Are you under-resourced? (part 3)

 Over the past two weeks I've covered how dentists can be under-resourced with respect to instruments and staff.

There is a third way for dentists to be under-resourced and that is to work out of only one operatory. This is the default set up for most dentists.Whenever I see dentists working out of one operatory I can almost guarantee three things:

1. Productivity will be low due to lost time at changeovers. Resetting a surgery takes on average 10 minutes so, if you see 12 patients a day then you have 2 hours of lost time.
2. The dentist will run late and often not get a full lunch hour.
3. The office will turn away emergencies due to the impossibility of flexing the schedule to accommodate them.

Adding those three items together I calculate that you could pay for the cost of setting up a new treatment room in less than six months. Maybe less.It doesn't make sense to be wasting potentially productive time in the office by sitting idle due to the lack of treatment rooms.