Two years ago I posted the blog Are you Living the Vision, Mission and Values of your Dental Practice?. Today’s blog expands on the theme and helps you answer that question by proving examples of mission, vision and values statements that you can use for your own practice. Once established, you’ll see how they form the foundation for prioritizing your core practice objectives. In a future post, I will show you how to measure your progress in achieving these objectives by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) derived from practice management software.
Let’s start with your mission statement. It is a concise summary of why you are in business, what makes you unique and the value your practice provides to those you serve. Here’s an example. “ABC Dental is committed to providing our patients with the highest quality dental care in the most comfortable and stress-free environment possible.”
Next, your vision statement adds the “how” of the business and the means of defining success. Without a solid plan that supports the practice values, it is likely to remain just a vision. A vision statement example is, “To operate an efficient, profitable and satisfying practice based on proven management principles”.
Finally, your value statements – they serve as everyday guides for long-term practice success. Here are some examples to consider:
| Value Proposition Examples | Value Proposition Statements |
| Quality | We provide exceptional dental care and service for maximum value. |
| Commitment | We develop relationships that make a positive difference in our patients’ lives. |
| Full Disclosure | We provide a full explanation of all treatment options and the consequences of non-treatment. |
| Integrity | We are personally accountable for delivering on our commitments. |
| Respect | We value our employees, encourage their development and reward their performance. |
Once you develop your mission, vision and value statements, you can use them to prioritize the following measurable core practice objectives. Working with dental practices over the years has given me the opportunity to observe their importance:
1. Quality of care
Your commitment to provide high-quality service and achieve patient satisfaction should remain one of your primary objectives. Qualitative Measures: A large number of positive reviews and patient referrals and a high re-appointment and patient retention rate are all indications that you are delivering what you promised.
2. Patient growth
Net patient growth (new patients, fewer lost patients) is vital for any practice. External marketing strategies for attracting new patients and internal marketing for patient retention and referrals are the key to achieve this objective. Qualitative Measures: Net new patients (New patients minus patients lost over the same time period).
3. Production growth
To increase production revenue in the absence of patient growth, unscheduled prescribed treatment and outstanding recalls needs to be diligently tracked. Qualitative Measures: Production per unit of time, average production per patient, average production per appointment, treatment plan conversion rate and percentage of patients on regular recall.
4. Practice sustainability
Too much practice overhead reduces profit margins, whereas too little overhead will choke your practice growth. Consider every major spending decision from a return-on-investment perspective if profitability is one of your main goals. Qualitative Measures: Practice break even point and patient retention rate.
5. Low-stress environment
In many cases, inefficient business systems can be a source of dental practice stress. By implementing well-designed operational systems, improving your practice’s performance becomes easier and more productive, resulting in less stress. Qualitative Measures: Patient wait times, rate of missed appointments and cancellations, operatory downtime and number of patient complaints.
6. Professional satisfaction
Reflecting on why you wanted to become a dentist and what type of dentistry you like to do will help determine where professional satisfaction fits in when prioritizing your objectives. Qualitative Measures: Dental procedure composition and number of positive reviews.
To conclude, effectively using your practice management system to track your progress can help you identify problems before it is too late to recover. It is important to involve the entire dental team when developing your practice statements and objectives. You are all stakeholders and, to achieve practice objectives, everyone needs to participate in improving upon any identified deficiencies.
