Preparing Your Dental Practice and Staff for Your Leave of Absence

There may be a time during your career as a dentist that it becomes necessary for you to take a leave of absence. This can often be a stressful time, but if you’re made proper arrangements beforehand, it can a much smoother transition both for you, and your staff. Because of this, we recommend thinking ahead and having a plan in place.

Checklist for Taking a Leave of Absence

Below are a few things you should consider doing now just in case a leave of absence becomes necessary for you in the future:

• The most important thing to have in place is a dentist who can fill in for you at your dental practice. Many dentists have agreements with peers or colleagues to cover for one another in a leave of absence scenario. You can also check with retired dentists or ones you may know from a dental society.
• Contact your CPA and discuss the proper compensation for the dentist who will be covering for you. It’s always smart to have an agreement ready and signed prior to your leave of absence. This way the terms will be clear from the beginning and there will be less chance of miscommunication or conflict with your covering dentist.
• If you are participating in PPO plans, you should contact the insurance companies to find out whether or not the covering dentist needs credentialing. Because the credentialing process can take a while (up to six weeks), this is an important one to stay on top of from the beginning.
• Lastly, appoint a trusted member of your staff to keep you updated on the goings on of your dental office while you’re taking your leave. Make sure the covering dentist, as well as the rest of the staff, knows which person has been appointed to keep you updated. This will keep everyone accountable and let them know who to go to if they need to communicate with you during your leave.

As long as you take care of the above tasks ahead of time, taking a leave of absence doesn’t have to be more stressful than it already is. If you need help putting together a plan for your leave of absence, please contact CTC Associates today. We’re happy to help in any way we can.