Get Ready for the Snow

By Richard Drake

Just back from family vacation in the mountains of southern California.  Cool mornings, warm afternoons. Each morning we walked up to the ski lift where, despite the 80 degree heat and barren slopes, there was a bevy of activity and workers. I ran into Jake, “El Jefe”, and he shared with me a few of the reasons the ski season goes so well for them. They work hard in the “off season”, making sure that the slopes are groomed, overgrowth is trimmed back, the lifts are serviced, chairs fixed, picnic tables made, and on and on he went. I couldn’t help but think about how this relates to what we do in Dental Sleep Medicine.

We monitor a lot of statistics around my office, and for nearly a decade now, the slowest months of the year for me have been July through September.  What to do? Worry? Thumb twiddling? Take up knitting? No. Be like Jake. Get ready for the snow. Believe that it is coming.

Be proactive and productive.  Instead, work on stuff like this:

1. Go back in your schedule three years.  Start January 1.  Contact every patient that you made a dental device on.  My bet is a few of them have fallen through the cracks. Most are due for a follow up. Some will need a new device.
2. Review your website.  Look at it from a NEW patient perspective.   Would I know that you make dental sleep devices?  Would I be educated about sleep apnea and want to make an appointment?
3. Ask your friends to look at your practice brochure.   Does it make sense?   Do you get the feeling that I care about my patients?  Would someone know what I do from looking at it?
4. Organize your lab.  Lab scripts.  Outgoing cases.  Incoming cases. Get yourself one of the fishing tackle organizers and fill it with dental sleep device paraphernalia.  
5. Work on your progress note and letter templates.   If you’re like me, things change, and you do things differently today than you did a year ago. Update your templates and letters to reflect those new changes.  It’ll save you a lot of time down the road.
6. Engage your team to come up with new ideas and processes. From the first phone call to the titration sleep test.  What can we tweak to make it better?

Remember that success is contingent upon preparation. Don’t take up knitting in July. Follow the steps above instead. Also, remember, this will put you in a better position when the snow is falling and patients have met their deductibles. Don’t be passive. Take an active role in your the future of your practice. Make it snow!