Prepare for a Successful Practice Partnership

By | October 7, 2013
Practice Partnership

Practice Partnership

Whether you are looking to become an associate or take on an equity stake in a practice, successful partnerships don’t just happen—they take effort and planning. Here are four tips adapted from ADA New Dentist News:

Check for Shared Philosophies Managed care or fee-for-service? Limited hours with lots of flexibility, or an intense schedule with patients from dawn to dusk? Excellent dentists vary in their approaches to delivering quality patient care, so make sure you and your potential partner are on the same page.

Have a Trial Period If you are looking to buy or build a partnership as equals, use your initial meetings to gauge your compatibility—does agreement come easily or do you differ significantly even in the planning stages? For employer/employee relationships, like an associateship, 90 days is a typical time period for both parties to get to know each other and have the opportunity to reconsider the arrangement if necessary.

Identify How You Want to Approach Decisions While you can’t predict tomorrow, you should assume that the future will bring change, and it’s helpful to have a framework in place for how you will handle those changes, especially those that could impact the income of the practice. What will you do if only one partner wants to decrease hours, buy the latest technology, or stop practicing altogether?

Communicate Expectations for the Whole Team The staff might be concentrating on keeping one dentist busy, rather than all of the partners—not a good idea! Especially when there is a partnership between a seasoned dentist and a newer dentist, it’s important to clarify the chain of command in the practice. For instance, “On the days when I’m out and Dr. Smith is in the office, she has the authority to modify the work schedules for the team.”

What about you — is there something you wish you had considered before forming a partnership? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

One thought on “Prepare for a Successful Practice Partnership

  1. Jaime Osorio DDS

    Great article about Successful Practice Partnership! I think the most important advice anybody could recommend is make sure everything is written down so you do have a great partnership and you have a clear cut and dry communication line.

    Reply

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