Dental Office Management and
The Center Model
For the dental professional, the speed of change continues to increase and the stress of keeping up seems overwhelming. Dental Schools have not adequately prepared dentists to be practice (business) owners. And yet, the majority of dentists were drawn to dentistry for its autonomy and opportunity for control over one’s future. Adding to this lack of adequate management and leadership training, are the problems that have surfaced over the last 30 years as a result of the impact of the insurance industry on the dental profession.
Recent ADA statistics continue to show an increase in the number of hours worked by dentists and a decline in real net income. These two trends have been consistent for the last 25 years!
As a young dentist, Dr. Schuster discovered just how unprepared he was to own and operate his practice. He knew that he wanted to create a practice based upon technical excellence and freedom from insurance and do so profitably, but he lacked the training and the knowledge to create such a practice.
Fortunately, at a relatively young point in his career, he began to seek out professionals who would help him, teach him, and mentor him in the creation of his ideal practice. Using this knowledge, he was able to create a small practice in Iowa, then a larger group practice (also in Iowa) before relocating to Scottsdale, Arizona, and once again starting a practice from scratch. He was able to prove, in three very different communities and settings, that the principles of high quality and high profitability, could be learned and applied successfully in any practice situation and in any city or town.
Our Mission:
We believe that every individual has infinite worth and unlimited potential for growth.
When given correct information combined with the right support, any worthwhile purpose can be accomplished. We are dedicated to innovation, integrity, and excellence in everything we do.
Our mission is to nurture the spirit of every individual we touch and to empower people and organizations to significantly increase their performance capability in order to achieve worthwhile purposes through learning, living, and teaching sound principles of life and business.
Dr. Schuster’s personal experience and training, helped him bring together a comprehensive management approach to a lower-volume, high-quality management model. This is a learning sequence that builds upon early training. Successful practice management requires management training and development.
The Center Model is not a cookbook or cookie-cutter approach, but rather a step-by-step process, including all critical and necessary leverage points for each dentist to develop their own unique practice model.
The doctor’s ability to drive the leverage points of the model helps him create the management systems to reduce frustrations. The model gives doctors the tools that work through a formal curriculum, but the doctors must learn and be motivated to implement them. The team learns how to leverage the doctor’s technical skills and capabilities as part of more effective practice management. This helps to insulate the doctor from perceived urgent, but not important, activities to better leverage the doctor’s time. This is the map to economic freedom, as well as the gate to freedom to allow the doctor to do longer, more complex technical dentistry.
The Center Management Model is built on principle-centered management – a system of fundamental truths that have universal application. By implementing this concept, dentists learn to become business owners and C.E.O’s, rather than just excellent clinicians. They learn to use management principles and economic/financial principles to gain control over the resources which dominate and drive the practice.
It is a step-by-step approach, with each principle taught building upon each other, to create a harmonious, well-run practice, whereby everyone understands the driving forces of this renewed enterprise. Every person is valued, trained, and developed in this process alongside the doctor. Each is challenged to grow their abilities and become leaders in their own right. We give you the tools and training, coaching and development, feedback, and accountability, to create your own unique dental practice, or re-create if you are re-organizing an existing practice.
This model is based upon treating people – patients and teams – with dignity and respect, which means one patient at a time and one practice at a time.
Our purpose is best summed up in our Mission Statement, which was created in 1977 and continues to represent our core beliefs and values today.
The Center for Professional Development Practice Management Education
In a dental practice, there are 7 key areas that must be thoughtfully designed and made to work in harmony with one another:
MONEY – how it flows in and out of the practice; how to make it, keep it and save it.
TIME – the most important resource we have; how you handle your time determines the quality of your life.
ORGANIZATION – the structure of your practice, the systems, the purpose of those systems, and the accountability to create and use them to drive your practice each day.
SALES – the process with patients to help them make decisions that are in their own best interest; how to engage, connect and communicate the value of dentistry beyond what any plan covers.
MARKETING – determining your offering and bringing it to your community in such a way that patients want what you have to offer.
PEOPLE – the skills, attitude, beliefs, and motivation of the people who you bring on board to help you in this endeavor.
PURPOSE – why your practice exists as determined by your values, skills, and training, as well as the reason you chose dentistry as your profession.
WHY CHOOSE THE CENTER?
Many dentists believe that if they just increase the number of patients seen they will have the financial success they desire. Dentists have been told that bigger practices will produce more money and therefore naturally the doctor will take home more. But this production model assumes that the dentists fixed costs are indeed fixed and that quality time spent with each patient will not suffer as volume increases.
What is true in understanding dental practice management is that fixed costs aren’t really fixed, just constant. The dentist who owns their own practice soon realizes that as they ramp up production, they must also increase the number of staff, increase the size of their space and increase the materials on hand for the increase in patient volume. When these fixed costs increase, so does the overhead which translates to a DECREASE in net profit; the exact opposite of the intended effect.
We know that this business model comes from manufacturing, which does not apply to a service business such as dentistry. If you are trapped in this model, it is likely that the business side of your practice is becoming more and more complex leaving you with less time with patients. As the pressure increases to produce more, patients receive less time with the dentist and will seek out other practices where they feel more cared for.
Sadly, not in college, not in dental school or even post-graduate school were dentists taught how to run the business side of the practice without sacrificing the quality of their care. In fact, by our research, less than 1% of dentists start their practice with a true business plan (not the one required by the bank to get a loan, but a true strategic plan for the new practice!) Dental management courses at The Schuster Center can greatly help with this. When you learn from our dental practice management consultants, you gain invaluable experience that you can’t find anywhere else.
Nothing in dental school has prepared dentists to run a truly successful practice. The vast majority of dentists are operating without sound principles of money, time, and organization. The vast majority do not have a model or training in communication to enable them to communicate with their patients about the value of quality dentistry.
Without principles organized into useful plans of action, the vast majority of dentists may be busy but not profitable, maybe doing dentistry, but hating it, and rarely achieve the enjoyment, fun, and profitability they deserve.
Since 1978, The Center’s Practice Development Program has been helping dentists achieve peak profitability which providing high-quality care and enjoying their practice. By teaching clear-cut dental practice management solutions, the dentist who engages in our courses can learn every aspect of running their own practice successfully. By implementing our time tested curriculum with the help of our team, you can achieve the life and practice you always dreamed.