By David Meerman Scott, marketing strategist and bestselling author
“I'm an innovation junkie,” says Dr. David Richter of Richter Orthodontics in Greeley, Colorado. “I want to find ways to make things easier.”
Dr. Richter is constantly looking for ways to improve the care he gives to his patients. When he figures out an innovation that will help, sometimes it’s never been done before. “I have four patents,” he says of the new products he has invented and is in the process of taking to market. “I've got a patent on a retainer that we're using in our practice. I make it in my lab and have a specialty appliance manufacturer who is interested, and we've been working on that collaboration. It's a cross between a clear Essix retainer and a traditional retainer that has Hawley wires which don't hold the teeth very well because it's just a wire, letting the teeth settle in the back. My invention is kind of a hybrid of the two and it's been great, we've used it for five or six years in our practice.”
In addition to the retainer patent, Dr. Richter also holds a patent on a Virtual Articulator, a computer-based technology that allows dentists to navigate 3-D data to help correct jaw movement as well as a patent on a cheek retractor. “This kind of work gives me a chance to make a big impact,” he says. “And it's very rewarding.” He also serves as Scientific Advisor for Inbrace lingual braces, a Key Opinion Leader for Inbrace Orthodontics, and a Scientific Advisor for KLOwen orthodontics.
The exterior of Richter Orthodontics in Greeley, Colorado
Dr. Richter has been practicing in Greeley for 20 years, building a thriving business. “I just love the community,” he says. “Our previous building was great, but we’ve continued to grow, and we outgrew our space.” So he embarked on a project in 2016 to build a new facility.
When he realized that he could apply the same focus on innovation that he uses in his practice to create a building with a highly efficient layout and with the ideal equipment to make processes easier, Dr. Richter jumped into the office design process. “We built a 6,700 square foot building here in Greeley,” he says. “We wanted everything - the equipment, the design of the building, everything - to exemplify how we approach orthodontics and the quality of care that we try to achieve.”
The waiting room of Richter Orthodontics features a theater area
Dr. Richter worked with Design Ergonomics to help him in several key areas of the creation of his new facility. The teams at Design Ergonomics helped choose the best site for his new building, they designed the floor plan of the building, and products from DE sister company Ergonomics Products were chosen to make the office much more efficient.
The office officially opened in late 2021. “It's been amazing just coming into this facility and being able to work with the equipment that's so much more efficient than what we had,” Dr. Richter says. “We have all the things we constantly use chairside, so the assistants don't have to get up for anything. When the patient sits down, we have all our wires or bonding material or whatever it is that we're using available. As a result, the appointments are much more efficient. The patients are in and out in a better, more timely fashion. It's been a very stress relieving change from our old facility.”
Checkout at Richter Orthodontics
Dr. Richter introduced two innovations from Design Ergonomics into his new facility that have proven to be especially helpful: Ergonomic Products’ RapidCarts and Pull-Down Cabinet Shelves.
“RapidCarts are awesome!” Dr. Richter says. “Everything is in the cart. We don’t have to get up and it's very efficient. And the Pull-Down Cabinet Shelves are the coolest thing ever. Many on my staff are only about 5’ 3” and they just love those. It's so much easier to get to equipment. In our old office, we had stuff in the closet, we had stuff in cabinet doors. I'm so proud of my new office. I had the CEO of a dental wire company visit and he said: ‘I've never seen an office this nice,’ I get that often.”
The project was about five years from initial idea to up and running. Dr. Richter is pleased that he was a part of it from the start. “Working with Design Ergonomics as well as a good builder and architects made this a fun project,” he says. “When I first started with this process, I talked to the architects and I said I want 12 operatories, I want tall ceilings, and a lot of glass. And the team came up with this design and it just blows me away! It's something that I would do again if I wanted to build another location.”
Tall ceilings and beautiful lighting make for a serene patient experience
The new office is making a distinct impact on patients and their families too. “It’s giving a better experience for patients,” Dr. Richter says. “When I go to the chair and the parents are there because everybody's on top of the treatment and what we're doing and they're not running around, I can have a conversation. I can I update them on their treatment. In the nine o'clock position we've got a computer screen, and then at the 12 o'clock I can bring their pictures up and show the X rays and have really good communication. The experience we hear from our patients is has been very, very positive and we have 577 five-star reviews.”
Besides being great for Dr. Richter, his staff, and his patients, the new 12-op facility also makes the practice more profitable. “Because of the systems we put in place, the new efficiencies, the new Design Ergonomics layout and equipment, we went from booked eight weeks out, to booked four to five weeks out," Dr. Richter says. "We went from five days a week, five columns a day, to four days a week to four columns a day. I became a lot more focused on P&L’s and the bottom line.”
Now that the new office has been up and running for more than a year, Dr. Richter advises other doctors considering a new building to never try cut costs. “Don’t go cheap,” he says. “Hire the professionals, the people who know what they're doing.”
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