In April 2019 I attended The Team Training Institute Annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Dr. John Meis and Wendy Briggs held a wonderful meeting. I was assigned to represent Design Ergonomics as one of the sponsors for the event. Among those in attendance was Dr. Marcel Lambrechts - a young dentist who had been practicing for a number of years in Richmond, Virginia. He visited my booth after listening to Dr. Ahearn speak.
As an aside - if you’ve never had the opportunity to listen to Dr. David Ahearn speak, put that on your bucket list. I don’t say this because I work for him, but rather because he is an amazing speaker; informative, dynamic, and has an incredible ability to connect to his audience. When I heard him speak for the first time back in 2006, I thought to myself, this can’t be real. He was speaking about all the frustrations we felt in our dental practice, addressed them and had a solution how to fix it. It was as though Dr. Ahearn was speaking directly to me but when I turned around, I saw every jaw in the room was wide open.
Dr. Lambrechts practice is growing like a weed. New patients numbers are some of the most impressive I’ve seen, but more remarkable is the number of patients that return. What could be wrong, right? Dr. Lambrechts already knew he needed help managing this growth, but after listening to Dr. Ahearn, it was clear he needed our help and made a b-line straight to my booth.
Ergonomics is the study of people’s efficiency in their work environment. Lean principles center around improving efficiency by eliminating waste. That’s what Reboot Practice Productivity Training is and that’s why Dr. Lambrechts hired us. You see he recognized that he would be able to do more by doing less if waste was reduced. I spent two days in his practice. Our goal; improve the practice’s efficiency by reducing waste and increase productivity.
Some of the areas I addressed,coached and successfully implemented with the team at the session:
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Get rid of what you do not need or use (Marie Condo the place)
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Simplify
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Standardize
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Checklists
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Systems
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Mobilize tech
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Improve Lab processes including lab case management
I worked with Dr. Lambrechts and his amazing team in August of 2019. On January 2, 2020, Dr. Lambrechts acquired the space adjacent to his and asked Design Ergonomics to build his next chapter. This year, our design team will lead a project that will double his capacity, allow him to hire on more associates and grow an already extraordinary organization.
Create a strong foundation for your practice to grow
At Reboot, we gave him a base to work from - a scalable model for what’s to come. He doesn’t have to start over. The systems are clear and simple enough to duplicate. We will work together in the future on ways to keep improving the systems - because improvement never stops. Best of all, he will be able to deliver an uncompromising level of care to even more deserving patients. So “thank you” for the opportunity, Dr. Lambrechts. We’re honored to be part of your journey and look forward to helping you reach - and exceed - your goals.
