Very Dental: Hygiene Dollars vs. Doctor Dollars with Amy Morgan

The Very Dental Podcast Network

In today's throwback episode, Alan welcomes back Amy Morgan, the VP of Practice Growth Strategies for Spear Education. Way back in September of 2022, Al had the chance to talk with Amy about dental hygiene, bouncing back from COVID and a whole lot of other stuff. This episode has so much good stuff in it that I thought it was time to offer it back up!

"...a hygiene dollar, even in the best of times, has at best a 15-20% profit margin. A doctor dollar has up to 60%..." -Amy Morgan

Amy Morgan will give you 52% clinical excellence. But she wants 48% for business excellence! Amy joined Spear in 2018 as Vice President of Consulting Strategy. For more than 25 years as a She's been a consultant and trainer for more than 25 years and is the former CEO of Pride Institute.

Some of the topics they covered include:

• How did Spear quickly retool for the COVID crisis? Is she over Zoom?
• Once the "fight or flight" crisis was over, what did Amy and Spear Education learn?
• "The Great Hygiene Migration"
• What's the strategy for the lack of hygienists? (spoiler: you can't wish for something that's not there)
• Healthy patients vs. less healthy patients
• Doctors should NOT be doing hygiene
• Embrace your inner hypochondriac
• What do you do for COVID no-shows? (RFR..."reason for return")
• Having patient sign their financial commitments ("we hold this spot for YOU")
• "Lost time fee" vs. "missed appointment fee" (you can have that one for free!)
• "It's OK to not like people"
• Paying your team well is important, but you need to know how to do it right.
• "Don't chase behaviors but question beliefs"
• How does a team member show their value objectively?
• Variable component of pay: quarterly bonuses paid out over a quarter
• A very fat pitch for Spear Practice Solutions!
• A specific hygiene formula: hygiene wages should range 30-40% of their production

Some links from the show:

• Spear Education
• Spear Practice Solutions
• Spear Online

Go get your ticket and your room for Voices of Dentistry 2023!

Join the Very Dental Facebook group using the password "Timmerman," Hornbrook," "McWethy" or "Lipscomb!"

The Very Dental Podcast network is and will remain free to download. If you’d like to support the shows you love at Very Dental then show a little love to the people that support us!