Practice Plans tips on converting to private practice…
First up, the importance of preparation and undertaking essential groundwork can not be underestimated. With the variety of issues plaguing NHS dentistry at the moment, it’s easy to understand why some dental practitioners are reaching breaking point and making snap decisions. However, you’ve no doubt spent years building up your practice, so you need to spend a considerable amount of time exploring your options.
Weigh up the pros and cons. Suffice to say, with the current NHS circumstances, the reasons for this type of change are often negative, as dentists try to move away from increasingly difficult circumstances. However, it is worth taking the time to distinguish the positive reasons for changing. Create a vision of the practice you want to develop; this might simply be wanting to maintain your current quality of care. Or, in line with the exciting variety of business models now emerging in dentistry, you may want to specialise in a particular form of treatment or type of patient
Carrying out a financial review of the practice is of paramount importance. The key purpose of this exercise is to establish the appropriate hourly rate upon which the practice can base its private charges. Also whilst carrying out the review, the process itself may highlight issues with your overhead costs, which might benefit from further scrutiny before taking the conversion step.
The suitability of your current position in achieving your goals needs to be investigated. This means knowing your customers and their area, and understanding the external influences, such as NHS availability and local economic considerations. It is also about your current strengths and weaknesses. For example, whether you have seen your patient enough times to have built up the levels of emotional goodwill that will be needed if you test their loyalty with a move away from the NHS.
Also, don’t overlook the implications that the conversion may have on your pension.
Sometimes this can feel like a major stumbling block, but with the right advice from the appropriate person, you can plan for the effect conversion has on your NHS pension and build in alternative arrangements to your calculation of the correct hourly rate.
Once you are fully confident that conversion is the right step for you, the next thing is to consider the most appropriate way to let your patients know. The tried and tested method is to send a mailshot to all your patients at the same time. The wording of the letter should reflect the personality of you and your practice, however, you don’t need to completely reinvent the wheel as there are now numerous examples of excellent conversion letters to take inspiration from.
Whilst mulling over the mailshot, consider your customer communication as a whole. Look at all the marketing material you have within your practice and ask questions. Is it consistent with the direction you are taking your practice and is it giving out the right messages to your patients? You may want to completely revamp everything, from referral cards to a website, or perhaps only a few tweaks need to be made.
Engaging your team in the planning stage is a trick not to be missed. You need to allow them to develop a sense of belief in, and ownership of, the changes you would like to make. A common characteristic among successful conversions has been the consistent and positive response of all practice team members when quizzed by patients.
If all of the above seems a bit daunting, then my final recommendation would be to seek the support of a plan provider. There are clear advantages to having patients consider themselves members of the practice such as increased loyalty and more regular attendance. And, by working with a well established plan provider on a conversion, you will benefit from their experience of tackling all the issues above in hundreds of different circumstances.
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