https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeoQO0RVGA8

Below, we’ve compiled the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 138. To enjoy the full conversation with our very own Carrie Webber and Brett Wilson you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to another episode of the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Webber. And I'm so glad that you're with us. The question before us is: how can we improve patient education and ultimately improve case and treatment acceptance? To discuss that with us, we have Brett Wilson, the president of Digital Doc LLC. The team behind Digital doc had been friends of the Jameson Family for many, many years. And so, Brett, thank you so much for joining me today!

Brett Wilson:

I’m looking forward to this.

How Photography Educates Patients and Increases Treatment Acceptance

Carrie Webber:

So for those of you that maybe aren't familiar with Digital Doc, it’s one of the premier companies in the camera space—intraoral cameras and so much incredible technology that you're using in your practices today. Digital Doc stands at the forefront of innovation and quality tools for the best treatment, education, diagnosis, and presentation for both you and your patients.

So today I want to talk with you, Brett, about the power of photography in dental practices. Yes, it's been around for a while now. It's no new thing. If I were to ask five doctors or five hygienists sitting at this table with me today, “How many of you have access to a camera?” they'd all probably raise their hand. But then if I’d ask, “How many of you are using them in all of your appointments?” or “How many of you are using the photographs you take in follow up appointments?” the hands start to drop. 

So what do you find when you're having conversations with practices, Brett? If they were to take a look at their utilization of photography and of their tools, where are they falling short? Where could they look to improve in the coming year?

How does your patient take in information?

Brett Wilson:

One area is looking at who is coming into my practice. I really like to refer to them as the consumer. Are we looking at our patient as a consumer? And if so, how do our consumers buy? How do our consumers live? 

We are all consumers. So how do we live? You know, what cell phone do we have? What size of television are we watching at home? Do those things matter? I believe they do. We live in an HD world today. No matter where you go, you're going to see a 55” screen. You can order from Starbucks, or you can go to a fast food restaurant. Wherever you are, it’s there.

Or take sports. We're all passionate about that. Some pro, some college. We're not going to watch a sporting event in standard definition today. So when we go into dental practices and we see the computer screen on the counter or no imaging at all in front of the patient, what does that say?

How many put a 55” or even a 65” screen on the wall in front of the patient and really connect with that consumer? We're not seeing that as much. And so I like to start there, just who are we really communicating with? I would argue we're dealing with the most sophisticated consumer today that we've ever had.

Carrie Webber:

That's such a great point! that I am 100% that. When we're talking with practices about their patient experience and their treatment presentations, we're trying to encourage them to shift their mindset from what they think patients need to look at it from the perspective of the patient. What do your patients want? How do they process information? The easier we make it for them to receive and process  information, the better it is for everyone. So, what are you finding that is really driving patient perceptions, Brett?

Brett Wilson:

So when we look at consumerism in general, we look at the studies done in marketing of how we connect with consumers and how we...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uk4UTqlHXs

Ask the Right Questions, Make the Big Decisions, and Achieve Your Practice Vision

Below, we’ve compiled the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 137. To enjoy the full episode with our very own Carrie Webber you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Carrie Webber:

Hello and welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Webber, and I'm flying solo for this episode about getting through the financial slump, the employee crisis, COVID and all its far-reaching impact. We all, as leaders, can get through this. We can embrace our practice vision; we can ask ourselves how to renew, revise, revisit, and reorient in ways that can make our dreams happen. So thank you so much for joining me.

I want to take some time to address the moment in time we are in right now and what's happening in the dental profession as we’ve been hearing it from practices all across the country. Practices are facing a continued struggle to hire, to find the right team, to get back to continuing growth, and to get back to their ideal vision for their practice. We continue to find ourselves faced with unheard of issues regarding the season of COVID, and it’s important that those of you in leadership positions in your practices feel empowered to continue the good fight and make progress.

And that leads us to today's topic—pushing through questions you need to ask, the decisions you need to make, and the actions you need to take for your practices’ progress as well as your personal sanity.

ADA Stats on Impact of COVID on Dental Practices

So where are we now? ADA's Health Policy Institute in its most recent update monitoring the COVID pandemic impact stated that half of those that completed their survey were definitely planning or currently searching to add team members to their practices. So that tells us there's a great many out there looking to hire now or in the very near future. 

In addition, our friends at Cedar Solution, in a recent online presentation by Paul Edwards of Cedar, stated that it's taking three to four months to hire a new team member. So the ongoing search is still in full force across the country. 

We talk to clients all the time about what to do in this moment. How do we push through this and overcome the strain of working with a limited team? How do we continue to work on the things that are the priority while dealing with the ongoing urgency that we're faced with day in and day out?

Make communication with your team a priority.

First, I’ll say it’s especially important to prioritize time to connect with teammates, co-leaders, and partners. Because if you're not connecting and communicating, there are a lot of things that are probably continuing to stay stuck.

In order to keep working towards your practice vision, you need to stay united and aligned, whether you're understaffed or whether you are growing and struggling to fulfill all of the demand that you have from the patients in your practice. Those team meetings are going to be important in order to address where you are now, where you want to be, and how you can work together as a team to continue to move forward toward your ideal goal.

So focus on your vision and communicate with your team. If you're looking for positions in your practice and coming up dry, it might be time to review what your job posts look like; rally together as a team and brainstorm this together so that you can refine it, go back to the drawing board, and keep the search going. And you can elevate your efforts by determining a creative approach to how you're going to run the practice in the interim. 

Team unity, team creativity, and team training are vitally important!

So what kind of meetings are you having? Are you having your daily huddles? Are you having weekly team meetings, monthly team meetings? Are you having team meetings at all? In my opinion,

https://youtu.be/Mjd1IpSPuI8

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 133. To enjoy the full conversation with our very own Carrie Webber and Becky Speers, you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify

Carrie Webber: Thanks for being with us today! We have a fantastic guest, and I'm thrilled that she's joining me. She is one of my teammates, Becky Speer, one of Jameson's incredible business and clinical advisors who has been with us for well over a decade now. And prior to joining the Jameson team and helping doctors and teams across the country with their business and hygiene systems, she was practicing hygiene in Oklahoma. Not only that, but she was practicing hygiene in a dental practice that worked with Jameson.

Let’s talk about case acceptance techniques.

Becky, what I want to talk about with you today is the hygienist’s role in case acceptance by helping to educate patients and support the diagnosis and treatment the doctors are recommending. When it comes to the hygienist’s role in case acceptance, what are some areas that you find on a regular basis that practices can benefit from refining, especially our hygienists in terms of building up skills to help educate and motivate more patients to say yes to treatment they want or need?

Hygienists must be given time to educate for best case acceptance.

Becky Speer: One of the first things to look at is the amount of time a practice is giving their hygienists with every patient. We know that it takes time to build that relationship. So when it comes to recommending treatment, we need to gain trust from patients, and we have to know that we have the time for that in the schedule. As I know from being in so many practices, the shorter those appointments are the more patient education has to be dropped. I mean, you have to take radiographs, you have to do intraoral photos, you have to do the prophylactic part of the appointment. So those won’t be dropped. If there’s not enough time, it’s the communication that gets dropped. So I think first and foremost, we have to make sure that we are giving our hygienists the amount of time they need to do.

Carrie Webber: I’ve heard that. But what do you do when the practice is saying, “How are we ever going to give them more time? And what would be the value in that?” What would you say to practices that are struggling with that decision?

Becky Speer: Well, many times I’ll ask them, “What are the procedures that are performed by your hygienist with every patient every time?” Because we don't have a list a mile long of what hygienists do during a hygiene appointment. And I discover that many of the things being left out are the intense patient education, the intraoral photos, which are key. because a patient really needs to see what it looks like in their mouth. We also need to make sure that we have time to use the visual and kinesthetic tools. You know, I want to show them what a partial looks like or what a bridge looks like. 

So we have to be given the time to educate the patients. And if doctors are not having hygienists take the intraoral photos and spend the time to educate the patient on what they see could be needed treatment, then when the doctor comes into the treatment room, he or she is having to spend more time in that treatment room with that patient.

Patient education helps with case acceptance and saves time.

Carrie Webber: I think that's a really great point. If we're not taking the time to do those necessary photographs and have those conversations, educating patients and helping them process that information and understand the diagnosis, we may be taking more time in the long run and keeping the doctors away from their restorative schedules. What else do you see, Becky? What are some other areas in terms of educating, supporting diagnosis and treatment, that hygienists may not be,

https://youtu.be/HdCj5o-592g

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 135. To enjoy the full conversation with our very own Carrie Webber and Dr. Robinson, you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Carrie Webber:

Hello, welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber. It's an absolute pleasure to have an amazing dentist as a guest with us, from Lubbock, Texas, Dr. Kelly Robinson. I have been a Kelly Robinson fan for, I think it's 20 years now. You are a tremendously accomplished dentist and clinician who has led a fabulous team and practice over the years, and I am just grateful that you will share some of your wisdom and experience with us. 

Training New Teammates in Your Dental Practice

Today our topic is about how to successfully bring an associate into your practice for your patient family and for your team. But first, Dr. Robinson, I would love it if you would share a little bit about your dental story and how you find yourself where you are today as a practice and as a professional.

Dr. Robinson:

My dad is a dentist, and he recently retired at 82. So I was born into a dental family, and it has just been an amazing ride. We lived in a small town in west Texas, and my parents hooked up with a management company that had them do comprehensive exams and full mouth, new patient exams and consultations, and full mouth reconstructions—all in a small town of 4,000. 

I was raised with that, so when I came into the practice, I knew that's the kind of model and principles that were before me, and I was able to carry that on. And when I took over the practice and dad and I basically switched roles in 1999, he became my associate and I bought the practice.

Implementing Systems

Carrie Webber:

And I know you’ve been successful in the implementation of systems and skills over the years. So as you've brought on associates, what have been some of the most important steps in continuing to honor the values and the culture of your practice as well as the systems you've worked so hard to incorporate?

Dr. Robinson:

Well, I've had multiple associates over the years, and each and every one has been absolutely awesome. We had great relationships and formed good friendships. And each time I learned something. But I’ll tell you the number one thing that we have put into practice is the Jameson management rules. I have everybody that comes on new train through Jameson. I have them review what we are doing and how we do it and why we do it. And the wonderful thing about the training is that you always take care of the patient first. Everything else will come if your heart and integrity are in the right place. 

So that is my guiding principle. 

Then I want to refine everything else based on the integrity of our practice. And so we have a philosophy: dentistry with a smile. We want to enjoy and love those patients and make them feel like they are part of the family. But everything else has to be absolutely working beautifully for us to concentrate on loving the patients. And so all these systems that I have, that Jameson has taught us, help us stay focused on our goals every day. Take care of those patients and love them and provide the highest quality service that we can provide. 

Having Conversations

Each one of my team members, when I hire them, I talk about that when we're interviewing. And particularly when I'm interviewing for an associate, we go through personality testing and we have time to just visit with each other. Then they know full well when they come into this practice what type of family heritage I'm passing on, what type of systems I have in place, the philosophy of the practice.

If the associates have really learned about the foundational principles of how to make a practice stand out and, even though things may not go smoothly, you'll survive and thrive.

Carrie Webber:

You know,

https://youtu.be/jK4tkLquomg

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 133. To enjoy the full conversation with our very own Carrie Webber and Dan Cristelli, you can watch on YouTube or listen to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Carrie Webber:

Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber and I'm your host. And I'm so thrilled to have my teammate Dan Cristelli with me today. Dan works with our marketing clients through the Jameson marketing services, helping clients achieve their goals for both external and internal marketing efforts. Dan is at the Jameson offices in Oklahoma city today, which is exciting because he's from Vermont. So he made a big, long trip to come be with us in person.

Patient reviews is a hot topic now.

One of the big topics that we constantly work on with clients is how to manage patient reviews effectively. Managing this aspect of your practice has become its own topic, and there are some best practices that you as dental practices can start to apply more intentionally in your marketing processes to help you get a consistent result. So, Dan, you work with clients daily, and I'm sure that this conversation comes up regularly. What do you find are the biggest questions or the biggest obstacles when it comes to patient reviews?

Dan Cristelli:

That's a great question. I think one question is why are these important? I think there’s still a perception that an online review doesn't carry much weight as a personal referral. But last year a study showed that 79% of consumers see an online review as carrying more weight than a personal referral. So they're really important. So that's usually the first question: why is this important?

Why are reviews important? 

That’s why I spend a lot of time working with our clients on the rationale behind a Google review. Here's why it's important. I focus on three different aspects:

The first is how Google's algorithm looks at their practice and ranks their search rankings. Then I obviously talk about how a potential new patient is going to see these reviews. And we talk about how the practice can use reviews as an extra set of eyes on how your systems and team are performing.

Carrie Webber:

So you’re helping people understand why it's important to put a little bit more emphasis on managing their patient reviews, but then how can they do that?

How do you learn to ask for patient reviews well?

Dan Cristelli:

That's probably the most difficult part. We understand that those conversations aren't always easy. I meet with teams on how to approach the entirety of the review process. I like to take a look at a four-step approach. 

The first thing is education. You need to educate yourself on why Google reviews are important. And not only yourself, but also your whole team. The second thing I recommend is to start with what I always refer to as the low hanging fruit, the raving fans. You start with asking them for a review because it's easy to talk to them, and you know they're going to give you a good review. So it helps with building those skills.Once you've done that, you can look at cues. Any sort of praise that's offered is a good example. If someone's raving about a procedure they just had done, it's a good time to talk to them about a review. If you are asking the right questions during the check-out, you're going to have opportunities. And then finally, the last step is just getting to that point where you're consistently asking almost every patient to leave you a review.

Carrie Webber:

Often it seems like the biggest obstacle is just getting comfortable with that conversation. You know, if you want to see a really positive improvement in getting the patient reviews that you want, tell the patients what to expect. Tell Mrs. Jones, “You're going to be receiving a text from us when you leave here, asking for a review. So, if you can, kindly leave us a review.

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 133. To enjoy the full conversation with our very own Carrie Webber and Dan Cristelli, you…

https://youtu.be/Jl34_cZ7BhE

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 133. To enjoy the full conversation with our very own Carrie Webber, you can watch on YouTube or listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Carrie Webber discusses the value of a practice reset.

Hello and welcome back to the Jameson Files. I'm Carrie Webber and I'm your host. And today I'm also flying solo because I want to speak to something that I'm hearing again and again from clients and doctors that are reaching out to Jameson seeking resources or support in growing their practices. They feel like they're pushing against a brick wall, and they’re frustrated and burning out and wanting to find a better way

Do you recognize these signs that point toward a practice reset?

We have come through some difficult times, and the recovery and return to business-as-usual has been a roller coaster. Many of you have lots of patients returning now and are busy, but it’s a season of struggles. You find yourself working harder and making less, you're unable to see new patients, but you're also writing off half of what you're producing. These are the kinds of stories I keep hearing.

1. You're hitting walls with your team.

It feels like you're in a hamster wheel, working hard every single day with nothing to show for it. You can't get them to change for the better, or you can't get consistent performance. Perhaps you're being held hostage by team members’ past experiences or their own limiting beliefs. Or maybe you're being held back by your own limiting beliefs, the busy-ness, or the way you're practicing. All of these things and more can wear a person down and add stress.

2. You can’t find team members.

We're hearing this one all a lot. I actually read an article recently saying we may be entering a season called the great resignation, where across all industries and professions they are finding more and more employees resigning and moving on to other endeavors. We are certainly feeling that in dentistry. Many of you have said that you've had team turnover through this season and the struggle to find new team members has been quite overwhelming. 

3. You're being held hostage by PPIs.

Perhaps you're in a number of PPI plans and those plans keep changing the rules of their game. And now you find yourself stuck in a model of your practice that you never expected or anticipated. Or perhaps you purchased a practice and you inherited the plans, and you're struggling with how to move from this model to the model that is more ideal for you.

4. You are on the cusp of burnout.

You're suffering from physical pain or exhaustion from the work you're doing, and it’s starting to wreak havoc on your personal life as well as your professional life. It's been a really tough one to two years. 

Adam Grant, the thought leader and author, wrote an article saying that as a society we are in a season languishing—we're not quite burned out yet, but we certainly don't have the energy to pursue things in the way we once did. So maybe you are languishing, working all hours to get everything done for your business. Maybe you haven't delegated, and all of those pieces of the puzzle fall to you after you've been working in the chair for eight hours. You're starting to feel the weight of all of those responsibilities.

Critical keys in introducing a practice reset.

It may be time to take a step back and look at your practice from a different perspective as a business owner and determine whether or not you need a practice reset. There are things we can do to refocus, reset, and get closer to the path you always wanted to be on. Or perhaps it’s the path you were on at some point, but something knocked you off course.

1. One of Jameson's core values is balance.

As business owners and practice leaders, we have to start looking at how to grow and still keep a handle on balance.

https://youtu.be/gM1f2OVx3vE

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 132. To enjoy the full conversation between our very own Carrie Webber and Laurie Owens, you can watch on YouTube or listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or Spotify.

Carrie Webber:Welcome to the Jameson Files. I'm your host, Carrie Webber. Thank you for being with us once again for another fantastic episode, with an amazing guest. We want to continue to bring you great information, excellent guests and resources and tools that help you grow and thrive in your ideal dental journey.

I am so happy to have a phenomenal guest with us today, who's going to talk about a very popular topic: medical billing. Laurie Owens is the director of medical billing for Devdent and has been teaching, coaching, lecturing, and training on medical billing for about 18 years. And so what we want to dive into right now in this episode is the question of, is your practice ready for medical billing? But first, Laurie, I would love to have you share a little bit about your dental story. How did you end up where you are today as such a premier instructor in the dental field?

Laurie’s Springboard Into Medical Billing

Laurie Owens:So I started out working for Dr. Michael Cohen and, as most people know, Dr. Cohen is the epitome of continuing education. So within two weeks of being hired, and with no dental experience, I  was going to a CE course on bacteremia. And I sat next to our hygienist, Elizabeth, and said, “If we're making people sick, how can this be considered dental?” And she said, “That's a good question. I don't know.” And that was my launch pad to saying, “Why are we billing dental insurance when it really has to do with somebody's health?”

We were a perio office and doing lots of oral surgeries. And I said, “I think this is something important, and I really want to figure out how this might apply to what we do. So the doctors, of course, being such a busy office, said, basically, “That’s fine, but we can't have you do it during work hours because we're extremely busy.” 

Now, mind you, I did dental insurance, treatment plans, answering phones, meeting with pay—the whole gambit. So I totally understood, and I took it on myself to learn at home. I paid a guy a hundred dollars to look at my faxed claims. I faxed him the claim, they were fictitious patients, and he would fax back corrections. And so that's how I started, by wanting to make sure I was doing things right. 

So I became a certified professional biller with the APC. A lot of people think, “Oh, well, it's just the oral cavity.” It's not; it's the whole body. When you learn and you get credentialed, you have to learn the whole body. If I needed to, I could do a retina detachment right now, or spinal fusion. 

I wanted to make sure our offices were doing things right and legal. That was the whole reason behind any credentialing I've obtained. I want to make sure that what I'm doing and teaching is proper. And I also bill for six offices myself, because I'm not going to teach something that I won't do.

Some Examples of the Need for Medical Billing

I don't want you to think that everybody who walks through your doors is a medical billing case. But there are things that we come across in dentistry, and it could be something that you could help them with, like a cancer patient who might be in remission having an adverse effect to their antineoplastic or auto-immune medications. So you think about that, what are they going to do? They might lose all their teeth because it's just the way that medication runs its course.

And I also have a bonus daughter because of dentistry. Her dad would ride on our church bus, and one day he called me and said he had a toothache. And this was when I was brand new to dentistry. I said, “Well, you need to go to the dentist.” And he said, “But I don't have dental insurance.” And I said, “But if it hurts,

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 132. To enjoy the full conversation between our very own Carrie Webber and Laurie Owens, you…

Below, we’ve compiled some of the key points discussed in the Jameson Files Episode 131. To enjoy the full conversation between our very own Carrie Webber and Laura Jamison, you…