Coach Barrow

So your patient writes:

Dear dentist

 Thank you for your letter 14 November 2008, in response to my letter 

 Tuesday 04 November 2008.

 I understand and acknowledge the comments you make.

 We greatly appreciate the quality of dental care we received, and thank 

 you personally on how you treat us as a family.

 As I am sure you can appreciate, as private patients our expectations are 

 higher than if NHS - however you and your team continue to deliver good 

 service and meet these expectations - thank you.

 For clarity, the question I was asking relates to how annual rises are 

 calculated/decided, etc. as they are clearly ‘excessive’ increases above 

 annual inflation rates.

 This has resulted in the the net rate of £17.31 per person from January 

 2009, compared to a starting point of £12.73 net per person in September 

 2005 (just over three years ago).

 Again thank you for your response - but I do not feel this addresses the 

 question I was trying to ask.

 To try and avoid ambiguity, there is absolutely no issue regarding the 

 quality of the service you provide - thank you - but a genuine surprise (? 

 concern) at the annual increases in the amount we pay - which each year 

 has been well above the rate of inflation.

 The question being asked is how annual rises are calculated/decide?

 I look forward to hearing from you.

 Yours sincerely

and you reply:

Dear Patient

Many thanks for getting back to me. I’ll do my best to answer your question.

When arriving at the calculation for current pricing, we are obliged to take the following influences into consideration:

1. The non-clinical operating costs and upkeep of the buildings;

2. The clinical operating costs and upkeep of the surgeries;

3. The recruitment, compensation and training of support staff in a competitive marketplace;

4. The recruitment, specialised training and compensation of self-employed clinical staff in an even more competitive marketplace;

5. The ability to take advantage of the latest advances in clinical technology, equipment and procedures:

6. The choice and quality of suppliers for clinical procedures and the quality and longevity of materials used;

7. The maintenance of robust systems for financial control, marketing and customer service;

8. The overall pricing strategy of the dental market;

9. The national and global economy;

10. The economic situation of the community in which we operate and the patients we serve and, by no means least;

11. The need to generate profits to remunerate the owners and to reinvest for the future.

It is self-evident that our prices have risen “faster than inflation” over the period to which you refer – due to the necessity to restore differentials that existed when we left the NHS. We had some “catch up” to do if the business was going to meet its customer service and clinical promises.

We believe that we now offer a dental practice that sits at the forefront of “best practice” in all of the areas mentioned in my list and we are very proud of that.

Yours

The avid reader of this blog will know that my accountant for over 15 years, Nigel Bottomley, passed away in May this year - and left a gap in my life, not only of talented and caring advice but friendship as well.

Replacing Nigel (if there can be such a thing) has been a challenge to say the least.

The “problem” (with me) is that it’s all about relationships and personality.

What was I looking for?

1. Somebody who took a genuine interest in me as a person;
2. Somebody who knew how to listen empathetically at a first meeting;
3. Somebody who was not judgmental about some of the stupid decisions I have made over the years;
4. Somebody who understood the psyche of a small business entrepreneur;
5. Somebody who “got it” really quickly;
6. Somebody who said “no problem, leave it with me, I’ll get it sorted”;
7. Somebody I would happily go out for a pint with;
8. Somebody who knew about accountancy.

bonus-calculator.xls

This is a simple but effective little spreadsheet for you to download and play with.

In the practice who use it, profits are calculated monthly and then distributed to all salaried staff in the same proportion that their individual salary bears to the overall payroll cost.

This means that everybody is getting the same percentage of their salary as a bonus - get that?

You can enter bonus percentage, salaries and monthly profits in the white spaces - and go from there!