What’s the key to operating a profitable practice these days? Most successful doctors will tell you it’s because they run a “high quality” practice. 

Well, what does “high quality” mean? Most doctors believe it’s all about delivering skilled clinical care. Unfortunately, most patients lack the knowledge or expertise to competently evaluate the doctor’s clinical care. If patients are in pain, and the doctor gets them out of pain, the patient feels the doctor has done a good job. Likewise, if the patient has a highly visible dental problem that they can see has been corrected, they feel the doctor has served them well.

Apart from these most obvious cases,...