dental practice business continuity plan

Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery for Dentists: How to Prepare for the Unexpected

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It’s easy to overlook continuity and disaster recovery planning when you run a dental practice. After all, your business may be small enough to avoid the interest of most cybercriminals and the number of people with access to critical systems is comparatively small. Plus, when things run smoothly, there’s little time to reflect on all the things that could possibly happen.

However, the latest Healthcare Breach Report from bitglass shows that healthcare breaches have risen more than 55 percent over the last year, with hacking and incidents caused by improper IT security leading to more than two-thirds of compromises. Everyday issues, such as inclement weather and network outages can create further problems.

With this in mind, it’s critical to create a formal continuity and disaster recovery plan for your dental practice. Not only can it save you time and money in the long run but will help keep your office legally compliant and can protect you from litigation. Let’s take a look.

Why Do Dental Offices Need a Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning?

Risk Mitigation: Throughout your continuity planning, you’ll discover a variety of potential issues and ways to prevent unavoidable or unforeseeable incidents from impacting your dental practice. This way, they may not impact your operations at all.

Reduce Expenses: With contingency plans in place, you can avoid many recovery expenses altogether.

Faster and Smoother Recovery: It takes a typical healthcare firm 236 days to recover from a data breach per bitglass data. A solid plan will help protect you and get you get chairside quicker.

Legal Compliance: Although laws vary by state and may be impacted by the patient’s age, most dental practices will need to keep detailed records for six to ten years after a patient’s last visit.  Your continuity and recovery plan will keep you compliant.

Business Strength and Competitive Advantage: A fast and low-cost recovery means your practice will bounce back from a disaster quicker than neighboring practices, which can give you an edge and allow you to pick up more new patients.

Peace of Mind: Once your continuity and disaster recovery plan is set, you can relax knowing your dental practice is prepared for anything that might come your way.

How to Create a Comprehensive Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan

Because dental software is our area of expertise , this guide will be largely focused on how to address continuity and disaster recovery planning in relation to your software and data.

The information covered is helpful whether you’re operating on your own or working with an IT specialist. If you’re working through it on your own, make it a team effort and bring everyone together to brainstorm. If you’re working with an IT specialist, review areas of concern and set up a meeting with your IT specialist to discuss potential gaps. Don’t assume they’re already addressing continuity and recovery! It may be an add-on service or could be outside the expertise of the IT person you’re working with.

Step 1: Identify Potential Threats

The first step is simply to outline potential threats to your dental practice operations. Again, brainstorm potential risks with your team and/or IT specialist. A few areas to consider are covered below.

Power Outages: In addition to leaving your practice in the dark, power outages can damage hardware and software.

Network Interruptions: Consider issues like loss of internet, system failures, and issues with your internal computer network or server.

Natural Disasters: Depending on your region, make note of potential natural disasters, such as fires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes that may impact your operations.

Inclement Weather: Like natural disasters, inclement weather such as heavy rain or snow can cause connectivity issues, damage to your building, and prevent your team from coming to work.

Disruption of Transit Systems: Thankfully, transportation infrastructure throughout the United States tends to be fairly solid. However, if things like road closures, bridge outages, or bus driver strikes could prevent vital personnel (employees, repairmen, IT support, etc.) from reaching your office, make note of them.

Crime: Even though hacking incidents and ransomware attacks are rare for dental practices, the ADA reports they do occur. You should also consider non-cyber issues, such as theft, vandalism, and issues associated with civil unrest.

Pandemics and Outbreaks: While a pandemic isn’t likely to impact your software directly, it may impact the location from which your team works and how you perform backups.

Step 2: Perform an Impact Analysis

Once you’ve outlined potential issues your practice may face, jot down all the systems and operations each issue will impact.

For example, let’s say your power goes out and it takes down your entire computer network. It may not prevent you from seeing patients, but you’ll still need access to their records. Your front office will also need to be able to handle time-critical tasks, like confirming appointments and you’ll still need a method for prescribing electronically. You’ll also need to consider issues like the costs involved in bringing your practice back online.  

There might also come a time in which you and/or your team cannot physically visit your office, but you’ll need to address concerns like appointments and patient communication . You’ll also want to consider how you’ll continue backing up your data while you’re away from your practice.

Step 3: Outline Your Before, During, and After Steps

Before: Identify team members, patients, and vendors who may be impacted by your outage or issue and have their contact information stored in an easily retrievable location. Create an incident response team, outline which steps each person will need to take, and communicate those steps to the individual. For example, your office manager or lead assistant may be responsible for notifying your IT specialist of an outage, contacting the dentist, and so forth.

During: Outline steps each team member will need to take during the incident and when specific steps should occur. Your continuity plan will likely need to include escalations if the issue is not resolved within a specific period of time.

Don’t forget to outline steps for bringing operations back online. For example, if a power outage takes your systems offline, there should be a clear process that notes:

• Who’s responsible for bringing systems online.
• What criteria the individual should use to determine it’s safe to proceed.
• The exact steps involved in bringing systems back online.
• Any resources the person will require.
• When employees can resume work and the process for bringing them back.
• When patients can return and the process for resuming appointments.

After: Have a postmortem to discuss the incident, what went well, and what could be done better next time, then update your continuity and disaster recovery plan accordingly.

Spotlight: Protecting Your Dental Practice Data

Protecting your patient data is critical. As you build out your dental practice’s continuity and disaster recovery plan, consider the points below.

Daily Backups of Your Data Are Essential

At a minimum, you should be making daily backups of your practice data. This way, you’ll only need to input a day of data if something happens to your server. If you run a busier practice, you may want to consider taking multiple backups each day. Practice-Web has a built-in feature that makes taking manual backups simple, but you can check with your IT specialist about automating the process too. Watch the video below or visit our User Guide for a walkthrough and additional details.

Monthly Backups Should Be Kept as Well

In addition to your daily backups, you’ll want to keep separate monthly backups as an additional safeguard.

Backups Should Be Kept Offsite

Because your backup may need to be used for a variety of reasons, including incidents like fires and floods, it’s best to store yours somewhere other than the office. Many practices simply use an encrypted USB that goes home with the dentist or trusted team member for daily backups. You can also work with your IT provider on setting up a cloud-based backup solution.

Your Dentist Portal Lets You Manage Your Practice from Your Phone

If you’re using Practice-Web and on paid Support, enable your Dentist Portal and familiarize yourself with how it works. ( Contact Support if you need help with this .) Your Dentist Portal works on any device, including your mobile phone, and allows you to access critical practice information like your schedule and patient data. Plus, it integrates with Smart Tools like DoseSpot electronic prescribing and pwTeledentist , so you can provide care for your patients regardless of what may be happening with your computers or physical office. You can even use Pay-by-Text to collect balances remotely.

You Can Access Server-Based Dental Software Anywhere with a Remote Access Program

Many cloud-based dental software providers would have you believe that your practice is in imminent danger if you aren’t using a cloud-based platform and entrusting your data security to them. Nothing could be farther from the truth!

Explore options like Google Remote Desktop . A remote access program will allow you to log into an in-office computer from anywhere and access all Practice-Web functions and features as if you were in your brick-and-mortar office. If you’re unsure how to set up a remote solution, check with an IT professional in your area.

Step 4: Train Your Team and Test Your Plans

Just like you need to repeat your CPR training to keep it fresh and maintain your cool during a critical situation, you’ll need to train your team and test your plans regularly to ensure everything will go smoothly should you need to draw upon your continuity and disaster recovery plans. Review and revamp your plans:

• When a key team member leaves
• When systems are updated
• After a critical event occurs

We’re Here to Help

Want to learn more about our software and Smart Tools?  Request a demo .

Already using Practice-Web and need help?  Contact Support .

Don’t have paid Support but have questions or want to sign up?  Contact Sales .

If you’d like more info on managing other areas of your practice, check out the ADA’s “ Emergency Planning & Disaster Recovery in the Dental Office ” guide.

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Dental Practice Success - Fall 2020

Strong emergency action plans help safeguard dental practices, ensure business continuity.

2020-11-20 15:30:27

Key elements to minimize disruptions when natural disasters strike

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a devastating wildfire season and record-breaking hurricane season left dental practice owners recovering from secondary disasters. In 2020, the United States was affected by 10 weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each, according to the latest available data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Centers for Environmental Information.

Dentists and their dental teams should create a business continuity plan to guide them through what to do if a disaster impacts their practice or local community. Planning for a disaster in advance can minimize the impact of the emergency so that you, your patients and staff members get back to normal.

Elements of emergency planning

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets and enforces protective workplace safety and health standards and provides information, training and assistance to workers and employers. A well-developed emergency plan and proper employee training will result in fewer and less severe injuries and less structural damage to the facility during emergencies, according to OSHA .

An emergency action plan must be in writing, kept in the workplace and available to employees for review.

However, an employer with 10 or fewer employees may communicate the plan verbally to employees. At minimum, an emergency action plan must include procedures for reporting a fire or other emergency, for evacuating and for employees who remain for critical operations and for those performing rescue or medical duties. Additionally, the plan must include procedures to account for all employees after evacuation as well as the name or job title of every employee who may be contacted by employees for information or an explanation of their duties under the plan.

Further, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule requires dentists who are “covered entities” to limit access to consumer health information. Not all dental practices are considered to be covered entities, but those that are not still must comply with applicable state law, and they may still find it prudent to comply with certain safeguards in the HIPAA rules in order to properly protect patient data.

As the number of extreme events — such as heat waves, droughts, tornadoes and hurricanes — continue to rise, prolonged power outages are becoming increasingly commonplace in various regions of the U.S. A recent ADA member survey asked dentists about the emergencies they have experienced in the dental office. The most commonly reported events — besides the current pandemic — included prolonged power outages and computer system failures.

Basics of business continuity

The purpose of a business continuity plan is to minimize the disruption to business. For this reason, dental teams should have a plan in place before they need it. A business continuity plan should include the following:

► Existing plans and policies. Including fire and flood protection plans, facility security procedures, insurance policies, finance and purchasing procedures, employee policies and risk management plans.

► Equipment. Including fire protection and suppression equipment, communications equipment, first aid and triage supplies, emergency power equipment and personal protective equipment.

► Personnel. For instance, the total number of staff types including kinds of skills, total number of staff available in an emergency (of these, their distance from the office) and total number of full- and part-time staff.

► Backup systems for critical functions. Consider an offsite storage of paper or electronic medical records, payroll, communications, patient services and computer systems.

Preparedness requires continued vigilance to ensure that the plans are reviewed regularly, equipment is maintained and the plan is tested to make sure it works. Further, more information to help dentists prepare for emergency situations can be found in the ADA Guidelines for Practice Success module on Managing Professional Risks.

Recovering while preparing for the next emergency

As communities begin to evaluate the damage caused by natural disasters, figuring out the next steps can be distressing to practice owners. The ADA offers a number of resources to help dentists recover from natural disasters like hurricanes and tropical storms. These resources include information on:

► Retaining and caring for staff after a disaster.

► Handling issues that arise after a storm, such as flooding, mold, mosquitos and infectious diseases.

► Ensuring data backup and recovery of computer systems.

► Staff pay and leave issues following the hurricane.

These resources, along with guidance on creating an emergency action plan for future natural disasters, can be found at the American Dental Association Center for Professional Success.

Strong emergency action plans help safeguard dental practices, ensure business continuity /article/Strong+emergency+action+plans+help+safeguard+dental+practices%2C+ensure+business+continuity/3816115/683641/article.html

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Dental mythbuster 16: Business continuity plans in primary care dental services

Although there is no regulatory requirement for primary care dental practices to have a business continuity plan in place, it is good practice so inspectors may ask about it on inspection.

Local commissioners of NHS dental services may include business continuity plans as part of their commissioning arrangements.

Developing a business continuity plan can help a practice identify and plan for anticipated risks to the delivery of the service ( KLOE S5 ).

Business continuity plans

Arrangements should be responsive to incidents that have a short, medium or long term impact on the running of the practice. Types of scenarios to consider when developing a business continuity plan are – what would you do if:

• Significant numbers of staff could not come into work
• IT systems were disrupted significantly
• You could not use your premises for a period of time, for example if affected by a natural disaster like flooding
• Paper records were destroyed or damaged beyond use
• A supplier or contractor was unable to deliver essential goods or services.

The plan should include up–to–date emergency contact numbers for staff. Information within the plan must be accessible off-site.

Notifying CQC of a service disruption

Practices (providers) are legally required to inform us when there is a disruption to a service that may temporarily prevent them from delivering the regulated activity. See Dental mythbuster 11: Disruption to services – notifying CQC.

John Milne is a practising dentist in West Yorkshire and our Senior National Dental Adviser

See all issues:

• Dental mythbusters: listed by key question
• Dental mythbusters: full list

Continuity Planning

A continuity plan details the actions and resources required following a major incident to help minimise the impact of such an incident on the service to patients.

Before a continuity plan is written, it is helpful to think through what resources and documentation, including contact details (e.g. staff, suppliers), can be obtained or collated now (see Continuity Planning Tool May 2010 template (Word) ) and where these can be safely stored so that they can be accessed easily in the event of a major incident.

As with the risk management system, it is not possible to work out all the specific details of how to respond to every incident. However, it is possible to identify possible incidents and put in place systems to help manage them if they occur.

Assign a senior member(s) of staff who will assess the impact of an incident, decide whether to activate a continuity plan and manage recovery of the service.

Before writing a continuity plan (see Continuity Planning Tool May 2010 template (Word) ): identify the range of incidents that are likely to affect the operation of the dental practice [e.g. total loss of premises (e.g. as a result of fire); utility failure (e.g. telephones, water, electricity, gas); IT failure (e.g. server failure, work station failure, computer virus); dental equipment failure; severe weather or staff illness]; identify the operational functions that are likely to be affected by these incidents; identify the resources, actions and alternative arrangements that might be required to deal effectively with a major incident; compile a list of relevant contact details of staff, suppliers, Health Board, etc.; identify a suitable storage place(s) for resources and documentation.

For each incident, list the actions to be taken, including who will do what, in a written continuity plan to enable an efficient recovery of the dental practice into use.

Ensure staff are aware of the continuity plans and know who to contact in the event of an incident.

Consider the use of an emergency box to store continuity plans, other emergency plans, relevant contact details (e.g. staff, suppliers, Health Board), torches, batteries, a radio, replacement fuse plans, notepads, pens, materials for improvised signage (e.g. laminated sheets, waterproof markers, Blutack), a space blanket, a phone and a charger.

• Continuity Planning Tool May 2010 template (Word)

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This plan sets out the measures we have taken to reduce the possibility of various threats affecting the service we provide and the procedures we will follow to minimise the impact of those threats should they materialise.

We consider that the threats that are most likely to affect the services we provide are:

• Telephone line failure
• IT systems failure
• Equipment failure
• Failure of electricity supply
• Failure of water supply
• Strong winds
• Floods (including frozen pipes)

NB:  Many of these threats to the business overlap. For example, severe fire damage may also involve disruption to IT and communications. The various sections of this plan should be read together, as necessary, in order to provide a complete solution to a given situation.

We have taken various proactive steps to reduce the risk of the treats identified above affecting our services:

GENERAL STEPS:

• This policy is part of the practice website- since it is stored online, it is secure in the event of a localised system failure, disaster or emergency and may be assessed by any team member who is able to connect to the internet.
• This policy is also printed off and posted on the staff room noticeboard so that it is available for all team members to see.
• Telephone and email contact details for team members and essential support services (e.g dental engineer, IT support, electrician, plumber, etc) are stored on the practice mobile telephone as well as in the practice address book.
• Every day we print off a paper list of patients due to visit the practice in the next 24 hours (known as a day list):, this list contains both names and telephone numbers that allow us to contact people to cancel appointments in the event of an emergency.
• The business has buildings. Contents, business, interruption and practice expenses insurance policies to meet the cost of repairs and other practice overheads where necessary.

TELEPHONE LINE FAILURE:

We have three different telephone lines at the practice. Two of these are ISDN that carry incoming and outgoing calls. The other one service the PDQ machine and modem, but they can be used as back up if the ISDN lines or practice switchboard fail. Should the need arise we can remove and use telephone from office and also have a practice mobile telephone.

IT SYSTEMS FAILURE:

We renew IT systems on a regular basis. All IT hardware is protected by antivirus & antimalware software that automatically updates from the internet on a regular basis. We also employ firewalls to protect our systems from unauthorised access and malicious damage. Our operating systems automatically download and install upgrades to reduce system vulnerabilities. We have a server with mirrored hard drives so that if one fails our systems will continued to function on the other. The server also contains a third hard drive that carries out an incremental back up every day. Data from the dental software is backed up across the network from the server to the office computer every working day. The practice principal, Dr. Baber Nisar, carries out regular backups using a removable and hard drive that is stored off- site, appointments times, appointment length and contact details) so that we can contact and reschedule patients in the event of an system failure.

EQUIPMENT FAILURE:

We carry out regular equipment testing and maintenance in accordance with our testing, maintenance and audit schedule in order to reduce the risk of equipment at appropriate intervals. We carry parts and even spare equipment (in stock cupboard and off site.) For example, we have spare hand piece, spare intra-oral camera, etc. Both surgeries are of the same design and equipped in an identical manner so that if one is out of service the dentist can move to the other with minimum of disruption.

FAILURE OF ELECTRICITY SUPPLY:

There is nothing we can realistically do to guard against a failure in the electricity supply since we are entirely in the hands of the utility companies.

FAILURE OF WATER SUPPLY:

There is nothing we can realistically do to guard against a failure in our water supply since we entirely in the hands of the utility companies

STRONGS WINDS:

The practice is in a reasonably sheltered position and we keep the building well maintained, but otherwise there is little we can do to guard against strong winds.

External flooding caused by rainfall/melt water. The practice is not in an area likel to be seriously affected by external flooding and it is situated on the second floor above a retail outlet. Internal flooding caused by plumbing services: such as burst pipes is a more likely problem. We guard against this by turning off the water supply at the main stopcock whenever the building is unattended for extended periods such as annual leave, for example (not for a routine weekend closedown.)

The practice at the moment has individual fire alarms fitted in the reception area. The building does not essentially have any fire alarm systems in place however we are working towards installing a wireless fire alarm system which will include the whole building. We carry out regular fire risk assessments for the practice to minimise the risk of a fire happening. We have properly positioned and maintained firefighting equipment and a fire evacuation procedure. We as a practice carry out fire drills every 4-6 months depending on staff turnover. Portable electrical appliances are test every 12 months.

There is little we can do to prevent or significantly influence a pandemic outbreak of human disease. The practice maintains approximately 1 month’s supplies of essential consumables so that we could continue to operate in the event of supply chain disruption. We keep supplies of facemasks, disposable gloves.

The telephone in office can be plugged into the line for the PDQ machine/internet service in the event that the main ISDN lines (or the practice telephone exchange system) fail. Should that happen, Talk talk can redirect calls to the alternative number so that we can continue to receive and make calls using our normal telephone number. If all our landlines fail. Calls can redirected to the practice mobile.

In the event of an IT systems failure, the first point of contact is the practice principle Dr Baber Nisar who will attempt to resolve the problem if possible

If they are not available or are unable to resolve the issue, the computer maintained company mircominder should be contacted. Their contacted number 0845091090 if the issue involves replacing /re-installing or dealing with an issue involving the dental software (EXACT) then the software supplier, software of excellance SOE, can be contacted on 08453455767. Data backups can be accessed on the server, the office computer and from the removable hard drive kept by the practice principle Dr Nisar. We have discussed the issue of catastrophic system failure with mircominder and have been advised that the practice computer system can be reinstated within 24 hours, even if we have to purchase entirely new hardware and install new software on it (assuming that a data backup is available) If a systems failure should occur, the printed day list provides the information necessary to reach patients.

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Does Your Dental Office have a Business Continuity Plan During a Pandemic?

Business continuity planning is an important part of a dental office’s risk management process, in which it assesses all the risks that may prevent it from achieving its objectives, then decides on ways to manage, or mitigate, those risks.

Business continuity can be defined as the processes, procedures, decisions and activities that ensure that an organization can continue to function through an operational interruption.

From a risk management perspective, business continuity plans (BCP) help ensure that a business survives. But when it comes to an influenza pandemic, employers also have a societal responsibility to create an effective plan. Because influenza spreads exclusively through human-to-human contact, and because much of this contact occurs in the workplace, especially in dental offices, planning can help prevent the spread of disease among employees, and help to control its spread within society as a whole.

Although an influenza pandemic is a natural disaster, a business continuity plan that has been developed for other natural disasters, like a tornado or an ice storm or an earthquake, for example, is unlikely to be adequate to deal with a pandemic. Employers should take a much broader, more holistic approach.

Because so many of the issues involved in pandemic planning are people-centred, it’s logical, and crucial, that dentists and their Health and Safety Representatives takes leading roles in pandemic planning. This planning affects a surprisingly large range of human resources policies and procedures.

Having a pandemic/influenza Business Continuity Plan is a very important element to be included in your overall health and safety program. If you wish to receive a pandemic planning checklist to be included with your health and safety program, please send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Pandemic/Influenza Business Continuity Plan”.

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How to Create a Business Plan for Your Dental Practice

Creating an effective business plan is essential for any business’s success—including dental practices. Business plans provide detailed information that helps businesses forge a path towards long-term growth and success. Such information may regard market analysis, marketing, cash flow projection, competitive analysis, and other relevant business information. By determining such information and crafting a plan, businesses can focus on the actionable steps necessary to turn their goals into a reality and achieve their short- and long-term objectives. As such, business plans are an invaluable strategic tool that all businesses should take the time to carefully craft. To learn how to create a business plan for your dental practice, continue reading.

Executive summary

The executive summary is an essential aspect of any business plan. It is a short section that summarizes the entirety of your business plan in a way that allows readers to quickly become acquainted with the key points and its main purpose. Typically, your executive summary should not exceed two pages.

This section is especially important when it comes to approaching lenders. It should entice the potential lender to help you receive the funding you need to get your practice up and running. Therefore, your executive summary should be written in a way that is persuasive and compelling. Let the lender know how you intend to make your business a success and express the vision of your practice.

While the executive summary will be included as the first section of your business plan, it should be the last area that you write. Because the executive summary is a compilation of all other areas of your business plan, you must have already flushed out such details before writing it.

Description of products and services

This section should provide information regarding the products and services that your dental practice offers. If you are acquiring an existing practice, make sure to detail any major changes that will be made to the products and services that were being offered by the previous practice owner. For example, if you are planning on offering additional services that the current owner is not offering, mention them here.

When creating a business plan for your dental practice, you should also include a section that details how it will be managed. In this section, detail information about the type of business structure your practice will have. For example, you should determine if your practice will be structured as a partnership, corporation, or sole proprietorship.

This section should also include a list of the management personnel and professional advisers that will comprise your team, such as financial partners, insurance agents, real estate advisors, attorneys, and business associates. In addition to compiling a list of key management professionals, you should provide further information on their job responsibilities. Such information will help prove to business lenders that you have a plan for how your office will function and that you have the necessary support system to be successful.

Competitive analysis and marketing strategy

In this section, you should include data on what your competition is doing regarding their online presence, digital content, SEO rankings, and other relevant data. Upon detailing the state of your competitor’s marketing efforts, you should then detail your own marketing plan.

Here, you should first provide an overview of your intended market and your target patient. Include information on their income level, age, and lifestyle. If you target patient is similar to that of a competing dental practice in the area, clearly state how you intend to set your practice apart from your competition and maintain a consistent customer base.

In addition, you should also detail a content map and provide information regarding your website design. If your practice will be taking a different approach from other competitors, note it in your strategy and clearly provide a rationale as to why.

Financial plan

One of the most important sections in your business plan is the financial plan. This section will be of chief interest to potential lenders, as it will help them make an informed business decision regarding whether they can approve your loan proposal. As such, it should be carefully planned and written in great detail. Here, you should list a variety of relevant financial information, such as the following:

• Projected income of your practice for the initial 12- through 24-month period
• Cash flow forecast
• Personal financial statement
• Information on how startup funds will be allocated
• Total funds required by your practice for the following two years
• Offered collateral
• Historical financial analysis

Supporting financial documents

In addition to the above information, you should also provide the necessary supporting documents that potential dental lenders can review when making their decision. If you are undergoing a dental practice acquisition , many of the necessary documents will be provided by the selling dentist. However, you will have to prepare some of them. Such financial documents to provide in this section may include:

• Present business financial statements
• Recent copy of your credit report
• Copy of current aging schedule
• Three years of historical financial statements, individual income tax returns, and business income tax returns
• Current personal financial statement
• Prospective financials for five years such as forecasts, cash flows, and projections

Such financial documents should be 90-days old or less to be considered current under lending guidelines.

Financial influences

In the financial section of your business plan, you should also provide information that displays you have accounted for the impact of financial influences. Such influences may include business cycles, competition, the economy, seasonal variations, and other events that may impact your practice’s finances. All other information included in your financial plan should account for such influences.

The operations section will likely be the last and longest section of your business plan. Here, you will get into the nitty-gritty details the day-to-day operations that occur at your practice. You should provide information regarding the following information to provide lenders with a clear picture of how your practice will function:

• Office hours
• Days of operation
• Necessary equipment and supplies
• Major suppliers you plan to source equipment from
• Equipment-maintenance schedules
• Ideal patient flow
• Dental insurances you do and do not accept

Henry Schein Professional Practice Transitions is the leader in dental practice sales and transitions. Whether you are purchasing or selling a practice, we can help you through every step of the process. Thanks to our extensive marketing resources, national network of dental transition consultants, and superior hands-on client services, your dental practice transition is sure to be as advantageous as possible. To get started on the transition process, schedule a free 30-minute phone consultation with Henry Schein Professional Practice Transitions today.

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• Covid-19 business continuity insights for dental practices and DSO

COVID-19 business continuity insights for dental practices and DSO

The following resources provide a comprehensive overview on COVID-19 business continuity and recovery insights for dental practices and Dental Service Organizations (DSO).

Key challenges and core measures

Coronavirus covid-19: key challenges and core measures for dsos to consider.

The document contains general COVID-19 facts and typical chain of events (Europe, China), a specific checklist for DSO regarding COVID-19, as well as challenges and measures during chain of events based on European experiences. This document has been created for you by the DSO Management Team of the Straumann Group.

Coronavirus COVID-19: Key Challenges and Core Measures for DSOs to consider

Covid-19 implications on dso clinic operations and management.

The document contains a point of view on implications and measures that can be considered in the operation of DSO clinics post lockdown, reflecting on patient and dental staff safety and confidence as well as the patient journey and clinic operations.

Furthermore, it provides a differentiated view on core measures considering different states of alert, as the return to a “new normal” in patient care and clinical operations progresses.

“COVID-19 implications on DSO clinic operations and management” has been created for you by Dr. Julian Perry ({my}dentist) with contributions, feedback and editorial reviews from Dr. Eddie Coyle (Colosseum Dental Group) and Dr. Rebecca Sadler (Portman Dental Care) and Prof. Dr. Zhuan Bian (Dean & Professor, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University).

VirtualCheck and Monitoring Light: your solutions for Tele Dentistry

Tele dentistry solutions allow dental professionals to connect with their patients remotely and supports treatment continuity. VirtualCheck and Monitoring Light are unique solutions providing virtual consults for new patients, maintaining booked appointments through online checks, and allows for strong and recurrent communication with on-going patients via a virtual environment.

All our solutions are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and available for you.

Interested in learning more about VirtualCheck? Please find enclosed explanatory video:

Interested in Photo Monitoring Light?

Interested in learning more? Then please contact us.

Resource Center: useful information, best practices and checklists for you

Find enclosed useful information, best practices and checklist around clinical operations and patient communication. 

North American Dental Group: COVID-19 Resources for Dental Professionals

Developed by the Dental Advisory Board of the Professional Dental Alliance supported by North American Dental Group

Colosseum Dental Group: COVID-19 NEWS HUB for continuous information and to dental professionals and patients

Colosseum Dental Group is continuously monitoring the COVID-19 situation very carefully and provides useful information and insights with regards to preparation steps for both, dental professional and patients.

Training & Education for Dental Professionals

Straumann Group is dedicated to support and enable the development and skills for dental professionals. It’s time for education. We are boosting our online education offering for you.

#TimeForEducation . Please see enclosed Straumann Group Weekly eLearning NEWS and register for your training now.

European Agenda from April 27th to May 8th

#TimeForEducation . Join us for virtual ClearCorrect Training & Education.

The ClearCorrect Team is here to support your education needs in a virtual setting. Whether you are new to the ClearCorrect Clear Aligner System or have already submitted your first few cases, we offer a wide variety of webinars to guide you through your journey. This virtual series taken in its entirety provides the clinical and business tools for patient and office team success.

ClearCorrect Virtual Training Europe

ClearCorrect Virtual Training North America

• New live webinars on Straumann Group CampusLive
• Latest scientific insights on COVID-19 in dentistry and beyond
• Clinical expertise and interviews with leading experts
• A 12 week program on the latest topics in dentistry put together by the WIN core team (Women Implantology Network) 
• Strauman® Smart now open for a 2 months free trial featuring more than one hundred clinical contents including practice and business management
• [email protected] : Get free access to the entire ITI eLearning content until April 30, 2020

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View Dental Practices for Sale Looking to Sell Your Practice?

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Since Dr. Bill Adams started the company in 1998, USDT has helped over 1,000 selling dentists fulfill their goals of attaining financial freedom and transitioning their patients to the next generation of exceptionally qualified dentists.

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Trusted Transition Advisors for Selling Dentists

Our combined strategies of developing maximum values in existing dental practices and observing emerging market trends have led us to create a unique advisory service. This enables us to serve our clients throughout their entire career, and we can deliver much higher value over time.

Dental Practice Transition Consulting

Ensure you receive maximum benefits and a fair market valuation for your dental practice by working with one of our skilled dental practice transition consultants. Our professionals will help you every step of the way, from planning the transition and determining timing and messaging to providing input and guidance during the financial and contractual execution process.

Practice Mergers & Acquisitions Consulting

Whether you’re looking to expand or simply transition slowly prior to retirement, our experts can match you with another dentist who shares your values and philosophies . Our qualified transition experts will be by your side during the merger process while adding considerable equity to your business without increasing patient count.

Dental Practice Business Continuity Planning

Taking preventative measures help you stay prepared for anything that could negatively impact your practice. Our team will work with you on a business continuity plan to establish the fair market value or your practice and the naming agent responsible for the sale in the event of an unforeseeable disaster, including pandemics, electrical failure or even death.

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Learn what steps you should take to prepare for selling a dental practice! Check out our dental practice sellers’ checklist!

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The COVID-19 Strategic Recovery Plan

Before COVID-19, the concept of strategic planning was typically focused on a five-year time horizon. Before March, strategic planning began with the question, “Where do you want to be in five years?” That question is difficult enough to contemplate. Well now an even more difficult question sits in front of us: “Where will we be in five MONTHS?” That question is more important than any other as it regards your practice. Where will you be in five months and how will you get there?

The traditional purpose of strategic planning is to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a practice and then use that information to determine what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how it needs to be done to ensure a successful future. In the face of the challenges posed by our current situation with COVID-19 we must approach strategic planning in a new way. It needs to be simple to understand and focused on only four key areas that are critical to survival and recovery.

The 1-page COVID-19 strategic recovery plan

As we continue to move through the COVID-19 crisis it is essential that you begin to give some thought to the recovery phase. Practices that have thought ahead and have a plan will recover faster and better.

One activity that can be greatly beneficial is to create a 1-Page COVID-19 Strategic Recovery Plan. This may sound simple, but it will take hard work, thinking and multiple revisions. But it will also set you on a course of recovery that will help you to bounce back from where we are today.

Here is how the plan works:

1. Take a piece of paper and break it up into four quadrants. The quadrants will each represent a strategic category. The categories should be:

2. Under each category list three, and no more than four, key value-based strategies. Anything that goes on the page as a strategy must directly contribute to recovery. Anything that does not directly contribute to recovery is a distraction. As a leader during this time you cannot afford distractions once your practice reopens and is back to more normal operations. One purpose of the plan is to keep you focused and eliminate distractions.

You also want to be sure that the strategies you select are value-based. Select the most important and impactful strategies you possibly can. For example, calling patients who are three or more years overdue for appointments will yield very minor results and have diminishing returns. Contacting patients as soon as possible who missed appointments during the crisis or are overdue by one or two years will have high impact. That is what is meant by selecting value-based strategies.

3. Write a goal at the bottom of each category. For example, under the financial category the goal might be to “increase monthly average revenue by $25,000 between June and December 2020.” This goal would hypothetically allow a practice to make up over a six-month period, a percentage of revenue lost during any practice shutdown related to this crisis. Other examples of recovery plan goals might be:

• Offer expanded hours (evenings and weekends) to allow patients who have exhausted all their time off and need to schedule outside of normal office hours. This would allow the practice to catch up with missed appointments much faster.
• Cross train all team members for at least one other position responsibility. This will allow you to best cover any extra hours you might need, as well as be better prepared should the virus disrupt our lives again in the near future.
• Accumulate cash. It almost goes without saying, but access to cash allows any practice to recover faster from any emergency situation.
• Streamline all systems for maximum efficiency. Efficiency is always important, but successful and rapid recovery from this downturn will require practices to be hyper-efficient.

Select a very specific and measurable goal for each category that will allow you to know whether you are achieving the plan once you are back in the office and operational.

4. Measure each of the value-based strategies consistently, often and clearly. Look at your 1-Page Plan every day once you feel you have completed it and are ready to enact. Always put a copy of it on your desk and keep a copy of it with you.

This is the plan that’s going to help you recover.

Many people believe that strategic planning is the single most critical activity that takes place in a business each year. It’s not about today and it’s not about this year‘s budget. It’s about the future, and as dentistry (and society) changes coming out of this crisis, strategic planning is more important than ever before. Once the correct strategies are identified and you stay 100% focused on achieving your goals, your odds of recovering more quickly increase tremendously.

About the author

Roger P. Levin, D.D.S. is the CEO and Founder of Levin Group, a leading practice management consulting firm that has worked with over 30,000 practices to increase production. To contact Dr. Levin or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit www.levingroup.com or email [email protected] .

Dental Practice Business Plans

Did you know each of these plans was created in LivePlan? Learn More

Dental Office Business Plan

The Tooth Fairy offers general and cosmetic dentistry services.

There’s this weird stigma around going to the dentist and having someone poke around in your mouth. As you look to open your own practice, you need to find ways to get around this image and present your services as professional, easy, and comfortable. And the best way to set yourself and your practice up for success is to put together a business plan.

By starting with one of our Dental Practice Sample Plans, you can make sure that you have everything you need to get your practice off the ground. You’ll identify customers, marketing practices, equipment needs, and your mission as a dentist. All while building out your financing and steps to ensure your business is a success.

If you’re looking to develop a more modern business plan, we recommend you try LivePlan . It contains the same templates and information you see here, but with additional guidance to help you develop the perfect plan.

The quickest way to turn a business idea into a business plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

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FLU AND CORONAVIRUS UPDATE - Click Here To Read

What is Business Continuity?

Disruptions to your business can happen at any moment, due to potential threats, such as health care crises, natural disasters or cyber-attacks.  Disasters just happen – but you can plan ahead.  

To be truly prepared to deal with difficult situations, so your dental practice can continue to function with as little disruption as possible, a business continuity plan (BCP) should be in place.

What Is Business Continuity and how does it apply to your dental practice?

Business continuity includes a range of solutions and options to reduce downtime and loss of productivity and ensure that your practice can continue to function through and after an operational disruption.

Business continuity planning is an essential part of a dental office’s risk management process and system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company, where you assess all the risks that may prevent your business from achieving its goals, and decide on ways to mitigate those risks.

Developing a plan not only increases the chances of survival during a disaster, but also ensures you retain employees and patients, manage losses and protect your reputation.

BCP should also include determining how those risks would affect your operation, implementing safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks, testing procedures to ensure they work, and reviewing the process to make sure that it’s up to date.

In today’s world affected by COVID-19, many businesses are embracing remote work as the new normal, and IT support and solutions to enable that is crucial across industries, including healthcare.

Businesses must be able to trust the technology as a safe and effective business tool; there needs to be a proven process in place to evaluate, test and monitor encryption as a major aspect of top-notch security.  Many businesses are turning to video conferencing instead of certain in person meetings, and IT should make sure business-critical applications are up to date and accessible from remote environments without affecting performance or introducing vulnerabilities.

Pandemics and other crises are tempting times for cyber attacks, who take advantage of such challenging situations to disrupt operations, infect systems, and steal sensitive data. 

Compass Network Group can educate you on how to help protect your dental practice from security threats – while supporting work-from-home strategies, including how to enforce remote employee security and privacy best practices.

With over 20 years of dental specific IT experience in over 500 practices, we understand and focus on the importance of safeguarding your business and protecting your assets and valuable information.

Business Continuity is a natural extension to security and compliance services that Compass Network Solution offers that can reduce downtime to minutes, so you can get back to treating patients and generating revenue.

At Compass Network, we’ll always keep your client database, employee records, financial documents, digital images, medical records, profiles, portfolios, and other data archived, restorable, and protected.

For premium dental practice business continuity plan and IT support from an expert technology consulting firm in the Lancaster PA area, contact us at (717) 299-2383 / (866) 336-8727, or submit an online support request .

Founding Member

Which Is AN Business Business Scheme? [+ Template & Examples]

Publicly: December 30, 2022

At a business crisis occurs, who last thing you what until do is panic.

The second-to-last thing it want to do is exist unprepared. Crises typically arise without warning. For you shouldn't start every day expecting the badest, you should be ratio prepared for anything until happen.

A business crisis can cost your firm a lot of money and ruin your reputation if you don't have a business continuity plan in square. Clients aren't very forget, particular when a crisis is by by accidents into the company or other preventable mistakes. If you want their group to be able to maintain its business continuation in the face in a crisis, then you'll need at come up with this type of plan to uphold its essential functions. Business Continuity Scheme | NHS England

In like post, we'll declare what a business continuity draft is, give examples of scenarios that would require a business continuity plan, and provide adenine template that you can benefit to create a well-rounded program for your business.

Table of Topics:

• What remains one business coherence plan?
• Business Continual Varieties
• Economic Continuity on Disaster Recovery
• Business Continuity Plan Screen
• Like to Write an Business Continuity Plan
• Business Continuity See

Get is a business continuity plan?

ONE business continuity plan drafts directions and procedures ensure owner company will follow when faced with a alarm. Those plans include business procedures, names in assets and partners, human resources functions, and other helpful information that can help maintain your brand's relationships with relevant stakeholders. The goal of a business continuous create is to handle anywhere from minor disruptions to full-blown threats. What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]

In examples, one crisis the your business may have on respond to is a severe snowstorm. Your band may be surprised, "If a snowy disrupted our supply chain, how would ours resume business?" Planning contingencies fore of time for situations same these can helps your business stay afloat when you're faced equal an unavoidable crisis. business continuity plan template individual services

When you think about business continuity in term of to required functions your business requires to operate, you can begin to mitigate and plan for customizable risks within those functions. general practices will determine the need for activation of the ... The – Medical Equipment Supplies - BCP ensures the continuity of the ...

Business Continuity Planning

Suki Singh explores like to create a robust business continuity plan. Like car either home insurance, having an business continuity plan is something thou hope to never got to use. However, in the incident of any kind of crisis or disaster, computers ability be invaluable in helping you find the way transmit. A economic can…

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