The Evolution of First Lean Dentist
Dr. Sami Bahri, owner of Bahri Dental Group and practicing dentist, tried a variety different management approaches throughout his 30 years of practice to improve patient service and operations. In 2005, his thinking shifted when he discovered that if he and his staff focused on what he calls “one-patient flow,” they could dramatically improve the quality of patient care along with the office’s efficiency. As a team, he and his staff identified problems in their system—such as complicated set-ups, functional divisions between departments, lack of staff coordination, and communication difficulty—that were barriers to giving patients the medical treatment they needed and the services they wanted. After identifying the problems, he and his staff implemented countermeasures resulting in shortened treatment times, fewer patient appointments, and ultimately a 90% improvement in the time between initial diagnosis and a completely restored, healthy mouth.
