How to Maximize Your CE ROI

CE, or continuing education, is required by all dental boards. That goes for everyone in the dental office. BLS and HIPAA training are all CE, right? So, everyone on your team needs it.

When you are considering new CE, I’m curious how you evaluate attending CE for yourself and your team? I’m also interested in knowing what sort of “rules,” if any, you have for your team attending CE.

Some view CE as a necessary evil. I look at it as an opportunity to increase efficiency, incorporate new knowledge and systems, thereby profits, and, engage team members in new and different roles that they might otherwise never experience. There are a ton of benefits to doing so.

Recently, my office manager asked me about our criteria. Below is my reply. I am hoping you can find value in my thoughts about the investment in CE and how it, like any expense or opportunity in a practice to grow, can and should be measured.

I’d love to hear from you about my two questions above.

To attend any CE course, the investment to do so has to be quantifiable (What is the potential ROI?) and justifiable (How do or will we use this new information to improve?). We start with the following questions:

– What are the goals and/or desired outcome for attending?

– Who is the right person/people to attend who can learn and train the rest of the team

– Does it fit the budget and does the investment make sense?

– Is the timing right for this CE course?

Then, the following must be completed:

– Attendee sets a time to train on what they learned before they attend the course

– Attendee reviews what they learned with the office manager (OM)

– Attendee and OM work to create an outline of what’s to be shared and with whom after attending 

– Attendee shares it in a meeting format with those identified to benefit

– Information gained is implemented where necessary, as tests, and modified from there

What can you personally add to this list to make sure you’re not just spending money on CE to spend it, but actually will hold the time and money invested, accountable to you and your company?