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30 Years of Dentistry: Lessons Learned
Lesson #5: Work on More Than One Patient at a Time Dr. Joe Steven, Jr., DDS

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The next lesson that I was fortunate to learn more than 30 years ago was taught to me by my mentor back then, Dr. Phil (no, not the TV guy). Six months into my practice, he came in and looked at my appointment book and told me that if I ever wanted to make money at dentistry that I needed to schedule two patients every hour for myself. Therefore, number five on my list, and you might have heard me talk about this before at my seminars, "Work on more than one patient at a time!"

I realize that, for many dentists, this is standard procedure for scheduling patients. But, I have known dentists who have been in practice just as long as I have, and when I sit down and get into a discussion with them about trying to help them become more profitable, I find out that they see only one patient per hour. When I tell them how I schedule, they say, "Really, you can do that?" Yes, you can! I recently received an e-mail from Dr. Jake, an associate who graduated with my daughter and worked with us for one year. The e-mail was about something else entirely, but in the body of his message he wrote, "Hey Joe, I really want you to know how much I appreciate having worked for you. I learned so much last year. I actually am here trying to get them to hire another assistant for me because they only assign me one. The senior doctor has a couple for himself and I have been bugging them saying that I want another assistant so I can be more productive."

They agreed to it, and he said the ladies up front in his office are just "shocked" that he wants to see two patients per hour. He told them, "That is the only way I’m going to be productive here!" They said, "OK, we will do it for you. You must really be a work-a-holic!" If you are going to make any money in dentistry, you have to work hard. There is no free ride in dentistry! I just don’t know any dentists, other than a select few cosmetic dentists, who just work on one patient at a time, maybe a couple in the morning and a couple in the afternoon. That concept will not work for the majority of dentists who are interested in making a high income in dentistry.

For more than 15 years after our second office expansion, which gave us three hygiene rooms and three treatment rooms for myself, I expected three patients scheduled at 8 a.m. and every hour of the day. I have to admit that, recently, because I just don’t have the stamina that I used to have when I was younger, they now try to schedule me just two patients per hour. But, most of the time, there is always a third patient who just seems to get worked in.

Now, after our final office expansion that was completed three years ago, we have four hygiene rooms and five treatment rooms for my daughter and myself. Dr. Jasmin usually has two patients scheduled per hour and so do I with the fifth room used for emergencies, etc. She doesn’t always have two patients per hour because she is still building up her own patient base; but she does so when she can.

Once again, this is common sense to some of you, but for others it just seems improbable. It can be done! It’s being done in thousands of offices around the world so don’t sit back and say, "Well, you can’t do it that way." Yes you can! But, it is a lot easier to pull off if you have an excellent staff, which more likely involves hiring another dental assistant. If a doctor is only seeing one patient per hour and he or she only has one assistant, then you need to hire another one. If you have the available operatories, then go ahead and schedule two patients at one time. If you want to, do what I did after Dr. Phil told me to "double book," and that is phase it in slowly. Schedule one patient at 8 a.m. and one at 8:30 a.m. in the second room. Just stagger it a little bit. I only did that for a short period and realized that I might as well have both patients come in at 8 a.m., etc. Soon, you will see as I did that your production will skyrocket!

Now, having said all of the above, there is something else I need to address in this discussion. And that is that all dentists are different and we all have different goals. Sometimes I envy those doctors who are not so driven and are very content with being in the median range in regards to income levels within our profession. How many times do we need to hear that old cliché, "Money isn’t everything!" They work out of a small office with two or three employees, and see a low volume of patients daily doing basic dentistry. Much less stress! Unfortunately though, the large majority of dentists who practice that way would not be in the high net income category of dentists. For those who don’t mind that, then they probably truly appreciate and enjoy dentistry, possibly even more than most dentists! That’s what is great about our profession, and that is we can make a very comfortable living and not push it so hard if we choose not to.

If you want to do better though, you have to push yourself more. I haven’t met a doctor yet who is in the top 10 percent of dentist income earners who doesn’t work hard. It’s entirely your choice according to what is most important to you. But, if you’re like many doctors who would like to reach higher income levels, remember what Dr. Gordon Christensen has said many times, "Most dentists under-produce because they do not schedule properly." Put a stopwatch to it and find out how many times you are not sitting chairside with a patient. It will shock you. Go ahead and evaluate your own practice and decide if you can possibly schedule more patients than you are currently scheduling. Don’t be afraid to push yourself a little more. The rewards are well worth it!
Author’s Bio
Dr. Joe Steven graduated from Creighton Dental School in 1978 and has been in solo practice in Wichita, Kansas up until June 2007 at which time his daughter, Dr. Jasmin Rupp, joined him. He is president of KISCO, a dental products marketing company, providing “new ideas for dentistry,” and is the editor of the KISCO Perspective Newsletter. Dr. Steven along with Dr. Mark Troilo present “The $1,000,000 Staff" & the “Team Dynamics” seminars. Dr. Steven also presents three other seminars: “Efficient-dentistry,” “Efficient-prosthetics” and “Efficient-endo.” Dr. Steven also provides the KISCO Select Consulting Program to dentists in the form of a monthly audio cd recording. (Contact info: jsteven@kiscodental.com, 800-325-8649, www.kiscodental.com)

This story, originally published in the KISCO Perspective Newsletter, is reprinted with permission.
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