Help! Recently, one of our dentists sold the practice to a younger dentist and she kept us all on as staff. This may sound just great, however, there no rules, no accountability, no structure, and no punishment. I’m the office manager and I don’t know what to do. This is a great practice that she’s purchased and it’s going downhill fast.
Florida Office Manager for New Dentist Owner
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This “young” dentist has probably never been a business owner. She’s probably never been a CEO of a business. She’s probably never been a human resource manager. Bottom line… she doesn’t know what she doesn’t know. This is a very difficult position for the new dentist and she needs help. She’s just hoping and praying every night that the employees will just do their job and she won’t have to deal with anything other than the dentistry. What can you do? First have a helping attitude. She needs quality staff in her corner.
Next get some numbers together – specifically what’s happened with production and/or collections and request a private meeting. Show the doctor what you are seeing. Are more patients cancelling, have new patient numbers dropped, are there more holes in the schedule? This is critical information she needs to be aware of. While you’re at it, give her a list of two or three websites of practice management consultants that she may want to check out. Let her know that you’ve done some research and thought she might be interested in what some of them have to offer. I know this is tricky, and whether she seeks help or not is out of your hands, but, as the office manager, you do have a responsibility to keep her informed about what’s happening with those systems. Good luck.