You trained to be a great dentist. Nobody trained you to run the compliance.
More than twenty years inside dental practices, most recently running a multi site group. I help practice owners find where they are exposed on AHPRA, privacy and advertising, then put it right before it becomes a complaint.
Based in Adelaide. Working with practices across South Australia.
What usually brings someone to me
None of these are clinical problems. They are all business problems wearing clinical clothes.
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You are more exposed than you think
AHPRA, the Australian Privacy Act, the OAIC and the ADA all set guidelines a practice has to work inside. In my experience most practices are sitting at a medium to high risk level. Nobody in the building knows it.
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The advertising is usually the breach
It is the most common one and the most public. The wording, the images, the claims, the before and after photos. It is the easiest thing for somebody to report you for. It is also the easiest thing to put right before they do.
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A complaint lands and nobody knows what to do
It can come from a patient or from your own team. The first response matters more than people realise. It is not a letter you want to improvise on a busy Thursday.
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The practice only works when you are in it
Every decision routes back through you. Taking a week off means the place runs at half speed, so you stop taking weeks off. That is not a growth problem, it is a systems problem.
Not theory. Twenty years on the floor.
I have not read about dental practices in a textbook. I have run them. Reception, recalls, rosters, recruitment, accreditation, budgets, the awkward conversations, the software migrations that go sideways at 8am on a Monday. I have also sat on the other side of an AHPRA complaint with a practice and worked it through.
Where I usually start
Risk and compliance is the core of it. The rest supports it.
Practice Risk and Compliance
Finding where the practice is exposed on AHPRA, privacy and advertising, then fixing it before it becomes a complaint. Where a complaint has already been made, I have worked with practices to respond to it and resolve it.
- Advertising and content compliance, language and images both
- AHPRA complaints handled on the practice's behalf
- Privacy Act and OAIC obligations around records
- Policies that hold up when someone actually checks them
Practice Accreditation, QIP
Accreditation is far easier when the policies were written to be used rather than written to pass an audit. I get the documentation into a state your team can follow day to day.
- An initial assessment of where the practice stands
- Policies and procedures built to be used
- Preparation across the whole team, not just the manager
Practice Consulting and Management
The administrative and financial side of the practice. Systems, protocols, HR, KPIs and the forensic analysis of practice management systems when you need to know exactly what has been happening in the software.
- Systems and protocols documented so a new hire can learn them
- Forensic analysis of practice management systems
- KPIs that reach you while you can still act on them
Most practices do not need a new strategy. They need the basics done properly, every single day.Karen Harris, Practice Management Consultant
Start with a confidential conversation
No obligation and no pitch. Tell me what is frustrating you about the practice and I will tell you honestly whether I can help.
Get in touch