Practice Help

Joy is someone you can trust to move your team forward with positive energy and enthusiasm. She equips and motivates dental professionals to implement effective marketing and communication skills. With expertise gleaned from more than three decades of hands-on clinical and business experience in the field of dentistry, Joy shares powerful tools and how-to's for dramatic practice refinement. Joy has a deep understanding of the day-to-day challenges faced by dental professionals, including the personal challenges affecting business results. The business of implant dentistry is a primary area of Joy's expertise. She helps surgical and restorative providers develop marketing and communication skills for accelerating the implementation of implant dentistry in the practice with greater ease and confidence--training the team to be effective with communication, financial arrangements, coordination of care and risk management.
 

Taking your practice to the next level

Joy Millis says, "Opportunities don't go away; they go to someone else, while we're mired in the day-to-day muck of the same old problems." With over thirty years of hands-on, clinical and business results in dentistry, Joy will personally engage you and your team in confronting the challenges that keep you from reaching your full potential. Since every practice is uniquely different, Joy would like to speak with you personally to discuss your specific needs. Included here are "Reasons to Bring Joy to Your Practice."  Take a look, identify your needs, and give us a call or contact us through this site.

Reasons to Bring Joy to your Practice

A fresh and innovative perspective!
Some dental professionals come to Joy because they've worked with other consultants and want to notch it up a bit or take the practice in a new direction. Many of Joy's clients have successful, established practices that do not appear to need improvement. The best time to change is when you don't need to change. Someone is always willing to provide your service cheaper and more conveniently, and will take your business when you're not watching or when everything seems to be working. Joy loves the challenge of enhancing practices that don't appear to need improvement.

More implant dentistry!
Practices including implant dentistry in their menu of services gain the competitive advantage that is critical in today's economic environment. Joy is an implant dentistry expert with over 30 years of hands-on clinical and business experience with implant dentistry. She was the first to begin teaching the business of implant dentistry over 20 years ago, working with specialists and general dentists. Joy's understanding of the surgical and restorative aspects of care makes the communication, coordination and completion of treatment more successful.

Treatment acceptance and completion of recommended care! Preventing the loss of patients!
Some dental professionals wonder where all their patients have gone. There are boxes and boxes of charts representing patients who have been lost. There are holes in the schedule, even though patients tell the dentist they want treatment. Too many patients don't have an appointment to receive care. Somehow patients are mysteriously disappearing. Patients get the hygiene done and nothing else. Staff members believe the dentistry is expensive, and tell the dentist that's why patients refuse to schedule. Insurance is not covering the service, or "the economy" has become the reason patients don't proceed. Patients are lost. Joy is an expert at bringing patients back!

Getting paid!
Practices providing comprehensive care, with fees exceeding the insurance max, know they need to collect fees prior to completion of treatment. Joy holds the record for collecting fees in advance and teaches a complete system for making financial arrangements that will insure payment, prevent insurance interference, reduce misunderstandings, and maintain quality relationships between patients, staff and doctors. From generation of the treatment plan to receiving payment in advance, Joy engages every member of the team, not just the business staff, in making successful financial arrangements and effective collection of the fees that represent the value of the dentistry thatyou provide.

Less insurance interference!
Some bring Joy in because they are sick and tired of working for insurance dollars. Insurance is driving treatment decisions, staff members are spending all of their time chasing insurance reimbursement, patients are only doing what insurance will pay for, and patients become angry at the dentist when insurance does not pay. Some practices have allowed insurance to take control. They're extremely busy, but have nothing to show for it at the end of the day. Understanding that insurance is not bad, it just has limited coverage for dentistry, dentists bring Joy in to help calm the sleeping giant before it gains complete control.

Team development!
You might need help with team development. Some say, "The women are about to kill each other! Can't work with them! Can't work without them!" Jealousy and division between team members has an impact on the practice, affecting relationships with patients. Joy doesn't believe in "clearing house" and starting over; she prefers to engage the team in developing their leadership skills, creating win/win relationships and effectively dealing with conflict. For established teams, Joy can help revive your spirit for working together!

Effective marketing strategies!
Making the phone ring, attracting the right patients, developing referral relationships, refining internal marketing and communication skills is always needed. Since the new patient's first experience in your practice is the most critical drama affecting practice growth, predictability is key. What will happen? What will team members say? What will new patients think? Will the result be acceptance and completion of recommended necessary treatment? Joy helps every member of the team recognize their impact on marketing and communication. Effective marketing moves potential patients to become loyal patients who receive care and return year after year.

Basic training!
Some practices tell us they've been "winging it" for a while and realize that they need to establish basic operating procedures. Scripting for telephone conversations or face-to-face communication; procedures for new patient evaluations and treatment planning; skills for case presentations and making financial arrangements; evaluation of insurance plans, participation, claim processing or follow-up; procedures for lost patient recovery; systems for recall; training in risk management and record documentation; personnel management and leadership development. We're happy to provide help establishing effective operating procedures.

Download our Priorities & Risk Assessment PDF.