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| The following is a reprint of an article
that was featured in "Dental Economics"
June 2002 issue- entitled, "Ten Essential
Elements of a Productive Treatment Room" Part
1 by Dr. David J. Ahearn. All Rights Reserved |
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Ten
Essential Elements of a Productive Treatment Room - Part
1
Think your space
is productive? Think again; it probably isn't.
Let's face it. Productivity in most dental practices is
not very impressive. We may work hard, but we don't get
that much done. Heresy, you say! Let's think about it
for a minute; a car factory can produce an economy car
for $10,000 using hundreds of vendors, thousands of products,
and years of planning, and they still can be profitable.
For $10K, what can we do? Make a small handful of crowns?
How many computer chips get made in a clean room in an
hour? And to think that we complained about masks and
gloves slowing us down! I hope to bring to your attention
both a handful of broad, basic concepts that relate to
productivity and a great number of little, often overlooked
items that will make your daily practice more pleasant,
productive, and profitable. We'll address many elements
of office design as they relate to performance, as well
as technology and even scheduling.
With this article, I would like to destroy some preconceptions,
and outline some opportunities that will benefit you.
Dental office design is all too often overlooked as a
source for true productivity improvement. We may think
in terms of extra space - perhaps extra operatories -
but often, we go ahead and build what is essentially an
enlarged version of our last office. That makes no sense.
So what is wrong with the old office? First, your waiting
room probably is too large and you don't have enough treatment
rooms. What'd you say? My waiting room is packed! Sometimes
people have to stand. Our studies have shown that the
problem isn't the reception area - it's the lack of efficient
treatment space. We all tend to think as if we're still
in our dental school cubicles. We're imprinted like baby
ducks on their mothers or, more accurately, like hostages
to their captors. (Dental school may have taught us an
inefficient way to practice but, by George, we're going
to suffer for life doing things this way!)
We hated the torment that we received in our cubicles,
but then we go buy the same type of setup in our practices,
surrounding ourselves with all of our stuff in one favorite
room and trying to do certain procedures in specific rooms.
Hopefully, you will be encouraged to stop thinking of
treatment rooms as complicated, cluttered, technology-crammed
spaces. What, you say, take away my technology? Absolutely
not! Let's liberate it instead.
Let's look at the first five elements of a productive
treatment room. In the next issue, we will discuss the
other five elements of operatory productivity.
1. COST -
Your new operatory shouldn't cost a king's ransom. There
is little correlation between total operatory cost and
practice productivity. What works in some practice environments
may be entirely inappropriate for a different type of
practice. Further, your operatory cost is far more than
the sum of the equipment purchase costs. To be successful,
you must look at total installed cost, which includes
the room configuration (plumbing, etc.), plus the installer's
expenses and long-term maintenance, in addition to the
simple cost of equipment. Careful planning, which minimizes
plumbing, electrical, and cabinet expenses, can reduce
your costs considerably. Saving money here allows you
to make needed improvements to other areas of the practice.
2. EASE OF USE -
Before all else, your new room must be easy to practice
in, day in and day out, patient after patient. Simple,
inexpensive choices made in the planning stages will have
an enormous impact, saving hundreds of staff hours yearly
and freeing your office for more productive activities.
Plan your space by considering how you will most rapidly
reintroduce sterilized equipment, how you will handle
lab cases, and how you will deal with patient records.
Build into your system a management plan for all of your
practice technologies.
3. ALL ESSENTIAL
SUPPLIES MUST BE WITHIN FINGERTIP REACH -
This simple principle is often overlooked because it is
not part of the thought process involved in the purchase
of new operatory equipment. Carefully consider how you
will rapidly restock every consumable item. Focus on items
(such as gloves and cotton goods) with the highest turnover
rates and give them priority. Make sure that small, frequently
misplaced items like posts can be easily located and put
into service. These decisions should be made before your
equipment purchase. Your equipment should support your
way of doing things, not force you to work around your
new purchase. (Figure 1)
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Figure 1. All supplies
should be consolidated within a 90-degree angle
reach of your assistant..
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4. MAKE YOUR NEW ROOM UNIVERSAL-
The operatory should be useful for all of the office's
primary purposes. Often, doctors will have a tendency
to design their new space around the doctor's side. This
is understandable because the doctor is researching the
purchase (and paying for it!). The unfortunate result
is a room that functions only when both doctor and assistant
are present. Your new operatory should work well in both
two- and four-handed practice. A room that functions well
in two- and four-handed use will allow full access to
supplies from a single operator's seated position. It
will convert from two- to four-handed use in seconds.
This important capability also greatly enhances assistant
performance when working solo. (Figures 2a and 2b)
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Figures 2a, 2b. Design
should allow for quick conversion from two-handed
to four-handed dentistry.
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Your new room should also permit right and left-hand use
whenever possible. Do not lose the opportunity to employ
a talented prospect due to your office's lack of opposite
hand-delivery capabilities.
5. EASY
FOR STAFF TO WORK WITH -
Learning how to work in a strange dental environment can
be a daunting challenge for new employees. As the labor
pool shrinks, it becomes increasingly important to create
an easy plan for dental delivery. Tedious memorization
must be kept to a minimum. Coordinate your stocking plan
with your sterilization and resupply protocol. This is
an excellent time to upgrade your entire instrument and
supply deployment system. If you have not converted to
a tub and cassette system of delivery, this would be an
appropriate time to do so. Cassettes greatly reduce instrument
handling and related errors, while simultaneously creating
a simple system for new employees. This method hastens
setup and room turnaround, and you will need less equipment
to get the job done. In our next article, we will discuss
the next five critical elements: creating a compact operatory,
planning for the future, allowing free access, making
it easy to re-equip, and not scaring the patient. .
D/E
Continue to part 2...
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