As I was leaving my dental practice one night last winter, I started thinking—I won’t be able to do this in 20 years; I can’t keep working this long and this hard. I have to alleviate the stress of running my practice or I will work myself into an early grave.
My office was drowning in inefficiency. I’d get memos from staff which were unintelligible or someone else’s responsibility. There was a lot of chitchat among staff and they weren’t well trained. They would ask me to make on-the-spot decisions without having the chance to evaluate the benefits or the risks. We had no systems in place. One employee would do something one way and another a different way; something that should have taken two minutes would take two hours.
I didn’t want to have to practice clinical dentistry just to pay the bills. I wanted to have multiple locations and provide the drive and vision for them. I didn’t have a clue how.
I had received mailings from dentists who had gone from the gutter to the top with Sterling. I was interested but I don’t act on whims, so I talked to a dozen consulting companies. The other companies hemmed and hawed and said things like: “We can try this,” or “We can see how it goes.”
I watched Sterling’s management DVD which included real stories of real people. I then received a no-charge practice analysis which highlighted the issues in my practice. I went with Sterling because they had certainty on how to fix the practice and exactly how to do it.
It’s been just four months since I started the Sterling program and we are already seeing definite results. Our office communications are more efficient. The staff are required to put things in writing which makes them responsible for what they’re asking me to do. This was a major issue: I’d have three or four staff on me eight hours a day, one on each shoulder and one at my face.
Our production and collections, which were flat-lining, are now up by 10 to 12% over this time last year. My focus has changed to having a multi-practice enterprise—that is what I’ve always wanted. I no longer worry about working myself into an early grave.
Thanks to Sterling, I have less stress, more control and I feel secure in knowing the program gets results.
Jack Brinkley, DDS
