You’ve mastered your clinical dental skills and now you’re ready to branch out on your own. But establishing your own dental practice comes with many responsibilities, from complying with state laws to stocking up on essential dental supplies.
Alongside key business decisions and smart hiring practices, you’ll need to deal with the finer details of opening a dental office. With so many tasks big and small to attend to, drawing up a checklist is the smartest way to make you don’t overlook anything.
Read on to find out what you’ll need to open your own dentist office.
Business Design
In the beginning, setting up a dental practice is more about business strategies than oral health.
To ensure your practice is a success, you’ll need to define your goals and plans now. This includes making decisions about factors such as patient demographics and potential specialist services. Setting up a budget is also essential as this will help inform a lot of your decisions going forward.
Site Selection & Floor Plan
With a clear idea of your budget, it’s time to choose a location as well as an appropriate dental office floor plan. Key considerations include office accessibility, comfort, and aesthetics. But above all, you should keep your preferred patient demographic in mind when choosing your location and office design.
Regulations and Insurance
Before signing any leases, it’s time to deal with the necessary state and federal requirements of opening a dentist office.
Registering your business should be top of your list. You’ll also need to set up various kinds of insurances and liability covers. And remember, requirements depend a lot on your business structure. Even if you’ve done this before, make sure to consult with your attorney at every step of the way as regulations can vary across states.
Equipment Selection
With your offices and licenses ready, it’s time to kit out your practice with all the dental equipment you’ll need for the foreseeable future.
Once your practice is open, your support staff will order and maintain your dental supplies. But for now, ordering everything – from x-ray machines and water distillers from this company to cotton padding and disposable gloves – will be your responsibility.
Employees and Training
It’s often well-chosen staff who make a dental practice great so this final step is one of the most crucial. Qualified and experienced dental care professionals are a must. But you’ll also need to hire friendly and competent admin staff to welcome patients and oversee the day-to-day running of the office.
Ongoing staff training is also a vital and sometimes obligatory component of a dental practice’s success. As the owner, you’re responsible for ensuring full compliance with various regulatory bodies.
Your Dental Practice Checklist
Setting up a dental practice might seem like a huge undertaking. But if it’s your lifelong dream to go out on your own, arming yourself with a helpful checklist like this is a good way to ensure you start off on the right foot!
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