In the last week, I experienced two opposite attitudes about the growth of dental practices.

On the one hand, I was talking with a small group of dentists who understand that group practices are growing quickly and changing the landscape of dentistry. These dentists were looking at their own practices to see what they could do to add new patients and increase collections — all with an eye toward competing with the group practices all around them.

Because group practices have many advantages, these dentists were also looking for creative ideas to collaborate and grow — possibly through marketing strategies or perhaps through new partnerships with other dentists in their area.

On the other hand, I talked with a dental office manager who played a significant role in improving her dental practice — she had substantially increased the production thanks to filling schedules and knew the dentist was considering hiring another dentist.

However, when faced with the idea that the practice may need to hire additional support staff, this office manager was completely against that kind of growth. It sounded as though she was tired of "kissing frogs" in terms of working with team members who weren't a good fit — and so her solution was not to grow.

You may have heard that right now, dentists working in group practices make up only 8 percent of all the dentists in the country. You may also have heard that dental group practices are the fastest-growing segment of dentistry — at a pace of over 25 percent per year!

Dentistry is following medicine, pharmacy and even optometry, where healthcare professionals are working together in groups. This is a trend that will only continue to gain speed over our working lives — so I encourage dental office managers to embrace growth.

Often a dental office manager in a solo office feels that she can handle it all. There’s no need to hire anyone else (who might just mess things up) and certainly no need for organized systems because she can keep everything in her head. As your team grows, systems become essential — they are your friend.

The more organized you are, and the clearer the systems in your practice are, the more successful your practice will become. Others can pitch in and help because they know exactly what to do — and how to do it. As the manager, you can monitor what is being done by your larger team — and you can coach them to improve performance.

Think about your practice right now, do you have systems in place for the following tasks:

• Documenting new patient referrals — To make sure you know how your marketing is working
• Monthly recall — To keep your hygienists schedule filled
• Unscheduled treatment — To keep your dentists schedules filled
• Collections — To make sure patients are paying their bills on time
• Hiring/training — To hire the right staff and train them effectively

So, how do you know if you have a system in place? The easiest way to know if you are following a system is that you do the work for every patient, for every month – not only as you need it.

Many offices will rush to try to fill a schedule only when there are holes — instead of setting up a system to follow up with every patient, every time. When staff turnover occurs, they ask around and hire the first person who says they have experience — instead of following the same steps to make sure a thorough interview process is completed.

Another way to know you have a system in place is that you measure your performance. Let’s look at filling a hygiene schedule. When you run a report to find every patient due for the month that doesn’t have an appointment and then you call or email them, how many do you schedule? When you keep track of your success, you can build on it.

Finally, a third way to know you have a system in place is that you are comprehensive. So many front desk staff feel they always get the new patient referral information documented. But do you have a system to run a report at the end of the month to review every new patient and make sure the referral source is filled in? It’s okay not to be perfect — that’s why you set up a system to follow up/

As you realize the trends of dental group practice, know that you can handle the growth — through hiring of new dentists and staff, because you can set up systems in your practice to keep everything together. You can handle the changes that will come because you know that systems make your job easier — in fact, they make everyone’s job easier!