We reach out to Jay and Kin, winners of the Dental Practice Accelerator, to find out how the last few months have gone following a visit from the DPA mentors.
Jay and Kin, great to see you again. How have you both been?
We’ve both been amazing. Thank you very much.
Talk to me about the last few months since you won the Dental Practice Accelerator. The mentors came in and gave you a few pointers. How have the last few months gone?
Like a whirlwind, to be honest. From the 25 July when we had our first meeting with the mentors, there were some action points and lots of motivation.
There was a lot of momentum built up in the practice that day. And that’s really driven us and our whole team to strive towards getting all these new targets we have in place.
Once the mentors have gone away, they’ve given you some ideas, it’s all about implementing those actions. What was the next step once they went away?
To build onto those action points, there was a lot of groundwork needed. Basically, we’re trying to make sure that whatever we do, it’s not short term. It’s not because we’ve won this competition.
We want to achieve and we want it to continue. So, whatever we do needed a strong foundation. And that’s where we started. We’ve got a strong base – we’re still working on it to be fair. But we’re getting there, so it’s gradually building up.
The next step was about changing the way the practice is currently working and running. Really changing everyone’s mindset. That’s what we’re working on and what we’ve been trying to do.
Can you give us any specifics? Is there anything that you can talk about that you’ve carried out?
There are so many actually that we spoke about and we’ve actioned.
But I’ll give you one example. Louise, who is our practice manager, who you met, she agreed to be our treatment coordinator (TCO) at the practice. Now that would mean she would have to pass on a lot of her responsibilities to other staff members so that she can wear this new hat which is a lot more patient focused. That took a while.
She had to go through a process of her own where she spoke to the staff members, judged everyone’s calibre and then gradually handed over her duties and responsibilities and shared them out amongst the team. She still has a few core responsibilities that she is willing to keep on even if she stays as a TCO.
But she’s shared out a lot of her responsibilities, empowered the staff members to make decisions and share them with her and act on them. She’s encouraging the team to not necessarily always have to speak to her.
How did the changes go down with the staff?
We are very grateful to the mentors because they did give that momentum and enthusiasm – they infused that on the day. That helped us take off because Jay and I couldn’t have done that as quickly as we could with Justin, Sameer and Sandeep giving that pep talk. They painted the vision of what the future needs to look like for us and the direction we’re going in. The buy in was there from that day on.
From the very next day, the staff even commented how many more private patients we’ve booked in. Just because we weren’t turning patients away, we’re booking everyone in. From that day onwards, every day we’re booking more and more private patients and we’ve seen a real difference in just the revenue we take per month.
It’s only been a few months, but you are already noticing a difference on the bottom line?
Absolutely, 100%. And on top of that, we’ve now introduced a plan, a membership plan for our patients. We never had before because we’ve been predominantly NHS. That’s seen as a tremendous response from the patient.
There have been some big changes already. Are there any more goals/actions to implement further down the line? What’s next?
Sandeep has given us a few action points that he would specifically want to work on. Both Sandeep and Sameer want us to work on our numbers. So we’re working on that, and Justin has given us a lot of action points in terms of team building and from the team aspect of working together.
There are a few action points that are being implemented in December when we have our emergency training and we also have a Christmas meal planned. Jay is going to lead that and sort of drive the team further into what’s coming up next and also our vision, mission and values of what we need set for ourselves.
We discuss that because our practice has never done this before. It’s new for us, new for the staff. We’re coming together as a team.
Do you feel like you’re on track with the changes? Do you feel like the practice is growing and it’s manageable?
It’s not out of control 100%. Everything seems a lot more in control.
Personally I thought things would have moved quicker and I would have expected change quicker, but I suppose I was rushing ahead of myself. I think if we’re on track, it has to be an upward projection, and it is. It was overwhelming, it still is. We’re still getting used to the changes.
We’re so UDA driven and focused that this whole idea is new to all of us. But we’re taking bitesized pieces and getting along every day. I think that’s probably one of the biggest changes in our mindset. We are now focusing so much more on private, we’ve come to the realisation that to deliver this right and give the patient journey and experience that the patients deserve, we can’t have the focus on NHS as much.
Therefore, we’re trying to redistribute our focus and make sure that we have the time allocated in the day for these new patients that are coming in so that there isn’t this mix. There’s a clear demarcation of time for the dentist for the staff, so everyone knows what’s happening at the practice.
There’s a lot of change happening, and I think that this mindset change was step one. Now stage two is implementation and listening. We’re seeing it with different patients coming in the door.
Can we come and visit the practice, talk to some of the staff and hear how it’s gone?
Can I please buy some time from you because we’re currently redecorating the practice. So whenever you do come in, I would like you to have a look at the change since you’ve seen the old practice.
I’d love it if you came and said ‘wow’. And then yes, you are more than welcome to come and speak to all of us and see the transformation as well.
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