinical documentation is in the everyday life of a dental practice. This episode serves as a reminder of all the reasons why it is vital to prioritize good notes. Dr. Kuba shares about a time when a patient complained to the State Dental Board, and her documentation was suddenly under review. Due to her personal experience and the experience of others, Dr. Kuba is passionate enough about this topic to serve as a chart compliance auditor for Bethany Consulting. Together they hope to bring a positive and encouraging light to the importance of charting details. // Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• Documentation includes all aspects of the patient appointment including conversation details, phone and electronic communication details, and everything else related to the patient. 
• Board complaints are more common than you think. Dentists do not freely disclose when they have been forced to make an appearance before the State Dental Board, but we should not assume that it is not a frequent occurrence. 
• Clinical documentation is ultimately the doctor’s responsibility, and ultimately the liability is on the doctor. 
• Be humble enough to get a second set of eyes on your charts. Seek honest feedback, and then be willing to make the necessary changes.  

One of the hardest decisions to make when managing a practice is whether or not to fire an underperforming employee. In some cases, it can feel like an incredibly emotional decision. In this episode, Dr. Kuba and Bethany dig into some important self-reflection questions to start with when deciding on an employee’s future with the business. Despite the hardships associated with firing an employee, it is often necessary. // Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• Recognizing an employee’s “ceiling” and then determining if the practice can still be successful with this employee’s top level (but under level) performance. 
• Deciphering between an employee’s cognitive ceiling and personal drive ceiling. In other words, does the employee have greater performance potential but simply lacks the drive to do better? 
• Realizing the emotional and physical impact of an underperformer on the rest of the team. 
• When to change personal expectations when there is chronic underperformance. 

We are putting Dr. Kuba on the spot in a special edition of “What Would Kuba Do?” In this show, Bethany presents Dr. Kuba with three scenarios from her dramatic week of sour employees and turns the table to see how Dr. Kuba would handle things. Have you ever had a  Sour Patch employee? Maybe they’ve always been a bit moody, or maybe they suddenly became sour and you just can’t figure out why. Either way, you know that it is just not a good thing for your team or your practice. It is important to figure out the root cause of your employee’s sour attitude so that you strategize on how to deal with it. 
Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• Sour employees can have different root causes of their moodiness. 
• It is important to address sour employees before the entire team is impacted. 
• Outside life stressors can certainly cause temporary moodiness in employees, but it is still important to check in on the employee. 
• If a usually laid-back employee is complaining, it’s worth taking a deeper dive into solving internal practice stressors that may be contributing to their moodiness. 
• Employees can become moody due to unmet pay or appreciation expectations, so work to create an atmosphere of consistent appreciation. 

The landscape of dental insurance has changed drastically since it’s inception in the 1950’s. In a post-pandemic world, insurance has digressed at an alarming rate. Reimbursements are constantly being lowered, and new clauses and rules of payments are leaving many in-network providers in a difficult predicament. How is it possible to continue to be successful when we are receiving less money from dental insurance while our practice expenses are increasing? 

Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• Insurance changes are putting many practice owners in a situation that requires a solution. 
• Should a practice owner consider dropping insurance plans? 
• Risks ultimately cannot be avoided and are associated with being in network and being out of network. 
• If a practice chooses to drop insurance plans, what is the best way to drop. 
• The doctor and team members must re-evaluate every aspect of their communication regarding dental benefits. 

So often practice owners find themselves at a place in their life and in their practice where they are completely dissatisfied. We believe arriving at a state of dissatisfaction or even frustration is caused by a series of misguided decisions along the way. It is critical for a practice owner to periodically pause, determine their “why” or their purpose, and then begin to make decisions that align with or take into consideration their purpose. //Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• Goals can be a scary word for many people, especially when they feel too big, too vague, or simply unknown. 
• Determining purpose involves stepping back, hitting the pause button, and then diving into some self-discovery reflection and questions. 
• Purpose should drive every decision that we make in our practice. If a decision doesn’t line up with our WHY, then it is a bad decision. 
• Surrounding yourself with a good group of friends or advisors is helpful when trying to make important decisions. 

Are you paralyzed in fear each time you read a negative patient review? Or do you avoid reading patient reviews because of the stress they cause? Positive and negative dental patient reviews are unfortunately a fact of life, and they deserve our attention. 

Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics:

• The importance of either personally reading reviews or assigning a member on your team  to consistently read and respond to reviews
• Positive and negative reviews give us an opportunity to improve our team and dental practice 
• Responses to reviews can be creative and complex as long as we keep patient privacy in mind
• Reviews and our responses allow potential new patients to see what our dental practice, doctor, and team value and the experience that we deliver on a daily basis
• Dr. Kuba gives us a front row seat to three negative reviews and her team’s response to those reviews

Have you posted a job opening recently only to find that nobody applied? Or maybe you received applications but they weren’t qualified for the job? Many places around the country are experiencing a depleted workforce making it impossible to have a full team and full schedule. Other places are finding under qualified people to work and are having to rework their expectations to continue running the business. //Show hosts Bethany Petty and Dr. Reena Kuba dive into the following important topics: 

• When you have a job opening now, you need to MARKET the position. You are trying to attract the best candidates to your office, so make sure it’s a glitz and glam post. 
• A variety of platforms exist for recruiting new talent to your team. Make sure to consider social media and your existing team as a tool for your hiring project. 
• Now is the time to look for talent in seemingly random places. 
• By focusing on a better on boarding and training process, it is possible to hire people without any dental experience.