425: Ready, Set, Co-Diagnose!

Interested in getting higher case acceptance and having smoother exams? Co-diagnosing is your way to go. Kiera shares how hygienists can tee up treatment using the same lingo doc might, all using doctor’s guiding methods.

Simply follow the steps Kiera suggests in this episode and do it consistently for about a month. Then, voila! Your patients are warmed up perfectly for doctor to come in and close.

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Podcast Transcript:

0:00:05.8 S1: Hey everyone, welcome to the analyte podcast. I'm your host, Jordan, and I had this crazy idea that maybe I could combine a doctor and a team member's perspective, because let's face it, dentistry can be a challenging profession with those two perspectives, I've been in dental is a treatment coordinator, schedule filler, office manager, regional manager, practice owner and I have a team of traveling resultant, or we have traveled over 165 different offices, coaching teams. Yep, you don't just understand you... We are you, our mission is to positively impact the world of dental, and I believe that this podcast is the greatest way I can help elevate teams, grow VIP experiences, reduce stress and create 18... Will go to the Denali team podcast. Hello, dental Team listeners.

0:00:51.9 S2: This is Kara and your kind welcome to the podcast. If you haven't been here or you have been here for the last... Gosh, it's been almost two and a half years now. Welcome, I love having you guys here. This podcast was made for team members, for doctors, for business owners, and just people all around who wanna grow and develop as people, add systems to their practice into their life, and a great place for you to come... Welcomed with no judgment. So welcome, my name's garden.

0:01:18.4 S1: That's true. My last time really is an... I get asked that all the time, and I make the joke, even though it's a true joke, that just took me three finances to get that last name, so if you wanna know Helena dot com.

0:01:32.0 S2: So this month, we have been focusing a lot on hygiene and getting your guys's hygiene systems in place, if you guys haven't noticed, we've started to do themes, we've found that there are 12 systems to a practice, there's a lot of systems involved, but we try hard every single month to dive into certain topics to ensure that you guys have a well-systematized practice, and so this month it's focus all on hygiene, so this next hide topic actually came from one of my practices in North... Oh, not North New Jersey. And I love, love, love this. I've implemented it in several practices, it's one of the things that I love about our job as we literally gonna walk around to hundreds of practices, I think I've been in physically 200 different dental practices, and we get to learn and share ideas and grow, and that's why I love this podcast, I love sharing ideas with you, I love our coaching clients, we have our silver clients, our gold clients, and our platinum clients that all of our plates for listening, so I love you guys, and I'm grateful for you. Platinum are where we physically fly to your practice, so if you guys have everyone in somebody to just come in and take a look around and tell you things that you're doing really, really well and areas that you could maximize and enhance your practice.

0:02:38.5 S2: We love to come, so email us if you're interested, I wanna know if you'd be a good platinum client or not. Hello, at the dental team dot com, and we'd love to... We'd love to chat with you. So this topic today is on What would doctor do? So for a hygiene team, what we found is a lot of times, hygienist can tee up treatment for our doctors, doctors, I think it makes your exam is a lot easier, and also is the power of multiple times of talking about something here a few different ways, and really being able to dive into that. So for our doctors, this makes your life so much easier grade, it does take a little bit of prep work on your time, so what would Dr do is really where your hygiene team and your assistant team literally will co-diagnose with you... No, they are not diagnosing doctors, you're the only ones that can do that, however, our team can tee it up for you, preheat the oven, get the patient thinking about it before you even walk in the room, help maximize and enhance your exams and maximize your time. So with that said, what happens is basically for an entire month, two months, three months, I don't care how long it takes you, I typically recommend this going on for about a month, and what you do...

0:03:44.9 S2: And this can work for piano offices, it can work for general practices, it can work for any practice, so I usually just say I dedicate at least one lunch, or if you're in a detonate, lunches don't usually exist, so maybe a couple of morning huddles where you literally will get some FX inter-oral and you get the whole hygiene team and dental assistant team there, you can also do this with associated doctors who are onboarding, and so what you'll do is you'll put the FX and the pictures up on the screen, and then just like dental school, you have everybody write it down. So if I was there, Brittney was there to be there. Pretend we're your three hygienists, you'd put up an MX and we would have at the top of it, what would doctor diagnose? Or What would doctor do? Okay, so I'm gonna write down what I think our doctor will diagnose, tile right down what she thinks the doctor will diagnose and Britten... We'll do it. All of your ideas will do it, I literally have a piece of paper, have everybody do it. I sometimes think we try to be a little efficient and I think we sometimes miss what this is all about, having everybody write it down and then compare what we all wrote...

0:04:45.2 S2: If we say it out loud, some people be like, Oh yeah, I thought that was an MO too, when in reality, they were going to write down a crown, so it's really powerful to see what people write down because that's what they actually think you would diagnose and then talk about why or why not you would diagnose these things... Look to see how close we are. Clearly create a calibration. Especially for associate doctors. I really have none. This is a great way to get you guys co-diagnosing similarly, diagnosing talking to your hiding patients the exact same way, those things really can help you out, because if you can get your doctors all diagnosing very similarly, you can have your hygiene Dennis all looking for the same type of treatment, think about how much easier of a patient experience that is, your patients are literally hearing it from multiple different people, the same thing, and they're explaining it the same way, that really creates a continuity, it creates easier case acceptance, it creates really, really great cohesiveness of your practice, it makes it easier for the patient to know what is going on. Also doctors that minimizes your exam time, which is super helpful, 'cause we know you're really busy, and it just overall makes an incredible patient experience, so if you're about the patient experience like I am, this is something great that I think you really would love to do...

0:05:56.5 S2: Hey, dental Team listeners, we decided to get a little unconventional and come to all of you guys, because guess what, the dental a team is hiring the best of the best for traveling consultants. So if you know of somebody that you work with, that you've worked with in the past that you think would make an incredible dental team consultant, please email us... Hello, at the dental team dot com.

0:06:18.7 S1: We do not hire people working at offices that we work with, so we're just putting that out there, but we do want you guys, if any of you know of anybody who you think would be an incredible consultant that would love to positively impact the world of dentistry, that they've worked with the front office as an office manager, treatment coordinator, a scheduler, a pillar, and

0:06:37.7 S2: They have back office experience, Sandor.

0:06:40.0 S1: Hello at the dental team dot com. And guys like you, we're looking to hire our unicorn, and thank you all for helping us out, here's a cheers to hiring all of our unicorns and making this year are here to build our most incredible teams.

0:06:55.8 S2: So with that said, I think the next piece of it is you do this consistently for about a month, the goal should be that your hygiene team and your clinical team should be able to diagnose... Again, they're not diagnosing, but they should be able to tee up your diagnosis about 90 to 95%... Exactly the same as your doctors, so one of my offices, they literally have the hygienist put in in red or green or blue, whatever call you choose to have it go in, so that way doctors, you can literally look at the chart and see what your hygienist is already talked to your patient about before you even go into your exam, so that's super convenient. Right. And then from there, they come in and we do a great hand-off, we have another podcast called the eye crap, it's so embarrassing, but your hygienist, introduce you, compliment the patient on something they're doing really well with their oral health, then give a recap. That's our rear. ICR is a recap of what they've already talked to the patient about as far as treatment and what they think you'll probably diagnose, and then PE stands for a personal connection piece, so a perfect hand-up from your hygiene team would be, Hey, Dr.

0:08:00.1 S2: Smith, this is Kara. You met her last time. Just so you know, car's been doing an awesome job flossing, that was our goal. She took it on, she's been doing great, we already chat with her, she knows that there's probably gonna be a crown on the upper right, there's a crack, and she's got that deep amalgam in there, plus she also know she needs to come back in for SRP that deeper claiming, most likely. And then also just say, You know, Karras expecting a baby right there, doctor has an incredible... He or she can now say, care, congratulations on your baby when your baby do, then talk to me about treatment, and it's already much easier, and if you take the time to train your clinical team to look this up for you, you're gonna be able to do so much easier diagnosis because your team spent the whole appointment telling the patient of what they already need, so it becomes a really easy process now, guys know that was not a hit, I'm not pregnant, just something I was able to say really quickly... I know, I'm sure I'll get some nice bad mill on that of car...

0:08:53.4 S2: Oh my gosh. Are you pregnant now, we're not pregnant. But you can still email me hello at the donate dot com, we're taking name submissions If the day ever comes that we have a baby, so now we've had the name out, so it would literally say dental... That's clever. When it's in reverse, we've had been so many different... Random, Harvey Dent is always a topic. So if you can get more creative in that rock on, I'd love to hear your ideas, but really what this whole hand-off idea, it's because your hides has already talked to the patient for the last... They have 55 minutes, 60 minutes to talk to the patient. Doctors, it's really great because you know that they're co-diagnosing with you, they're teeing it up for you, and you train them on what to look for, so that way they're saying it the way you're saying it, they're explaining a crown the way you'd explain a crown. They're talking about SRP, the way you talk about SRP, all these things going together simultaneously, giving a really, really, really awesome patient experience. So then what you do is, this is what would doctor do? What's great about this is like a pro-plus side is not only does it give a better patient experience, you guys are co-diagnosing together, doctors have easier exams that don't take as much time, but in addition to that, if you hire a new associate, which a lot of you doctors are doing, guess what, that associate now, doesn't even really have to diagnose because the hygienist is teen it all up, and it's going to be exactly what the owner doctor would do.

0:10:11.4 S2: Now, a great flip thing, I have another office, they have a rock star associate who does a lot of treatment that the owner doctor doesn't do, a great associate to bring in... It happens often, Well, what you can do is you can actually calibrate together, associate an owner doctor, and the associate can actually train the owner doctor of different things to look for, so in their exams, they're looking for those things and they can really give it to you as well, meaning that they're diagnosing treatment to fill the associate schedule and vice versa, you guys can diagnose and put it in the other doctor's schedule, so it really, really, really works. Awesome, it saves you got time. I had one office email me, Hey Kara, thank you so much for having me do this, my hygiene team has taken this on, we did it seriously for the last four weeks, and now my exam time is shortened, we're having higher case acceptance and our exam there's... So much smoother. Well, that's a solid win, it doesn't take a lot of time, not a lot of effort. And the real reality of it is that you guys are really trying to just get everything so calibrated together that everybody's speaking the same thing at the same time, so the patient experience is awesome, they have proven...

0:11:16.3 S2: And I've heard so many different studies, it used to be that you have to hear something seven times or you have to hear it 20 times, I don't even know how many times you have to hear something before you take action, I just know a social media with ads with the changing of how much social involvement we have, people don't really have to hear things and see things multiple times in order to be able to say yes to something, so by the hygienists and the doctor is saying the same thing, talking about it simultaneously, speaking about it the same way, it's going to help your patient hear it from multiple different sources and really be able to trust that source. If you wanna take this one step further, I really love if you guys will show them, if you're talking about a crown or an implant, or recall, if you've got some patient education in there to be able to teach them what a crown is. Some offices do a quick 30-second to a minute video of what that is, so it could be doctor explaining it, some offices pull it from Spear Education or choice education, you know, they've got a lot of great videos.

0:12:13.2 S2: Others will just make a quick little flip chart of what these are, so a paper, but it's laminated or your patients can see what exactly should a crown be and what is the process of it? So if you are diagnosing that doctors, your hygiene team or your clinical team, or even your front office team can show them this that way, everybody's speaking about the same way. Another thing you can do is co-diagnosing with your patient, so making sure they understand what a healthy tooth looks like and what a too... That's compromise looks like... So that way they're co-diagnosing with you. I, Janis, I say often, even if no one's in the room to perio chart with you, make sure you call those numbers out loud, so your patient is literally co-diagnosing with you, if you tell them, Hey, so we're gonna be measuring the health of your gums, anything below a three is healthy, so one, two, and three. Super, super healthy. Anything about a three? We're definitely gonna wanna talk about... So listen up here, what we say, let's see, how many healthy chef you have and how many teeth that we need to take care of, you've got that way your patient literally is listening along right along side of you, they're going to co-diagnose with you.

0:13:14.3 S2: They're much more likely to believe in by treatment because you're helping educate them on what it is, some offices will even take an intra-oral scanner or an inter-oral photo camera, there we go. And they will go through the whole mouth, so it's almost like a scan of like, Hey, I want to just go through... So instead of you just snapping pictures of every single tooth, you can drag that intra-oral camera around and then snap pictures of any of the areas that need attention, if you're seeing cracks or deep grooves or deep amalgam, or you can see decay through the occlusal, any of those things, but you take them through a whole mouth scan, so your hygiene team, if you guys are already doing... What would Dr do? You can practice doing those inter-oral mouth scans, again, it's with an intra-oral camera, so that way they can see all the different pictures and all the different things going on in their mouth, that can be a really, really, really awesome way to also help your patients co-diagnose with you. So this is all around. So many things you can do that don't take a lot of time.

0:14:10.9 S2: I know everybody asks me, care, this is time. I wanna tell you, it might feel like it's taking a little extra time in the beginning, but just think of how much time you're saving by not having to explain a crown every single time, 'cause we made a quick video so our patient literally can watch that while we're getting their toothbrush in their toothpaste from our doctor or from our team, explaining what it is, they can look at a flip chart of exactly what it is, so they don't have questions asking for it, we also co-diagnosing with them, so they don't have nearly as many questions to ask because they're already bought into treatment, they saw that that tooth needs to have a crown on it, and now it's just a matter for the front office team to talk about financing, which is a lot easier when they're already bought into it. It's like, Hey, we gotta get this done. It's much easier. So I recommend you have TVs up in there, co-diagnose, have your hygiene team go through... What would doctor do? Do those inter-oral mouth scans, that can be a really great thing.

0:14:59.2 S2: Also, associate doctors and owner doctors, be sure that you're calibrating together, sharing ideas, I would recommend it at a minimum, you do this for four weeks with your hygiene team and your clinical team, then after that, I'd recommend at least once a month calibration amongst all departments, doctors can be exclusive, so it's Dr. Calibration of this, do the exact same exercise of What would doctor diagnose and have all the doctors literally write it down, don't just talk about it, write it down and then compare notes just to see how is our diagnosing... Are we similar? Are we not similar? Where we consistent? Where are we inconsistent? How are we able to figure it out if one doctor is doing sleep and another doctor's never done sleep, you wanna talk about how to tee that up so that way you guys can maximize your patient experience, you can also diagnose or other doctors who do other treatment so many doctors will diagnose a crown because they're not competent in doing, say, or a crown and a canal over now crown build up because they're not confident with implants, but if you can teach them the verbiage and show them how they could start to feed the other doctor's schedule, so, so many positives for you guys, so I want you to have to try it out and enjoy all these different ideas...

0:16:08.7 S2: Let me know what one. Do you guys have questions with... We do this in offices all the time, so sometimes I give you a lot of ideas on this podcast, and a lot of times what we need is the accountability partner, the person who puts this into action, you guys, there are... Gosh, over 300 episodes of this podcast. But a lot of things for you guys to take in, take notes on, implement and sometimes we just need somebody to take all these ideas and direct us and guide us on what exactly we should implement first, second and third, so if you're needing help with that or one of those people that loves these ideas, but baby doesn't exactly know where to start, or you just want help of knowing how to get your team on board, some people say, Here, I literally pay you just to come say exactly what I've said to my team for years, guess what? Sometimes people just have to hear it from a different source in order to execute, so that's... You email is Hello at the dental team dot com and is always gonna... If there's any way I can help you out personally, professionally, anyway, I can help you email me Hello at the dental team dot com, and it's always...

0:17:02.7 S2: Thanks for... Let's see, I'll catch you next time on the dental team podcast.

0:17:08.5 S1: And that wraps it up for another episode of The Dental team podcast. Thank you so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time