Rantvice

[toothifrutti]

Hey all! Half rant and half seeking advice here.

So. Somewhat recent grad here working in a low stress gig at the time doing operatives only during these crazy times. Initially I took this gig since there weren't a lot of opportunities at the time when COVID broke out early last year so I took it. Being the new guy at the office I usually don't stomp my feet a lot early on, but recently a few things have been on my mind:

Staff:
I had an assistant that left a few months ago ( she was really good and proactive but it looks like she just hopped somewhere else; staff tells me she randomly comes back....ok?) Now when she left no one was really hired (nor an attempt was made I suspect) and I was given another assistant which in my time there only used to turn over rooms and take xrays. So slowly I've been training her and I still feel I need to be on top of what she's doing as well as I get really nervous sometimes for example when she needs to retract the tongue as I'm working or making sure she's not curing a cotton roll instead of #30. This brings me to the next point:

Schedule:
The above mentioned has really slowed down my pace a bit and also; now when I'm done with a patient and hop to the next chair, I now have to wait for the assistant to either turn over the previous room to work on a patient for about 8-10mins or start working by myself which I don't particularly like; I like to go into the room with my assistant ready to go as a team. When scheduling at 30mins appt this is really starting to feel rushed as we usually are running behind 5-10mins. Would 45mins standard appointments for operatives be considered way too long? My back has been feeling sore after recovering on the weekends. I'm extremely gentle and get complimented almost on a daily basis of how gentle/painless my procedures are, but that also takes me a little bit of time and TLC to operate as such.

Materials:

Big foul a few weeks ago. I expressed to the head assistant who's in charge of ordering supplies that we need to order new composites; running low and the remaining are expired from 2018. Ok, a few days later they handed me the new package of fillings. I opened the package and I went ahead and decided to check the actual individual pellets since I don't trust even my own shadow; THEY WERE ALL THE EXPIRED ONES! It looks like someone placed them in the new box. This made me very upset because I'm 100% sure a rep did not send this. When confronted; they told me they had arrived like that and alas next day all new composites with expiration date 2022.

As an associate/IC; how can I create a system for bur replacement? I feel that they're recycling/sterilizing burs all the time and it's lowering my efficiency.

Compensation:

I'm currently at $600 per diem seeing about 9-11 operative pts as an IC. Is this reasonable?
I have no idea how much I'm producing; is it normal to request for performance/production reports? I just want to make sure that my wage is reasonably proportional to my production; I have not signed any kind of contract. All verbal agreements. I know I should be more hands-on and involved but my personal life has been a bit of a roller coaster so it's just been a lot of things to keep on top of at the moment.

Would appreciate your thoughts, insight and advice !!!! TIA

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[toothifrutti]

Bump! So sorry I clumsily locked the the thread!

 

[Saddleshoes]

Time to move on.

 

[Rambunctious]

Hey all! Half rant and half seeking advice here.

So. Somewhat recent grad here working in a low stress gig at the time doing operatives only during these crazy times. Initially I took this gig since there weren't a lot of opportunities at the time when COVID broke out early last year so I took it. Being the new guy at the office I usually don't stomp my feet a lot early on, but recently a few things have been on my mind:

Staff:
I had an assistant that left a few months ago ( she was really good and proactive but it looks like she just hopped somewhere else; staff tells me she randomly comes back....ok?) Now when she left no one was really hired (nor an attempt was made I suspect) and I was given another assistant which in my time there only used to turn over rooms and take xrays. So slowly I've been training her and I still feel I need to be on top of what she's doing as well as I get really nervous sometimes for example when she needs to retract the tongue as I'm working or making sure she's not curing a cotton roll instead of #30. This brings me to the next point:

Schedule:
The above mentioned has really slowed down my pace a bit and also; now when I'm done with a patient and hop to the next chair, I now have to wait for the assistant to either turn over the previous room to work on a patient for about 8-10mins or start working by myself which I don't particularly like; I like to go into the room with my assistant ready to go as a team. When scheduling at 30mins appt this is really starting to feel rushed as we usually are running behind 5-10mins. Would 45mins standard appointments for operatives be considered way too long? My back has been feeling sore after recovering on the weekends. I'm extremely gentle and get complimented almost on a daily basis of how gentle/painless my procedures are, but that also takes me a little bit of time and TLC to operate as such.

Materials:

Big foul a few weeks ago. I expressed to the head assistant who's in charge of ordering supplies that we need to order new composites; running low and the remaining are expired from 2018. Ok, a few days later they handed me the new package of fillings. I opened the package and I went ahead and decided to check the actual individual pellets since I don't trust even my own shadow; THEY WERE ALL THE EXPIRED ONES! It looks like someone placed them in the new box. This made me very upset because I'm 100% sure a rep did not send this. When confronted; they told me they had arrived like that and alas next day all new composites with expiration date 2022.

As an associate/IC; how can I create a system for bur replacement? I feel that they're recycling/sterilizing burs all the time and it's lowering my efficiency.

Compensation:

I'm currently at $600 per diem seeing about 9-11 operative pts as an IC. Is this reasonable?
I have no idea how much I'm producing; is it normal to request for performance/production reports? I just want to make sure that my wage is reasonably proportional to my production; I have not signed any kind of contract. All verbal agreements. I know I should be more hands-on and involved but my personal life has been a bit of a roller coaster so it's just been a lot of things to keep on top of at the moment.

Would appreciate your thoughts, insight and advice !!!! TIA

Looks like you have a few issues going on with this place that sounds like corporate dentistry maybe? Your staffing issues you need to bring up to your practice manager right away, get it sorted out. As far as what burs you want, it should be your preference but then again the owner might not be willing to rearrange everything since you are newer. As far as salary for an associate, it sounds reasonable for a new grad, it isn't much but slightly better than some corp jobs. Instead of 600 per day you should ask for that or a percentage of total production (whichever is higher for the day). Ultimately you want to own your own practice or even partner into one at least.

 

[charlestweed]

This sounds like a typical work environment for an associate. For the owner to pay you good salary, he/she has to cut cost somewhere else like reusing the old dull burs until they break, hiring a low pay inexperienced assistant etc. The more the owner has to invest on the supplies and assistants, the less he/she can afford to pay you. Getting paid $600 for seeing only 9-11 patients a day is not bad. When I worked as an associate GP, I had to see a little bit more patients a day than what you have to see now. And I got paid slightly below the average for the area where I was at. I didn't have any other choice because this was the only office that wanted to hire me 2 Saturdays a month (I was a full time GPR resident at that time). Most offices wanted me to work more days.

If you can’t find another job that pays you more, you should stay at this job and learn as much you can. Working in a non-ideal environment forces you to teach yourself to do things more quickly and efficiently. Working in a busy corp office has helped me learn to multitask and to manage the chair time better. If you want everything to go your way, you have to start your own office. Owning an office is the only way.

 

[DrJeff]

The assistant side of things, unfortunately in many places, that is just the reality of the job market right now, Short supply, high demand, and sometimes it's more about having a warm body as an assistant more than having a GOOD warm body as an assistant.

Heck, in my part of CT, where vaccines for all healthcare workers currently aren't mandated (that may change soon) a GP colleague of mine in the town that I practice in, just lost 3 staff members when he told his staff that he is going to require that they're all vaccinated (he's lost patients because some have been asking if his entires staff is vaccinated or not) and hasn't had any luck in even getting a single person to respond to his job postings (2 assistant positions and 1 hygienist position) so the supply side is the bigger issue for sure,

As for the materials side of things, frankly if it isn't a red flag yet about any thoughts of a long term situation in that office for you, it should be