The False Tension Between Business and Financial Considerations and Quality of Clinical Care

There was a recent post on Facebook by a dental consultant I know and respect, discussing the use of Dental Intel to analyze daily activities to achieve financial targets. I thought it was a thoughtful and valuable perspective.

Apparently not! He was bombarded with negative comments from clinicians, who criticized him for being primarily concerned with financial gain, with many labeling him unethical. In my judgment, they missed the point.

At the core, he was discussing the use of the tool to ensure that patients were scheduled for their next recall visit, and further, that there was an organized follow-up of open treatment plans. He spoke about these issues in the context of scheduling/working to a specific production goal (expressed in dollars). Hardly a new or unfamiliar concept.

I have a simple question. How does either of these things imply an actual compromise in the quality of care and doing what is in the best interest of patients? Those who made the critical comments never supported their conclusions with any specific evidence.

I will certainly admit that an excessive focus on profit and financial outcomes can lead to deficient patient care, but the two are by no means mutually exclusive.

If you believe in the importance and value of regularly scheduled preventive care, why not implement systems and processes in your practice to maximize patient compliance? The same is true for follow-up of open treatment plans. It is beneficial for both patients and the practice.

The key is finding the appropriate balance between clinical and business imperatives. Practice owners who avoid thinking about business and financial concerns because they believe it is somehow non-professional relegate themselves to sub-optimal outcomes.

One of the most successful practice owners I encountered in my many years of working with the profession concluded that, at its core, his practice was a service business and spent a lot of time and energy studying successful service business models.

The result was an almost complete restructuring of his practice, making it more patient responsive in a consumer-friendly way. Throughout the metamorphosis, he never compromised on delivering high-quality care. He believed that the best outcomes for his team, and their patients, could only occur with disciplined business and financial systems.

His explosive growth and high patient retention are testimony to the merits of this approach. He now owns four practices and employs nearly two dozen dentists.