Introduction
Dental care is an international health practice which involves proper hygienic maintenance of teeth. The entire practice falls under a branch of medicine known as dentistry. Dentistry is widely known to be dealing with diagnosis, treatment and prevention of various oral diseases.
On the other hand, dental care is known to involve oral hygiene maintenance. This is a progressive practice people must engage in to ensure that the mouth and teeth are clean. The proposal developed in this paper aims at improving services at a newly expanded dental care clinic. It is important to note that, variety of specialized dental treatment should fully be available to all patients.
Proposal overview
Dental care center is very essential for a healthy community development. This is because teeth must frequently be maintained at higher hygienic standards. Teeth are always subjected to vigorous activities including grinding and chewing of food. It is because of this purpose that teeth are always subjected and exposed to different forms of microorganisms.
There is high risk of acquiring tooth diseases and disorders precisely in people who do not take good care of their teeth. Most common teeth complication is the exposure to oral pathological disorders. They include; Tooth decay, reddening of gums and halitosis.
Well equipped dental care clinics must be able to handle all cases of dental problems. Patients who develop dental disorders go through painful experience. They are only relieved after proper treatment. To achieve this, the dental care unit must be fully equipped in terms of facilities and professional personnel.
This means that, there is need for further expansion of the dental care center by addition of five more treatment room. This will eventually reduce operation conflicts among dentists. Moreover, customer’s privacy and confidentiality will be taken care of. This is because there will be no more overcrowding of patients undergoing treatment in one room.
Statement of the problem
Dental care is a practice that not only requires enough dental practitioners, but also requires availability of facilities. Dental care center discussed in this paper has very few dental practitioners. There are only general dentists and dental hygienist in the entire center.
This is very disappointing since patients are always referred to go elsewhere to seek for advanced treatment from specialists. For sure, such referrals are not the best option precisely for a sick patient with pain. Moreover, the logistics the customer encounter moving from one dental clinic to another in search of advanced treatment is very high.
There is need for all dental care centers to offer full dental treatment to all patients. This means that there is need to hire dental specialists for an effective in house dental practice. The other problem facing the dental care is insufficient treatment rooms. It is important to note that, most dental treatments are procedural.
Therefore, there is need for space and privacy. It is not professional to collectively perform varieties of procedures on different patients in one treatment room at the same time. Additionally, the procedures are all different depending on the degree of the patient’s disease. It is important to further expand the center. More rooms need to be constructed in addition to the available treatment rooms. In total, there is need to add five more treatment rooms.
Considering the professional personnel, the dental care center needs to have all qualified dental specialists. Due to absence of dental specialists, patients are forced to travel elsewhere in order to seek advanced treatment. This is a big challenge facing patients visiting this dental clinic. It is important to ensure that patients have access to in house dental services they need.
Objectives
- To facilitate the establishment of an advanced dental care center. This advance center should have enough physical facilities. This will make sure that customer’s expectations are accomplished once they visit the center.
- To increase the overall number of customers visiting the dental care center. The only way to achieve this is by improving performance and services offered to customers.
- To facilitate the establishment of a strong staff team. This will ensure that customers get full attention all the time.
- To ensure that the dental care unit is full of strong professional personnel. This will help in marketing the dental care center since patients will have access to varieties of advanced dental treatments.
Plan of action
Employment of dental specialists
It is clear that one of the greatest challenges facing the dental care center is shortage of professional personnel. This means that there is an urgent need to employ new dental specialists. The dental specialists to be employed include; an oral surgeon, periodontists and even an endodontists.
The oral surgeon is a dental specialist who is recognized internationally. The oral surgeon presence in the dental care unit gives hope to all patients seeking advanced dental treatment. The oral surgeon receives all patients being referred for advanced dental diagnosis and surgery. The surgeon also works on patients with dental defects and injuries. Additionally, the surgeon also treats patients suffering from surgical related diseases. Therefore, hiring an oral surgeon effectively boost the entire dental care center.
Periodontists is another very important and essential dental professional who should also be hired. This is because of the great role periodontists play as far as dentistry is concerned. First of all, periodontists professionally deal with all patients suffering from gum diseases.
The periodontists also work on patients with soft oral injuries. Moreover, the periodontists is qualified in detecting and preventing oral peridontitis disease. Periodontists, also known as the gum doctor is a professional when it comes to replacement of worn out teeth with dental implants.
An endodontists is another very important dental specialist. The presence of the endodontists is also very important since patients with advance dental complication will be taken care of. The endodontists deal with teeth that have suffered serious dental caries or trauma.
The most important and primary role of an endodontists is to save the patients original tooth. The demand of an endodontists is very high globally. Therefore, presence of an endodontists at the dental care center will increase the number of patients seeking this advance dental treatment.
Dental assistant
It is known globally that dentists operate while accompanied by an assistant. Dentist assistant help dental specialists in preparation of materials to be used in dental treatment procedures. In addition to this, the dentist assistant also helps in variety of other duties.
Administratively, the dentist assistant can fully participate especially when scheduling or rescheduling patients appointments. The assistant also welcomes and direct new patients to the dentist treatment room. The assistant further assists the receptionist in record keeping. This is crucially an important role since patients medical reports are progressively reviewed by dentists.
Patient record keeping is very important especially when contacting the patient over a rescheduled treatment appointment. It is also important to point out that as a professional, the dentist assistant work hand in hand with the dentist throughout the patient’s examination process.
The assistant also help the dentist in preparation of the requested instruments to be used in the treatment procedure. Furthermore, the assistant is also qualified to assist in offering the laboratory services. Generally, services offered by the dentist assistant include; preparation of dental plasters, tooth fittings and also developing dental x-rays.
Dental receptionist
For a successful development and growth of the dental care center, it is vital to employ professional receptionist. The receptionist service is very important due to their humane personality. The professional duty of the receptionist is to welcome patients and explaining to them the procedure of operation in the center.
First time patients visiting the dental care feel at home after an engagement with the receptionist. In addition to that, the dental receptionist has duties in receiving and calling patients by phone reminding them of their appointment and other issues.
The receptionist should frequently be interacting with other staffs, rescheduling patient appointments and doing all the essential paper work required. It is important to mention that, a good dental care center is always recognized by good reception services offered.
Expansion of five dental treatment rooms
There is great need for further expansion of the dental care center. This is because more dental specialists are expected to be hired. This means that, there is need for each specialist to be allocated with specific treatment room. Each specialist room should be separate from the others.
There is need to allocate specific treatment room for the oral surgery, periodontal and endodontic specialized treatment. It is also very essential to construct a record keeping and the management offices. The treatment room should be approximately 5000 square feet’s. The construction design must employ the use of sustainable ecofriendly building materials. This is because the atmosphere around the treatment room should be tranquil and inviting.
The most significant input is to ensure that the treatment room is comfortable to patients. The treatment room design must consider an easy patient movement and privacy. This is very important since most patients always demand for their privacy. It also helps in reducing anxiety among patients.
The treatment room should also be comfortable for the specialists to work on efficiently. The dental clinic must be decorated in a way that it reflects a sincere commitment to serve. This comfortable environment naturally markets the well being of the dental clinic to the customers. Presence of the record room is very important. The room should be located near the receptionist chamber. It is the place where customer’s medical files are kept.
The management office should be constructed near the reception. The management role is to ensure that there is smooth and organized operation within the dental clinic. The management team is also responsible in following up with financial flow. They produce financial statement and calculate profit or losses encountered. Salary payment is also the duty of management. Finally, the management team ensures that staffs work in a comfortable environment. They make decision and solve disputes within the clinic.
Significance of the proposal
It is important to offer all services to patients with dental problems according to their needs. Dental care must treasure the patient needs. This is the primary reason for establishment of the dental care clinics. Therefore, it is the duty of dental care management to ensure that patients get full services.
First of all, the most advantageous step of employing dental specialists is that it convenience customers. Patients eventually develop the inner trust and automatically prefer the clinic for any dental services. The availability of dental specialist also reduce customers stress encountered once referred elsewhere to seek advanced treatment. Furthermore, patients even recommend the clinic to other people seeking dental treatment because of the full services offered.
It is very inconveniencing for patients to move up and down in search of a dental specialist. Offering varieties of in house dental services is one step that assures patient of quick recovery. Therefore, any dental clinic that has several dental specialists working together automatically wins the patients trust. The good name of the dental clinic will be marketed everywhere by such patients. This eventually contributes to large influx of customer to the clinic hence high revenues collected.
In terms of financial income, the dental care center will have an increased financial income. The availability of specialist will also invite customers from other dental clinics seeking advanced treatment. In fact, customer’s referred to specialists will have to pay more money unlike previously where they would go elsewhere seeking for advanced treatment.
Moreover, employing more dental specialists tend to boost the overall production of the dental clinic through appointments. Many customers who are far will book an appointment with the desired specialist and even pay in advance. This means that the number of customers seeking dental treatment in the clinic will automatically increase.
The increase in customer’s number is relative to increase in financial income. This means that the clinic will register higher profits than before. The possibility of partnership with other dental clinics is also very high. This is because patients will be referred from other clinic to seek advanced checkup from specialists. This is significantly important since it paves way for huge profits.
Implementation time line
The entire proposed activities should not take more than six months to be implemented. The construction process should take not more than four months. First, the tender for the construction must be advertized publicly. The best bidder selected must also approve the tender by signing the contract.
Before construction process, the treatment room designer need to carry out a detailed survey on the clinic in order to develop the best plan for the extension. The process of hiring new dental specialist is expected to take not more than two months. This involves time allocated for interviews. This means that the vacancy positions must be advertized and posted publicly. Candidates shortlisted should be subjected though an interview process where the best will be selected.
Conclusion
Based on the proposal, there is need for the dental care center to consider customers interest first. According to the proposal, this can effectively be achieved by increasing the number of dental specialists. They will offer advanced dental treatment to customers.
Additionally, there is need for expanding the clinic. This can also be achieved by adding more treatment rooms. There is need of hiring new staffs. They include a receptionist and management staff. They will help in controlling all activities carried out within the dental clinic.