Is It Possible To Save Your Failing Dental Practice?

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Running a successful dental practice is harder than people realize and a lot of dental practices fall on hard times because they make a few simple mistakes. If your patient numbers are dropping and your financial situation is spiralling out of control, it’s important that you act quickly. You only have a limited amount of time before you are unable to keep the practice going and you will be forced to close the business entirely. But if you take action right away and make some changes, your practice can thrive again in the future. These are the best ways to save a failing dental practice. 

 

Consider Selling Up 

 

Before you think about ways to save your practice, you need to consider whether that is really what you want to do. It will take a lot of hard work to turn things around and even if you get everything right, there is always the chance that the business will still fail. In some cases, you should consider selling the practice and using the money to start your next business venture. If you are going to sell, it’s important that you seek advice from a company like Professional Transition Strategies before you make any moves. Selling a practice can be incredibly costly if you do it wrong, and you may end up getting a lot less than the business is actually worth. But with professional help, you can ensure that you minimize the admin costs and get the best price for the practice. 

 

Cut Costs 

 

In any failing business, cutting costs should always be your first priority. If you can reduce your overheads, you will be able to keep the business afloat for longer, which gives you more opportunities to turn things around and boost patient numbers again. There are a lot of ways for dental practices to cut costs like buying supplies in bulk or shopping around for better insurance packages. If you are in big trouble, you may need to consider cutting back on non-essential staff to save money as well. 

 

Improve Your Collection Policy 

 

A lot of dental practices struggle because they have a poor collection policy and they are only collecting a small fraction of patient bills. This quickly leads to cash flow issues and if you don’t do something about it, the practice will be forced to close. It’s important that you find ways to improve your collection policy so you are actually getting paid by all of your patients. 

 

Improve The Patient Experience

 

Nobody likes going to the dentist, which is why it’s important that you make the patient experience as positive as possible. If you can’t do that, you will start losing patients to rival practices. Once you get your finances under control, you need to focus on improving the patient experience. Shorter waiting times makes a big difference, and you need to spend some time creating a comforting and welcoming waiting area. You should also make sure that you give good advice that people can follow outside of the practice, so they can manage their dental health at home as well. 

 

If you act quickly enough and you follow these steps, it is possible to turn things around and save your dental practice.