6. Solutions and Focus Group Discussion
6.2. Education Programs
“Precaution is better than cure.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
An alternative to consulting to practitioners in need could be trying to solve the challenge practitioners face prior to foundation by additional education. This may be achieved as much with University education alongside the usual medical education program as also with additional courses provided externally to potential founders. The following two subsections look at these, the section about additional education also addresses practitioners that have already found their practice but could need some improvement. Depending on the lack of knowledge discovered in either consultation – let it be for founders, the ones to take over or the ones to run into trouble, modules of the additional education discovered as gap of knowledge in the consultation process, could also be offered upon need.
6.2.1. University Education
One way to close the wide knowledge gap between medical graduates with extensive medical knowledge (see Appendix II black part) and professional practice-owner-manager-practitioner-entrepreneurs would be to offer business education already in a university context. Practitioners explained in the last round of interviews, that education about topics such as leadership and organization would be important no matter if opening a practice or not and thus would be enriching to every student graduating in OHC. Currently there is almost no education on a university level that addresses the specific needs of a practitioner. There is courses addressing hospital management and but other than courses in form of secondary education there is almost no specific courses on practice management in a graduate context.
Given the very specific needs in HC today, such education would be of major support to the
freelance professional of tomorrow – specifically if addressing specific challenges such as accounting and controlling in the modern HC practice.
Table 7: Important Topics according to Existing Publications
Topics that are important when opening a practice Prepared in current studies Planning, Strategies and Goals
Good Health Care x
Clinic Organisation and Controlling HR skills, management and leadership
Continuous Staff Training Patient Orientation
Marketing Cooperation Models Entrepreneurial Skills
(Own Development)
Figure 39: Management Course Business Administration Oral Health Care
337
337 Henrici, 2020, p. 6
Business Administration for Oral Health
Care
Self Management and Company Administration
Composition and Organisation of
Procedures
Business Administration in
Oral Health Practices Marketing and
Justice Employer
Branding
In fact, a final FG of five active practitioners concluded that – when presented the current curriculum of the Charité in Berlin – there was a range of courses which were by far not as important to the practitioners as people skills or managerial capabilities. The use of this curriculum can be seen as exemplary, a comparison of the curriculum of the Charité with other curricula of ten of the 35 German Universities offering OHC education, showed no significant differences. All of the programs had only one single non-medical course often only called labour law, sometimes called labour law and medical history. The approbation guidelines in Germany include this one single course and no other non-medical training 338. The course, so explained the FG focuses on the history of care rather than the day to day managerial or legal needs of professionals. The FG revealed that some medical courses could be reduced in their weighting as shown in Appendix II (red part). Such action would liberate time for trainings that meet the knowledge gaps practitioners really face when being in their careers. The acquired skill in fact, are of advantage to any practitioners, not just the ones that are planning to open an own practice. Practitioners need to get an introduction about all the points that were perceived as important for running a practice, not only about quality care (see Table 7).
However, this set of duties may need further adaptation. Figure 39 shows what forms part of an educational training program for business administration in OHC. This specific program is only an example, however, a combination of the topics of that program in combination with the success factors evolved out of publications and again shown in Table 7 could be a good foundation for a potential study program. If combining the outcome of such potential merge with the ones addressed in Figure 33 and Table 7, measurable results should be an automatic consequence.
If all topics are combined as suggested, then such training could be offered as part of a medical degree in order to support practitioners to be better prepared for the future challenges of their work life. Following the adaptations shown in Appendix II, there would be more than enough potential to replace the equivalent of at least one course per semester.
Thus, a potential management module of the medical practitioner curriculum could eventually look as shown in Table 8. The potential courses presented in the table cover all discovered parts that are required for goal and success-oriented business administration in a modern practice. Any curriculum – let it be this one or an alternative one – should cover a personality
338 Approbationsordnung für Zahnärzte, 2019
analysis. Only if the potential future owner-manager-practitioner knows about and acts according to his goals he can be successful in his own terms in the future. Thus, the course presented as semester one course in the potential module shown in Table 8 is paramount to the success of any such module since it helps the student to appreciate the personal development opportunities and match these with potential goals for the personal future.
As far as the limited research about Hungary allows for a comment in that respect it seems that the requirements in terms of business trining significantly differ between Germany and Hungary even though the extent of business training or rather lack thereof is similar in the two nations. It seems, that – whereas the Hungarian practitioner – at least the majority of interview participants had significantly more business knowledge or was to accept business principles even by a manager in the team – the German professional, fully trained to believe being a master of any topic himself, would – so make the results assume – need more training to either accept business thinking or a business professional in his team.
Table 8: Business Curriculum as part of Oral Health Practitioner Studies
Semester Course title Discussion outcome
Semester
1 Personal
Development
The FG initially did not have an idea about the potential course content. After explanation of this course, that often forms part of business curricula, the FG saw the
value to the young practitioner.
HR according to the FG was the most important challenge.
Given that the survey showed that delegation reduced revenue, improvement of delegation implementation is
required, thus twice the course.
Semester
3 Clinic
Organisation
All FG members learned clinic organisation either by doing or by copying but not by understanding or education.
There was mutual agreement that such a course should form part of the curriculum
The FG members agreed that the topic as such is paramount, that they however do not have the understanding or knowledge to use tools to plan goals properly, not to mention the development of respective
strategies.
Semester
5 HC Accounting and Controlling
Interestingly the practitioners stressed the importance of such a module. The FG practitioners did not plan revenues
or implemented controlling actively but were curious to learn how they eventually could improve. Several stressed the importance of stressing HC accounting in education to allow them to charge for the right services and improve
billing to their maximum advantage from the very beginning.
Semester
Practitioners wanted to understand how the HC systems is structured also in other countries. It would make cooperation models possible and allow for a better
interaction between professionals.
One of the FG members still thought that marketing was prohibited, which, however, is not the case for years. The pure fact of this believe validates the existence of such a course to avoid that old misbelieves are not conveyed to younger generations. All FG members were curious to learn how marketing could be implemented in the best of ways. There was agreement that it would be of advantage
to their understanding, to be able to connect such expenditure to potential revenues.
Semester
8 Sales and Patient Communication
Patient communication was not seen as an important course – consensus was, that it is a nice add on. All but one FG member saw the importance of Sales training as part of the curriculum. One FG member had very positive experience of sales training for the entire staff of his clinic
and thus eventually influenced the opinion of others and the agreement about the importance of the topic.
Semester
Practitioners recommended replace this part by placing more effort on clinic organisation. It was left in the
suggestion since cooperation models and practice networks seem to be a viable option for the future according to research. Part three of the FG discussion proved the importance of this course, especially if it covers
forms of (group) establishment alongside the cooperation models between single practices (adaptation of
suggestions).
Semester
10 Entrepreneurial
Skills Nothing but agreement about it to be of advantage.
(own development out of primary research)
6.2.2. Other Education
An alternative to passing on the knowledge to the young practitioner in form of University education is additional training / teaching programs, that are outside of an obligatory study context. According to the members of the FG, the range covered on the market would exceed needs and that the offer would be very broad. Challenge to practitioners seems to be – so the FG – to choose the right course and understand quality that is offered at an appropriate price. There is a range of such training offers on the market now, however it might make sense to investigate existing offers in a way appropriate to the practitioners. The FG concluded that a potential approach to discovering the quality of such treatment currently might be to introduce a public certification program to measure educational standards. A very
efficient way to make use of such additional education might be the one suggested in the consulting section, so start with a personality and knowledge gap analysis – just like with a language test in a language school – and offer a very personalized set of classes. To some extent such offers could be looking like executive coaching today, which – in the medical field – is just not common.