Spear is excited to announce the release of four new team meetings designed to help doctors and their staff create a stronger, more efficient practice from the inside out. The meetings, led by Visiting Faculty member Dr. Courtney Lavigne, cover a variety of essential skills, from patient communication to dental benefits to social media for the practice.

In "Power Questions For the New Patient Phone Call," Dr. Lavigne breaks down the most important questions to ask a new patient to ensure a successful experience for everyone involved. She will explain how to ask a patient about their dental history and establish a caring and authentic doctor-patient relationship within that first phone call.

new dental patient phone call

Doctors and their teams will walk away from this meeting more confident in their ability to:

  • Build positive new patient experiences before they even walk in the door
  • Gather the appropriate information about a patient's dental history and past experiences in an open and honest way
  • Build patient rapport and streamline the new patient experience

Having better conversations in the hygiene room is a huge key to better patient relationships - are your conversations up to par? Dr. Lavigne explains how hygienists play a critical role in setting the stage for more productive conversations with patients in "Improve Patient Communication in the Hygiene Room."

Hygienists will learn how to properly set the stage for the doctor and how to speak with re-care patients in a way that benefits the patient and the practice. 

Speaking of patient conversations, benefits and insurance will always be a complicated topic of discussion between doctors and patients. In "How To Discuss Dental Benefits When You're Out Of Network," Dr. Lavigne helps doctors and their team handle patient conversations when the practice is out of network with the patient's insurance carrier. 

After watching this team meeting, doctors and their teams will better understand:

  • How to educate patients about out-of-network dental benefits
  • What patients really mean when they ask "do you take my insurance?"
  • The nuances of out-of-network dental benefits

Last but not least, Dr. Lavigne lays out an easy-to-follow overview of how to create and maintain a successful online presence across web and social media in "Improve Your Online Presence." A practice's website, social media outlets, online reviews and searches can have a major impact on new patient flow, and this team meeting lays out best practices for maintaining each of those. 

After working through this team meeting together, team members will be able to:

  • Understand the power of social media and why the practice needs to be there
  • Understand how an online presence affects new patient flow
  • Recognize what kind of content is best to post on social media in order to boost the practice's online presence and attract new patients