What is your dental practice’s mission statement? Do you base your practice’s daily operations around your mission statement? How often do you revisit your mission statement, particularly when circumstances change?
What is your dental practice’s mission statement? Do you base your practice’s daily operations around your mission statement? How often do you revisit your mission statement, particularly when circumstances change?
Thousands of dental professionals set their practices apart through mission statements that focus on the quality of services, patient relations, and treatment options. A mission statement reflects the overall goal that you wish to achieve through your practice.
Various recent changes to the dental field may have been impacting your office’s hours of operation and treatments available, and by extension, impacting your practice’s overall goal. With these changes, it may be an excellent time to evaluate whether your practice still integrates your original values into your everyday routine, or if your core values have shifted. Assessing your mission statement also invites you to revisit your short-term and long-term goals. For example, your office’s primary goals may have changed from acquiring a certain number of new patients per month to ensuring your existing patients have received necessary treatment or are booked.
Specific, measurable goals are favourable in comparison to vague, overarching goals. Having realistic goals helps keep your team on track throughout the day and helps guide you when making business decisions.
Some examples of realistic goals are shown in the Nova Scotia Dental Association’s resource for improving your practice’s communication with patients. For instance, NSDA focuses on the patient-provider relationship and outlines the importance of soft social skills in dentistry. More specifically, educating your patients on what your practice is doing to ensure safety is specific and measurable based on patients coming in.
Unrealistic mission statements can sometimes be misleading for your team. As this article points out, a broad mission statement can sometimes lead you away from the reality of running a dental practice. If you get caught up in thinking about the big picture, you may lose focus on the actions that advance your practice towards your goal. Big aspirations do not bring results quickly, which may cause your team to lose motivation. For this reason, it is important to set realistic goals that everyone in office can achieve, especially during a challenging time. For instance, your schedule may only accommodate for a portion of patients everyday due to social distancing. Adjusting your goals to fit the circumstances may be necessary to encourage your team and set your practice up for success.
