Clinical Collaboration with Associates

Associate dentists play an important role in private practice. They come alongside the owning doctor and help to carry out the dentistry needed to care for the patient base so that the practicing owner can see more patients, take more time away from the practice, or utilize freed-up time to focus on the administrative needs of the practice. Yet, associateships can cause problems from time to time. In this episode, Dr. Kuba and Bethany discuss additional “yuck” aspects of associateships, and they give several tips on how to eliminate these potential risks.  

Previous Episodes Worth Revisiting: 

How to Search for an Associate

Should I Sell My Practice? 

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Transcript

are you looking for a podcast where you can hear from real people regarding their real dental drama If so then

0:09

you've come to the right place Join hosts Bethany Penny and Dr Reena Kuba as

0:15

we dive into the solutions we've created and the mistakes we've made while

0:20

managing dental drama Let's get started Lady it is

0:25

almost time for summer I know I'm ready I am so ready even though it like gets to be a billion degrees in Texas with

0:31

the humidity Um but I'm ready I'm ready too Let's do it Um so I have a yay and a

0:40

yuck So you want to do the yay real quick Let's do the yay first Let's start positive Okay I'm super excited You told

0:48

me that we've been talking about this resource hub that we've been working on creating and spending hours upon hours

0:54

of making resources available to um colleagues and practice owners And I

1:02

think um you know the challenge with that is for example I think you had somebody reach out to you and say can I

1:09

you know I'm about to onboard an associate like can you get me a a contract Mhm Now you can find free

1:16

contracts online a bunch of them But I'm pretty sure most of us don't want that

1:22

and we kind of want to know how do or or it's a you know 60page document and we're like for real like I got to read

1:28

this then make sure the associate reads this and then like this sucks Um so can

1:33

you just customize one for me and what about the legalities of the state I'm in and the maybe I don't want to do an

1:40

associate contract Right So your goal in creating this resource hub is what our

1:45

goal has been for the podcast and for the subscription is the how How how am I

1:51

doing this Um one so that I don't uh have a mental meltdown over this Two so

1:58

that I don't bury my head in the sand and get somebody to sign something that's going to be actually a detriment to me Um and three without breaking the

2:05

bank because I know if I took this to a lawyer God only knows what I'm getting Am I going to get the 60-page document

2:11

the 30-page document if I want it more customized am I getting charged by the hour So now I end up spending two grand

2:17

on a contract And so anyway the resource hub is there to have these practical

2:23

how-to documents Yes And there's a ton of them from associate contract to

2:30

morning huddle samples to what's a written warning how do I put that together Like so many practice owners or

2:38

managers just get stomped at that point of like okay I need I know I need to do a write up but what does that look like

2:45

and what's a good write up And so anyway this hub is chocked full of documents

2:52

that are helpful the documents that are available for purchase and it's a resource that we're going to continue to

2:58

add And and if I may give myself or us a plug in there for this I think again

3:04

because y'all who've been listening you know like for me I don't like the vague I want to know what do you mean Like

3:10

what does that mean when you say you know these three steps get your associate to sign a contract In the

3:17

contract you need to make sure you put blah blah blah What does that mean What is the verbiage What is the order Like

3:22

how am I actually executing this So everything in the hub is something that I have

3:29

laid my eyes on to go would that be useful to me Yeah because Bethany you created this and that makes sense to you

3:34

but I'm still telling you you're assuming that I know these three steps and I'm telling you I'm not that bright

3:40

Like that is your world That's your everyday but as the actual person who has to execute this I I have too many

3:48

questions on those nitty-gritty details And so everything on the resource hub should be as usable and user friendly as

3:56

possible to where you may just need to tweak it to meet your needs Yeah Um so I'm super excited about that So that was

4:01

my yay That's a huge yay And that's launching at the end of this week So it's not live yet but stay tuned for

4:08

those of you listening It will launch at the end of this week And we are pumped We are pumped I'm pumped to have these

4:14

resources available for people Um do you want me to get to my yuck now Let's do

4:19

it We got to talk yuck at some point I mean okay I And I really think this is a big yuck and I think I'm about to

4:28

be I'm trying to prepare myself because I'm about to be in this boat and it's been a little while since I've been

4:34

there and just the thought of it is making my stomach turn when you are onboarding an associate because we've

4:40

had a couple of episodes recently here about associate ships and one of the big

4:45

questions that I think all of us would prefer to dodge and would wish we had a wand to just make it happen um is the

4:54

clinical proficiency So if you were to read any article about onboarding an

5:00

associate well you need to make sure your clinical philosophies align Okay that we can all talk about from here to

5:07

there But when it comes to actually doing how am I making

5:13

sure We could all say and I'm sure we're all going to hear these iterations of

5:19

I'm looking for a practice that you know patient care comes first and quality of care comes first right Like that's what

5:25

every associate's going to say or flip side the doctor is going to say I need somebody who really puts the patient's

5:30

needs ahead that is still so stinking vague Who's going to walk in and say um

5:37

yeah my my goal isn't to provide good patient care I want to see as many

5:42

patients as I can So I'm going to do some crappy fillings shove some stuff in there I don't care what materials I use Like who's going to say that Nobody

5:49

We're all going to talk about like this is our goal you know in the practice to

5:54

whatever But how do you really decide Do we align on this I just heard it um just

6:00

yesterday I was talking with a practice manager who they're having a transition the uh owner doc just sold and so now

6:07

new doc wants to put some stainless steel crowns on things and uh the rest

6:13

of the team is like oh well we would have put a filling on that put a filling there like all it needs is an mo

6:18

composite and I'm like well does it because I think for knowing that

6:26

practice it is a very uh preventive focused practice there's

6:32

not a lot of treatment needs that go into that practice just cuz the clientele that they see it's a very

6:39

educated and they are doing a lot of the right things So I don't think they get a lot of decay in that practice And when

6:47

they do yeah go the conservative route But this new owner that's stepping in I

6:52

know the the pool of patients she is used to seeing is a very high risk right

6:58

patient So she's used So there's no right or wrong but from the I can only imagine if I were to talk to this new

7:04

owner going "The hell are they putting all these composits in there that are going to fail?" like are they just

7:09

trying to get more of this patient's money Like they're going to put a restoration they know is going to fail

7:15

and then a year later they're going to charge the patient again and at that point insurance isn't going to cover it And at that point we may lose the

7:21

opportunity to like I can see high carries risk doc coming in with one

7:26

mindset and of course the office that as it's been is going look at this aggressive doctor just wanting to put

7:32

these ugly crowns all over the place So digging deeper there I'm sure when they spoke to each other I'm sure the

7:39

dialogue was "Oh nobody wants to overt treat nobody wants to undertreat We you know want to take care of our patients

7:44

and do the right thing that but there's different ways to do the right thing."

7:49

And so depending on which perspective you're coming from you know I've I've heard the whole gamut of oh yeah you

7:56

know you do oral conscious sedation that must mean that you don't have any chairside manner You want to make this

8:01

easy for you And then there's a flip side going why am I torturing this patient when there are resources to help

8:08

this kid and this parent would rather their kid not be tortured So to you know

8:14

to how do you have those conversations I'll give another example I had a really sweet doc coming and helping me for a

8:20

little while and um he was treatment planning mods on primary teeth And to me

8:28

that is a big no no And I know I'm probably ticking off half your audience now going "What do you mean that's a no

8:34

no?" Well I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty of that but to me that is a no No Um and that's that And so that's

8:41

more of a okay yes you barbarian you just want to do your crowns and make it easy on you or what are you talking

8:48

about An mod on tooth number A That is not standard of care You know we we both

8:55

are right and we both are wrong But that's one that I was like if this dog had stayed in my practice longer that's

9:01

going to be tricky for me because it's not a new doc It's not a new graduate right It's somebody that's been practicing for you know not as long as I

9:08

have but not far from that Now how am I supposed to say "Sir you are wrong in your treatment planning." Like that's

9:14

just an awkward conversation that I don't really want to have Yeah Um so I

9:19

guess that's where I'm going with this is how do we I think we could talk all day but

9:25

when when it comes down to like actual doing how are we looking at this new

9:31

associate whether they're a new do new dad or not how are we going I'm going to be looking at your treatment plans And

9:38

then how am I telling you if you're right or wrong And if you as associate are going yeah please tell me guide me

9:43

on what's norm in your practice but at what point are you going to go you know what you are really overdiagnosing or

9:49

you're really underdiagnosing and I don't feel comfortable in this practice I can't practice the way I want to So my

9:56

question to you for this uber yuck you gave me an example Um and I'm sitting

10:02

here going you know I how my current associate I think we

10:09

did have some initially um awkward moments me going uh what are

10:16

you doing man And I knew it was just the youth like you were just starting to practice and you were going to come and

10:22

see why that's not going to work for you But he was so open to being a sponge to

10:27

that and being open to me mentoring and guiding him And it did mean he had to trust me right You know he did have to

10:35

see the why behind what I was saying And he did have to experience some of the

10:40

okay that's why she said what she did I get it now And so I had to give him room

10:45

to do that He had to give me grace to go okay she does know what she's talking about And we had to kind of trust each

10:51

other Um and so I think it worked really well But now fast forward four years

10:57

later I'm back in that boat again going "Okay I'm really scared of finding another provider that and then you add

11:05

on okay what if we are alike in our philosophies Like we've got to make sure we're on par there but what about the

11:11

actual execution Okay yeah we did decide we're going to do a crown on this and I think your crown is yucky." Yeah and my

11:18

assistant told me "Your filling was gross and it took you 45 minutes to do that when it should have." Right Like I

11:24

I don't have those issues with my current associate We we sorted that out pretty quick early on and now we're

11:30

completely in sync and to have to start over with that I'm now going "Okay

11:36

whoever comes in am I just at the beginning saying I'm going to be following your treatment planning and

11:42

this is what I'm going to be okay with and this is what I'm not." Yeah

11:52

And am I going to turn off an associate And then they go "You're bad crazy lady You have control issues." Um I

11:59

don't know I'm at a loss So I'm putting this to you Uh I'm What What are some of

12:08

your thoughts And then also what you just shared with me about an associate that left a practice I'm going to quit

12:14

talking here and let you kind of share that But again this goes back to what I said a few weeks ago like this is where

12:19

we are um not excited about onboarding an associate and it is so much easier to go

12:26

never mind I'm not doing this But that's not practical either I don't suggest doing that There are a lot of good

12:31

things that an associate can bring But how can we be prepared for for this

12:38

Do you have any nuggets of um any I don't know any heads up any

12:44

advice thoughts Man you weren't joking when you said yuck No I wasn't I mean

12:49

like you went into the deep dark end of Well I gave us a great yay I went on the

12:56

edge of that going man we've got some resources Like here we go We are about to make people's lives a lot easier And

13:02

so it's only fair that I go completely to the other end That's true That's Yeah you've you've done a both at 100% So

13:09

well and I I guess I've kind of knocked you down cuz I gave you a high and a yay Bethany You got your portal going and

13:14

now I'm like "All right Missy what you got Here's some yes topics Go ahead

13:21

expert." Oh so you you said something that I like stood out to me when you

13:27

said um this can come across as very disrespectful when you're asking an

13:34

associate like "Hey by the way I'm going to be watching your treatment plans." That can be super disrespectful And I

13:40

would say absolutely there can be like a yuck factor to that But I see it from

13:46

the flip side and I go "This practice owner is putting their reputation

13:53

their liability their um patient retention

13:59

they're putting their implicit faith in an associate to handle all of those

14:06

things well." And I think that's a very risky decision Um so yes there's going

14:13

to be some some awkwardness that uh in the things that I suggest but I think that awkwardness is absolutely worth it

14:21

to protect your practice and to protect your patient base And at the end of the day these are your patients Every

14:27

associate contract that you look at says that these practice these patients belong to the practice owner So these

14:34

are your patients and you have to do what's right by your patients and ultimately managing or overseeing or

14:42

having open dialogue with your associates is a part of that So I think there's some things that a practice

14:47

owner can do from the get-go We need to set the norms from the

14:54

get-go And the norms are we're going to talk through treatment plans together

14:59

We're going to look at pre-op x-rays and photos We're going to look at posttop x-rays and photos you know for the first

15:06

6 months We're going to do a do a lot more intraoral photos after the completion of treatment so that we can

15:14

look at those things together and dialogue about what could have gone better with this particular procedure So

15:22

you set this tone from the beginning It's not hey I'm going to be watching you and I'm going to be looking for

15:27

mistakes We are going to collaborate a lot together I'm going to show you some of

15:33

my cases I'm going to show you some of my treatment plans I'm going to show you some of my pre and post X-rays and

15:40

intraoral photos We're going to dialogue together about my cases Even chart notes

15:46

Yes that's another big one I'm like this is my expectation of your chart note You put this down but for me that's not

15:52

enough And if I had to come in and I had to deal with this parent and this I happen to be here and I saw or heard

16:00

certain things but you've left me no breadcrumbs in this clinical note or I see that you're used to doing it that

16:06

way over there but we follow like to me the you know we these documents are important I need you to make sure we've

16:12

got this this this um so e even down to including that part of it

16:19

Absolutely Yeah all the nitty-gritty details And when you are looking at the full case together you're going to be

16:26

looking at documentation You're going to say "Let's go look at that chart Now what did it say Why did we do this What was mom's rebuttal this particular

16:33

treatment plan?" Ah see ah here we go This is why we did the alternative

16:38

treatment on this tooth rather than this cuz mom blah blah blah blah blah So it's

16:44

a very comprehensive look at everything Uh heck I would say venture into looking

16:50

at the financial documents that were put in for this particular patient Make it

16:55

comprehensive I even go down to down to the nitty-gritty of the appointment note

17:01

Yeah So did you look at that and how did you incorporate that Like did you address the chief concern Did the front

17:09

schedule it the way it needed to be Did you proactively approach the front Like

17:15

if you saw that the front planned this for an SSC and nitrous and you knew you

17:22

were going to need to take an X-ray but you didn't bother to correct that ahead of time and now you finished what you

17:28

needed to do but they didn't collect but now mom is upset because like even down to those little details making sure that

17:35

they're connecting the dots from a whole flow perspective Absolutely Absolutely

17:40

So if you set that stage from the get-go with your associates and you make it

17:46

dialogue it's not hey I'm going to call you into my office twice a month and I'm going to shame your treatment planning

17:53

or I'm going to be asking what in the heck were you thinking on this I'm not going and looking for your mistakes

18:00

We're just having a clinical collaboration a meeting of the minds where we get together and we dialogue

18:06

through a couple cases Now it's easy to do that if you set the stage from the get-go Now as you're

18:13

interviewing associates that can sometimes kind of be like "What You're going to be looking at my cases?" No

18:20

we're going to be looking at our cases together and dialoguing because we want to make sure that clinically we're on

18:26

the same pathway for our patients That doesn't mean that the treatment plan that owner doc puts together has to be

18:33

exactly followed by the associate It just means that that associate is going

18:38

to be getting insight into why the practice owner treatment plan's this way or that way and that should influence

18:47

the associate So we still want clinical autonomy We want that doctor to be able to make his or her own decisions because

18:56

that's important There's there's some um some ownership that that practice

19:02

associate needs to take with each treatment plan But the more that the doctor the owner doc and the associate

19:08

doc are collaborating the more that associate doc is going to then become likeminded with the owner doc um or not

19:17

And then you're going to quickly realize this is not working This is not okay Yeah Yeah Now if you're already in an

19:24

associate situation this becomes hard to then all of a sudden insert this

19:32

But I will say I have found very few times where I don't think I've ever found a

19:38

time I'll be honest that I didn't think it was appropriate for the owner dog and associate doc to collaborate some on

19:44

clinical conversations When that doesn't happen here's the what what's the why behind

19:51

all of this At the end of the day the care that patients are given falls to

19:57

the responsibility of the owner doctor So I can't tell you how many times I've s sat with a practice owner that had an

20:03

associate that unbeknownst to them were

20:08

overdiagnosing underdiagnosing completely missing things pissing patients off and they had

20:15

no clue because the owner dog's like "Oh you know here we go Great Got a wonderful doc on the team Yes let's go."

20:22

And then it's like they're in their own world Owner doc is in her own world and

20:27

our worlds are never colliding And then that associate doc moves on and owner doc absorbs those patients or passes

20:35

those patients on to a new associate and they're like "Oh my gosh this was a mess

20:41

of so what but how do you think that happens Do you think it's because of one

20:47

the assumption that this is another doc and they they know what to do so there's lack of communication and calibration?"

20:54

I would imagine that's a lot of it And the other part is the ickiness of it Like do I really have to babysit and

21:01

handhold and be the bad guy totally dentists you know four out of five

21:06

dentists all do different things And so you know what They went to dental school They they probably know what they're

21:11

doing Yep It is absolutely both of them It's awkward all the way around For whatever reason it's awkward to have to

21:18

have these kind of calibration type conversations What about if it's the opposite way What if it's the associate that's like "Okay I sat in on this doc's

21:26

work and the owner doc left an open margin Owner doc missed that." Like do

21:31

you ever see it that way Very seldom but when I do I've got one associate in mind

21:38

that this was happening where she was like "What in the heck's going on?" And

21:43

so my challenge to her was "Ask for these meetings ask to see if you get get

21:49

together once a month with the owner dog and she brings a case and you bring a

21:56

case and y'all dialogue about it together So associates have the power to ask for that And again the owner may say

22:03

"Nah I don't have time for that Don't really want to do it." And if that's the case that may be

22:09

the writing on the wall where you're like "Okay I probably need to move on because first of all I don't agree with

22:15

some of the clinical output here and owner doc's not willing to talk about

22:20

it." Um so all that to say an associate can certainly vouch or push for one of

22:27

these uh monthly type meetings I think the other thing that is super helpful um

22:33

that I that is easy and I I uh I think that can get missed and it goes back to

22:38

communication but as owner doc checking in with your team Yeah And so for me

22:44

especially the first couple of months if I remember correctly I would say okay how did that day go Yeah What went right

22:51

What went wrong Did anything stick out to you as being weird And what we don't want is the is the assistant or the

22:57

hygienist or the front person saying "Well that's not how Dr Kuba would do it." Like if I was an associate I would

23:03

be like "Well I'm not Dr Kuba." So um so it's got to be very respectful But so

23:10

for us for example I think the MOD example you know I think my uh as the

23:16

front was putting that treatment plan together and then the treatment coordinator was about to go over it they

23:21

already were like "The hell is this?" Like they had never seen an MOD treatment plan on a primary tooth in our

23:27

office And so they were like "The hell is this Was this a mistake?" And then you know the rumblings of "No it's a new

23:33

dog over there like saying to do this." then that treatment coordinator going and saying "Can can I just make sure

23:40

this is what you want to treatment plan?" Um and and I I know you're a doc but uh I just know we typically a lot of

23:47

times even just the person saying that the doc is like "What Why Why are you asking this?" Well I've just never seen

23:55

Dr Kuba treatment plan a mod composite on tooth number A Like I just have never

24:00

seen that Um and none of the other associates that have been here have ever done that So I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't a mistake Right Right

24:07

So that that may be the the nicer way of doing that And and I think that's what happened where that doc then the next

24:13

time I was there with him he was like okay clearly I missed the mark on here and I want to make sure I'm doing things

24:18

the way you do them So he was very gracious about it Um but what you know I

24:24

think that leaning on your team to make sure they do it in a respectful way but

24:29

they're your spies basically You know like tell me what you know or my current associate doesn't say much He's not

24:36

phased by much which is so great in so many ways But then I'm like were there

24:41

things that either a he missed and is unaware of and this is about to like I'm

24:46

about to come back and have to deal with this pile of you know what and he's clueless about it or did he just think

24:53

it wasn't a big deal or whatever right And so I'll ask my team hey how did Ivy

24:58

day go Any hiccups any issues any parent issues any concerns anything we need to improve upon upon next time So not even

25:05

for a picking on the dock but as far as the flow went or we have a new assistant

25:11

you know how did how did she do on IV day How did she do on her first day Like making sure you take the time to check

25:17

in with your people to see because sometimes they'll bring it to you but a lot of times they're just like "Oh well

25:24

this is how it is." and um you know you you want to make sure

25:29

that or vice versa that that the associate doc is not going to you know

25:34

harbor something going okay these assistants are driving me crazy with the well Dr Kuba wouldn't do that

25:39

well Dr Kuma does it this way well Dr do it that way So luckily I' my assistants rock They're not going to ever do that

25:46

but that happens frequently in other offices And you don't want to where you've done all this work to onboard

25:51

this associate and then the team is the one who chases associate off right And you were none the wiser Yeah Um

25:59

so that's a lot of treatment planning and blah blah blah What do you do in the case of if you see crappy dentistry Yeah

26:06

Yeah cuz that's the other one where I'm like "How do I tell you your SSC is yucky?" So I actually had a practice

26:14

owner that he was concerned about the quality of work that was being put out Now

26:21

his expectations were very high on himself and on others in incredibly uh

26:29

detail oriented Every line of that composite needed to be

26:35

perfection Um but he so he we started

26:41

doing these clinical collaboration meetings and because he was seeing things that he didn't like he was able

26:48

to bring those up and so they would talk clinically like "Hey this is how a treatment plan

26:53

blah blah." so they have a good clinical collaboration And then he would bring up hey by the way as I was auditing because

27:00

again from the get-go he makes it clear like hey I do audit not every case but just kind of pick a few you know

27:07

throughout the month and I'm auditing those cases If I see any concerns I'm going to bring those to you So he had

27:12

set the stage with this associate And so in the clinical collaboration he's like "Hey by the way I had a concern that I

27:19

wanted to bring to your attention Hey look at this filling You see this I feel like this could have been cut better

27:24

here This blah blah blah And so he talked through it and then from that was

27:30

like I want you to take pre and post uh

27:36

x-rays on your fillings and I want you to take pre and post IOPS on any filling that you do for this next week IOPS

27:42

intraoral photos sorry intraoral photos Yes Um so I want you to take those Let's revisit this next week So

27:50

let's not wait for our monthly clinical calibration but just for this next week can you have a real extreme So what do

27:57

you what do you tell the patient I'm going to take an X-ray now after I'm going to take a photo after Like what do

28:02

you not even address it with the patient You don't even address it You just do it You know hey our doctor really wants to

28:07

check with a X-ray to make sure that everything looks perfect We want a perfect filling for your tooth So we're

28:13

going to do an X-ray afterwards and I'm going to take a couple pictures But even if you didn't even say anything they may not even notice that you're doing that

28:19

they wouldn't even notice I mean I guess an X-ray they would but an IO they may not even notice Yeah Very very little

28:24

will push back against that Um but what I like about this strategy is that for

28:31

that next week cuz it's just like a hey let's focus on this thing and then let's revisit it next week So it's a short

28:36

timeline because you don't want a bunch of crappy dentistry going out for a month You want to be able to address it quickly But what's great about it is

28:44

there's a tangible next step Take pre and post on your fillings x-rays take pre and post IOPS Heck take photos

28:52

during the prep if need be so that you can see how does that prep look Do that for this next week and then we'll get

28:58

together and meet about it the actual process of daily as that doc does a

29:04

filling he or she is taking a pre and post she's taking IOPS or her assistant

29:09

is but she's becoming aware throughout that week of either inconsistencies or

29:15

things that she doesn't like but then you've got this end meeting where it's like oh at the end of next week let's go

29:21

back and look at some of your photos the doctor the owner dog can see was there improvement do we have the capacity to

29:28

improve proof Can he or she actually see the errors that are occurring Or is she

29:33

like "Yeah look at that pre and post X-ray Look at the photos That's a beautiful feeling." And the dog's like

29:40

"Oh gosh that is so what do you do in that case?" Then to me it's like "Okay we're we're going to have to part ways."

29:46

Because if there's if that uh associate doc is looking at it as perfection and that owner doc is looking at it like I

29:54

would not put that in anybody's mouth there is to me too much of a clinical gap that we would not be able to close

30:00

So do you write that into the contract like the first three months are where we're going to be checking your work and if clinical proficiency or are you stuck

30:07

with this person contract or what So any clin any contract should have an out

30:12

should have an out clause Usually that's a 30-day notice that either party is able to give the other Sometimes it's

30:19

longer but I like I prefer the 30-day notice because as an I see it from an

30:25

owner doc standpoint I want that owner to be able to go "Hey by the way I'm in I'm giving you your 30-day notice This

30:32

is the stated reason why." And that contract should be able to say that you can give that But how do you say that

30:38

We're just clinically not on the same page Yeah Like how do I say I think your dentistry is crap Well to me if you've

30:45

had a a couple of these like corrective type hey this filling was off Let's do

30:50

this He or she's going to know it's coming Okay So it kind of gets some of the awkwardness out of the way And then

30:56

you're just like hey I've done a lot of thinking on this I don't think this is a gap that we can actually close You look

31:02

at a filling and you call it good I look at a filling and I say that's an F feel filling And again that's just us not

31:09

being able to see things from the same direction But if a couple of these conversations have already happened he

31:15

or she knows that that's okay that's coming So I think I like this because now as I'm looking to narrow down you

31:23

know whoever I'm bringing on I think that's what I'm going to do is say and I think I'm sure you say it too There's a

31:28

lot of collaboration We want to make sure we're on the same page as far as treatment planning verbiage for parents

31:34

Um and then uh asking for you know giving them the heads up hey I'm going

31:39

to be taking uh intraor orals before and after and x-rays so that we can just

31:44

make sure you know it's our quality control Certainly if you see something of mine you know you're welcome to bring

31:49

it up to me Um and I I want you to be able to ask questions but you know doing our due diligence to make sure you're

31:55

successful in our practice Um you know there's a certain amount of autonomy I want you to have but there's also a

32:01

certain amount of you got to do it our way And um so we're just going to be making sure So certainly the team is a

32:07

valuable resource They're more than happy to answer for you the what and why Like if you were going to go in and you

32:13

were going to go you know extract preolars and just offer nitrous that's

32:19

appropriate sometimes but you know use the staff lean on them to say what what

32:25

has typically been done here and why uh will this be a successful treatment plan

32:31

or not I mean it may be what we want but no parent is going to agree to it you know So we've got to like make sure

32:36

we're all working in the same boundaries of things for us to reach our common goal of getting the kid the care they

32:43

need Exactly Um and so my staff is a resource for you Please use them Um

32:48

they'll be giving you feedback I'll be giving you feedback and I'm sure you'll be giving us feedback too on things Yeah But just be very clear with that cuz

32:54

that's the one thing where I'm just like you know the treatment planning part of it and then the actual dentistry part of it

33:02

Yeah That I'm just like how would I tell a colleague I think your work is garbage Like I don't know that I could actually

33:07

say that But now you've given me tools that I don't have to say that but we can allude to it that we're just not on the

33:14

same page Yep Exactly And to me again this is the practice owner's

33:19

responsibility to do this This to me is not elective or optional things You are

33:25

responsible for those patients and the care that they're receiving And if you're having a separate set of hands

33:31

carry out the work that's necessary on those patients then it's your job to

33:36

oversee and to ensure that it's quality work that's happening Thanks for joining the

33:43

conversation today We hope that you are comforted in knowing that you are not alone but we also hope that you're

33:50

walking away with some really great tips and tricks to try in your practice We value your feedback so

33:57

please take a few moments to rate and review the podcast Finally we want to

34:03

make sure that we're covering the topics that matter to you So track us down on Facebook Instagram and Twitter and let

34:11

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34:16

rooting for you today as you manage your dental drama