Dental Economics and the Levin Group recently released their 2008 annual practice survey at a very critical time. Certainly dentists cannot be immune to the overall economic challenges that other small business owners are facing. Now we have some data to analyze and start to work on what to do to minimize it’s effects. The data also serves a a great benchmark to measure your performance versus other practices in similar situations.
Dentists certainly are feeling the effects of the downturn in the economy as seen by the following challenges;
- increasing accounts receivables
- active patient count remaining flat
- 20% of dentists experiencing high levels of stress
On the positive side of things the survey found;
- median dentist compensation actually rose slightly
- practice overhead rates decreased slightly – to 60% of revenue
- median staff wages increased slightly in most categories
- more than 56% of practices have implemented a bonus plan
Overall it was a pretty mixed result with some negative news but plenty of things to remain positive about. All dentists should be concerned because things could get worse quickly, especially since this downturn is expected to last longer than previous slowdowns. Dr Levin also added that “Dentistry is often one of the last industries to feel the full impact of an economic downturn.”
<The full detailed report can be found here>
- Steve
