Practice success is defined across the four ‘dimensions’ of oral health, patient satisfaction, job satisfaction and financial profit. It is suggested that the ‘secret’ of success in dental practice is to make patient (customer) satisfaction the primary focus. Not a very earth shattering or surprising ‘secret’ perhaps! This is hardly a new idea, and not a concept restricted to dental practice. This principle applies to all businesses. This series of articles reviews evidence from across a broad spectrum of publications: from populist business publications through to refereed scientific papers, this ‘secret’ seems to be confirmed. The evidence for which aspects of our service are most important in achieving patient satisfaction (and therefore success) is explored.
Clinical Relevance: Good oral health outcomes for patients are defined as the primary purpose of dental practice and, therefore, an essential dimension of success. The link between positive patient perceptions of general care and his/her own oral health to practice success is explored.
Article
As we discussed in Part 1, Newsome1 suggested the following important interconnected indicators of success:
The last three of these are clearly related to job satisfaction. Newsome emphasizes this by stating:
‘The people who work in an organisation are its lifeblood: its heart and soul. This is true for any business, but particularly so for service organisations. Two of the chief characteristics of services are that people are part of the product and for most of the time customers are present in the system’.
‘The quality of customer care offered to internal customers is just as vital as that offered to external customers, and that in successful organisations everyone operates as though all their colleagues are cherished and important customers’.
The concept of ‘internal customers’ can probably be traced back to Deming.3 He suggested 14 points for successful management of people in order to produce quality products and services. We have already discussed in Part 1 the clear relationship between the concepts of ‘quality’ and success. Deming was an American statistician who is considered to be the father of the modern quality movement. He states as his 9th point:
Register now to continue reading
Thank you for visiting Dental Update and reading some of our resources. To read more, please register today. You’ll enjoy the following great benefits:
