Prosperident Pulse #97 August 2020

Prosperident's next webinar takes place on August 19 at 8:00 pm Eastern / 5:00 pm Pacific. You won't want to miss this one. The title is Picking Up the Pieces - What to do When the Unthinkable Happens.

David, Wendy, and Amber will talk about what to do (and not to do) when you suspect or find embezzlement in your practice, and what happens after embezzlement is confirmed.

To register, click HERE. If you want to catch up on our previous webinars (we had some great topics like Forensic Hiring and

PACE CE credit is available.

We look forward to having you back in our audience!

Several of our clients generously agreed to be interviewed about their experience being embezzled. Here is part of Wendy Askins' interview with Dr. Kirk Specht, where Kirk talks about what made him suspicious.

Delegation versus Abdication

Delegation is essential to the financial well-being of a practice. The existence of well-trained clinical and administrative staff allows a practice’s doctors to focus on their unique (and high value) competencies.

The concept of clinical delegation is well-understood by dentists and is something that they first encountered in dental school.

However, delegation of the administrative functions in a practice is something that is normally encountered much later when a dentist becomes the owner of a practice, and it happens without the dentist having the benefit of any training.

In our webinars, we talk a lot about doing a better job of screening applicants before hiring.

MANY cases of embezzlement could have been avoided if the practice owner had only taken a bit more time to learn about the applicant. (For a spectacular example, look HERE at an Oregon woman accused of stealing from a dental office while she was awaiting trial for stealing $1 million from a medical office.

Dentistry has allowed itself to fall out of step with how most businesses hire. I hear lots of excuses from dentists about the casualness with which they hire, almost none of which make sense. For example, I often hear that there is a "shortage of good people in my area". Even if this were true (and after the COVID-caused adjustments happening now I'm not sure it is), it might prompt you to "lower the bar" and hire someone you might not in other circumstances. However, you still need to know to what extent you have compromised your standards.

In my 30+ years of working with dentistry, I've had the pleasure of seeing immense growth in dentistry's ability to deliver clinical care. Unfortunately, the ability to screen out dangerous applicants hasn't progressed at all.

We are currently working on adding some background checking services to our product offerings and expect to have an announcement soon.

Sincerely,