For Instructors Only
Faculty Guide · v1.3
Configure, monitor,
debrief.
Everything you need to run the simulation with your cohort — setup, scoring engine, coaching flags, the event system, and debrief playbooks. Scoring formulas and archetype strategies are intentionally hidden from students.
Pilot Program 2025
12 Sections
130 Events
Faculty-only content marked 🔒
Contents
01 Quick Start (20 Minutes)
02 Faculty Console Reference
03 Configuration Options
04 How the Scoring Engine Works 🔒
05 Coaching Flags Reference 🔒
06 The Event System
07 Peer Archetypes 🔒
08 Running a Class Session
09 Student Link & URL Reference
10 CODA Competency Mapping
11 Knowledge Quiz (Assessment)
12 Historical Benchmarks
13 Troubleshooting
Section 01
Quick Start — Get a Cohort Running in 20 Minutes
If you have run this simulation before, skip to Section 2. These five steps cover the minimum setup required.
Open the Faculty ConsoleNavigate to the simulation URL and append ?faculty=1:
https://sim.getclinicready.com/?faculty=1
Pilot schools with AI access: https://sim.getclinicready.com/?faculty=1&features=ai_curveball
Configure the CohortEnter a Cohort Name. Select: Simulation Track, Pedagogy Mode, Practice Size, Starting Difficulty, Session Type, and Inventory Mode. Click Save Configuration.
Add TeamsEnter a team name in the Add Team panel. Optionally enter student names separated by commas. Click + Add Team. Repeat for each team. All team management lives exclusively on the Setup tab.
Generate and Distribute Student LinksEnter the simulation's full URL in the Base URL field and click Generate Links. Share each link with the corresponding student team. Test one link yourself first.
Monitor During the SimulationClick the Class Overview tab. Click ↺ Refresh — the dashboard auto-refreshes every 30 seconds. Click any team card to open the Team Detail drill-down.
⚠️
The Class Overview tab is a pure monitoring dashboard. All team management (adding teams, generating links, setting curveballs) lives exclusively on the Setup tab.
Section 02
Faculty Console Reference
Setup Panel
| Field | Options | Notes |
|---|
| Cohort Name | Free text (max 50 chars) | Displayed in the Class Overview header and on all exported reports. |
| Simulation Track | Inherited Practice / Build a New Practice / Mixed | Mixed allows teams on both tracks to compete on separate leaderboards. |
| Pedagogy Mode | Guided Discovery / High Stakes | Guided Discovery: events fire at 60% severity. High Stakes: full severity, bankruptcy possible on Build a New Practice track. |
| Session Type | Solo / Partner / Small Group | Partner and Small Group activate the in-simulator Partner Chat panel. |
| Practice Size | Small / Medium / Large | Determines starting financials and capacity caps. Cannot be changed mid-simulation. |
| Starting Difficulty | Easy / Standard / Hard | Adjusts starting conditions only. Does not change scoring functions. |
| Inventory Mode | OFF / BASIC / ADVANCED | OFF: no supply management. BASIC: stockout events only. ADVANCED: full ordering mechanics. |
| Curveball | Q1–8 + Event Library or AI Generator | Opens the Event Editor before injection. See Section 6. |
Team Detail Drill-Down
| Panel | What it shows |
|---|
| Score Timeline | Quarter-by-quarter composite score with visual event markers and phase transitions. |
| Latest Quarter KPIs | Collections, EBITDA margin, cash, debt, morale, utilization, Google rating, PPO exposure, enterprise value, Debt/EBITDA. |
| Phase Status (NP) | Build a New Practice only. Current phase, ramp progress, break-even projection, and cash runway. |
| Decisions Taken | Complete history of every decision submitted, grouped by quarter. |
| Coaching Flags | Auto-generated flags triggered by KPI thresholds. Invisible to students. |
| vs Optimal Path | Quarter-by-quarter score gap between this team and the optimal path reference run. |
| Improvement Suggestions | Tiered suggestions: ⛔ Critical, ⚠ Developmental, ✅ Commendable. Each includes a faculty discussion prompt. |
| CODA Competency Table | Final Report only. Competency scores mapped to CODA domain categories. |
Section 03
Configuration Options
Practice Size
| Setting | Starting Cash | Debt | Fixed Costs/Qtr | Use Case |
|---|
| Small (1 Dr, 2 Hyg) | $25,000 | $480,000 | $76,000 | Introductory courses. Lower numbers, simpler decisions. |
| Medium (2 Dr, 3 Hyg) | $42,000 | $820,000 | $148,000 | Default. Recommended for most courses. Full feature range. |
| Large (3+ Dr, 5 Hyg) | $80,000 | $1,400,000 | $244,000 | Advanced courses. Higher debt load, more hiring options. |
Starting Difficulty
| Difficulty | Util Δ | Morale Δ | Cash Δ | Rating Δ | Recommended for |
|---|
| Easy | +8% | +15 pts | +$40,000 | +0.3 | First-year students, first cohort using the simulation. |
| Standard | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Default. Most cohorts. Balanced challenge. |
| Hard | −10% | −15 pts | −$20,000 | −0.4 | Advanced courses, students with prior simulation experience. |
Partner & Small Group Sessions
ℹ️
Current implementation uses Read-Assist Mode: one student is the managing partner and controls all decisions. Partners join via a shared URL and can view in real time but cannot submit decisions. Full Collaborative Mode is planned for v1.1.
| Parameter | Value | Effect |
|---|
| np_managing_partner | URL-encoded student name | Identifies who controls decisions — anyone whose name does not match is read-only |
| np_session_type | partner or smallgroup | Activates Partner Discussion chat panel for all viewers |
| name | Individual student name | Compared against np_managing_partner to set read-only state (case-sensitive) |
Section 04 — 🔒 Faculty Only
How the Scoring Engine Works
🔒
The scoring formula, component ranges, and formula notes below are intentionally hidden from students. Do not project or distribute this section during class sessions.
Score = (Financial Health × 0.35) + (Growth & Value × 0.25) + (Team & Operations × 0.20) + (Patient & Market × 0.20)
Financial Health (35%)
| Component | Range | Formula notes |
|---|
| EBITDA Margin | Base 30, up to +25 | ≥30% = +25 pts. 20–29% = +15. 10–19% = +5. 0–9% = −10. Negative = −30. |
| Cash Position | 0 to +8 | >$100K = +8. >$30K = +4. Negative = −18. |
| PPO Independence | −14 to +14 | (1 − ppo_exposure) × 28 − 14. 70% PPO ≈ +0 pts. |
| DSCR | −20 to +22 | Annualised EBITDA ÷ Debt. ≥2.5× = +22. ≥1.5× = +14. ≥1.0× = +4. <0.5× = −20. |
Growth & Value (25%)
| Component | Range | Formula notes |
|---|
| Doctor Production/Hr | −18 to +25 | Base $550/hr. Each $8 above/below = ±1 pt. |
| New Patients/Quarter | −10 to +22 | 8 patients = baseline. Each above/below × 1.4. |
| Google Rating | −20 to +30 | 3.9 = baseline. Each 0.1 above = +3 pts. |
Team & Operations (20%)
| Component | Formula notes |
|---|
| Morale (dominant) | (morale / 100) × 80. Morale 55 = 44 pts. Morale 100 = 80 pts. |
| Utilization | (utilization − 0.65) × 55, clamped −12 to +12. |
| Overwork penalty | −10 pts if utilization > 92%. |
Score Range Reference
| Strategy | Typical Q8 Score | Notes |
|---|
| No decisions (passive) | 33–38 | Morale decays, schedule stagnates. |
| Overtime-only / staff neglect | 22–40 | Cash builds but morale hits 0. |
| Minimal / reactive | 38–52 | Some fee increases only. |
| Moderate / balanced | 55–72 | Consistent investment across pillars. |
| Aggressive / optimal | 75–88 | Strategic capital deployment, PPO exit, CBCT. Top quartile. |
Section 05 — 🔒 Faculty Only
Coaching Flags Reference
Auto-generated alerts in the Team Detail drill-down. They fire based on KPI thresholds, not events. Invisible to students.
| Flag | Trigger Condition | What it suggests |
|---|
| Morale Critical | Morale < 25 | Overtime abuse, no raises, no training. Fragility spike imminent. |
| Morale Warning | Morale 25–44 | Without investment next quarter, will cross into Critical. |
| Cash Danger | Cash < $30,000 | One bad event away from negative cash. |
| DSCR Critical | DSCR < 0.5× | Annualised EBITDA less than half of debt balance. |
| Utilization Stalled | Utilization < 60% | Insufficient marketing or no recall system investment. |
| High Fragility | Fragility Index > 50 | Multiple stress factors active. Events will fire more frequently. |
| Score Declining | Score dropped >5 pts Q-on-Q | Trajectory worsening. |
| Ramp Danger (NP) | Cash runway < 8 weeks during ramp | Approaching bankruptcy decision threshold. |
| Ramp Stalled (NP) | Break-even not reached by Q3 | Marketing underspend or over-hiring is the usual cause. |
Section 06
The Event System
The simulation includes 130 events drawn from real dental practice scenarios. Faculty can inject events via the Event Library or the AI Curveball Generator — both flow through the Event Editor before injection.
Event Probability by Fragility Index
| Fragility Index | Base Probability (Guided Discovery) | Base Probability (High Stakes) |
|---|
| 0 (no stress) | 15% | 15% |
| 25 | 24% | 28% |
| 50 | 33% | 38% |
| 75 | 41% | 47% |
| 100 (max stress) | 50% | 50% |
AI Curveball Generator — Prompt Quality Guide
| Quality | Example Prompt | What it produces |
|---|
| Basic | Generate a staffing crisis | Generic staff departure similar to existing library events. |
| Good | Generate a staffing crisis where the lead hygienist leaves to join a nearby DSO, taking two patients with her | Targeted event with DSO-specific framing and patient attrition impact. |
| Best | Generate a MODERATE HR event triggered when morale is below 45, where the lead hygienist leaves citing workload. Include a teaching note about morale neglect and key staff departure. | Precisely scoped event with explicit trigger context and pedagogical framing. |
💡
After the final debrief, reveal the prompt you used to generate any AI curveball events. Show students the Event Editor fields. Ask: "What would you have written differently?" This is often the richest discussion of the session.
Recommended Library Events
| Event ID | Title | Best Quarter | Teaching Goal |
|---|
| EVT_028 | Lead Hygienist Resigns | Q2 | Tests whether morale investment was made early. FTE structural reset. |
| EVT_044 | Operatory Chair Down | Q3 | Tests emergency cash management and insurance awareness. |
| EVT_090 | Embezzlement Discovered | Q5 | Tests internal control awareness. Fires regardless of compliance investment. |
| EVT_093 | Mass Staff Walkout | Q6 | Tests morale investment across the full simulation arc. |
| EVT_097 | Ransomware Attack | Q7 | Tests technology risk awareness and cash reserve adequacy. |
| EVT_099 | State Board License Suspension | Q8 | Tests accumulated cost of compliance neglect. |
| NPEVT_003 | Ramp Revenue Miss | Q2 (NP) | Tests revenue forecasting and marketing spend adequacy during ramp. |
| NPEVT_009 | NP Bankruptcy Warning | Q3 (NP, High Stakes) | Creates urgency for ramp recovery. Powerful teaching moment. |
Section 07 — 🔒 Faculty Only
Peer Archetypes (Leaderboard Competitors)
Inherited Practice Archetypes
| Archetype | Strategy | Typical Q8 Score | Teaching use |
|---|
| Growth Maximizer | Heavy marketing, early CBCT, associate hire, aggressive fee increases. | 55–68 | Illustrates high-risk growth. |
| Financial Optimizer | Fee discipline, operational systems, no overtime. | 65–78 | Illustrates efficiency without volume growth. |
| People-First Leader | Regular raises, high training spend, strong reputation investment. | 70–82 | Illustrates long-term team culture value. |
| Debt Eliminator | Aggressive debt paydown every quarter. | 58–70 | Illustrates DSCR management. |
| Operations Maestro | Systems-focused: recall, training, supply discipline. | 65–76 | Illustrates operational excellence. |
| Risk-Taker | Heavy overtime, expansion loans, aggressive fee increases. | 42–72 | High variance archetype. |
| Resilient Builder | Balanced team + systems investment. | 68–80 | Rare combination of culture AND discipline. |
| Specialist | Deep specialization investment. | 60–78 | Module-dependent. |
| FFS Pioneer | PPO exit strategy, reputation investment. | 58–76 | High-conviction strategic pivot. |
Build a New Practice Archetypes
| Archetype | Strategy | Typical Q8 Score | Teaching use |
|---|
| Lean Founder | Minimum viable staff at open, heavy marketing, slow hiring. | 55–70 | Illustrates cash-conservation founding. |
| Capital Deployer | High initial equipment spend, premium location, aggressive hire-ahead. | 45–75 | High variance. Ask: cash runway at Q2? |
| Community Anchor | Community-focused location, Medicaid credentialing. | 50–68 | Illustrates mission-driven trade-offs. |
| DSO Playbook | Corporate efficiency: standardised protocols, associate-heavy. | 60–78 | Illustrates DSO operating model. |
Section 08
Running a Class Session
| Session | Timing | Activity | Your Role |
|---|
| Pre-simulation briefing | 30–45 min | Distribute Student Guide. Review pillar weights, DSCR, and one-time decisions. | Walk through one example quarter on the projector. Do not reveal the scoring formula. |
| Q1–Q2 play | 60–90 min | Teams play quarters 1 and 2. | Monitor the Class Overview. Identify struggling teams via coaching flags. |
| Mid-point debrief (after Q4) | 30–45 min | Reveal the leaderboard. Discuss score distribution. | Use the drill-down on a projector. Show one team's vs Optimal Path gap. |
| Q5–Q8 play | 60–90 min | Teams complete the simulation. | Consider injecting a curveball in Q5–Q6. Monitor for Morale Critical and DSCR Critical flags. |
| Final debrief | 45–60 min | Reveal full leaderboard. Each team reviews their Final Report. | Reveal Event Editor fields if you used a curveball. Use the What-If tab to show one alternative path. |
Debrief Questions by Pillar
Financial Health
- What was your DSCR at the end of Q4? Did you know what it was at the time?
- For teams that took an expansion loan: what did you use the capital for, and did it generate a measurable return?
- For teams that dropped PPO: at what quarter did you initiate?
Team & Operations
- Show teams their morale chart. Ask: when did it start declining and what caused it?
- Can a team have morale 100 and still score below 70 on Team & Ops? (Answer: yes — low utilization reduces the pillar independently of morale.)
Section 09
Student Link & URL Parameter Reference
| Parameter | Values | Required? | Description |
|---|
| faculty | 1 | No | Opens Faculty Console instead of student sim. |
| team | Opaque pseudonym (e.g. t_7g2k9q) | Yes (student) | Random, non-name-derived team identifier. No student names are stored. |
| code | Random access token | Yes (student) | Capability token that authorizes play; baked into the team link. Don't post it publicly. |
| track | inherited / new_practice | Yes (student) | Sets the simulation track for this team. |
| mode | guided / highstakes | Yes (student) | Sets pedagogy mode. Students cannot change this. |
| session | solo / partner / smallgroup | Yes (student) | Sets session type. |
| size | small / medium / large | Yes (student) | Locks the practice size. |
| difficulty | easy / standard / hard | Yes (student) | Sets starting conditions. |
| features | ai_curveball | No | Unlocks AI Curveball Generator and Event Editor. |
| curveball_q | 1–8 | No | Designates the quarter for the injected event. |
| curveball_event | Event ID or AI-generated ID | No | Designates the specific event. Requires curveball_q. |
🔑
Your roster file is the recovery key. ClinicReady stores no student names — only an opaque pseudonym (e.g. t_7g2k9q), a random access code, and your team label per team. Name teams generically (e.g. "Team 3"), never after a student. The roster file you download (Download Roster / Code Sheet in the Student Links panel) is the only copy of the name↔pseudonym mapping, and ClinicReady cannot recover it — that's deliberate; it's what keeps student data de-identified on our side. Store it in your institution's secure system (LMS or secure drive), not a personal device. If you lose it, you lose only the ability to re-attach names: performance data, student access, and the access codes all survive (the code sheet is re-downloadable anytime). Partial fallback — students who saved their participant ID can self-report it, letting you rebuild the mapping for those students. Frame it as a FERPA feature, not a limitation: we can't lose what we never hold.
Section 10
CODA Competency Mapping
ClinicReady provides evidence toward the CODA standards below — it does not by itself satisfy them (that determination belongs to the institution). Standards verified against the CODA Accreditation Standards for Dental Education Programs (amended through Aug 8, 2025). The simulation makes no claim against clinical patient-care standards (2-22 through 2-25). The full crosswalk with paraphrased standard text is maintained in the ClinicReady CODA Mapping document (current version).
| ClinicReady evidence area | Simulation proxy | Evidence in Final Report | CODA |
|---|
| Critical Thinking & Decision-Making | Quarter-by-quarter decisions; per-quarter decision journal (students defend their reasoning); curveball/event responses | Decision journal & reasoning entries; decision timeline; end-of-sim debrief | 2-10 |
| Practice Management & Operations | Staffing, capital, fee-schedule, payer-mix & team-leadership decisions; Financial Health, Growth & Value and Patient & Market pillars; DSCR/EBITDA/cash | Pillar trajectories; DSCR chart; enterprise value at Q8; cohort CSV CODA columns | 2-19 |
| Legal & Regulatory Compliance | Decision-making in response to compliance events — HIPAA, OSHA, DEA, State Dental Board (exposure, not a claim of compliance competence) | Event history log; legal risk index by quarter | 2-18 |
| Ethics & Professional Responsibility | Staff/morale leadership decisions; ethics-dimensioned events (supplementary — complements the school's ethics curriculum) | Team & Operations trajectory; morale chart; decision log | 2-21 |
| Self-Directed Learning | Post-simulation self-rating and free-text reflection (modest — self-directed reflection, not comprehensive self-assessment) | Reflection journal in Final Report; post-sim survey results | 2-11 |
Section 11
Knowledge Quiz (Assessment Module)
An optional, faculty-toggled end-of-run knowledge check that emits a per-CODA-standard knowledge score — the assessment artifact CODA asks for, alongside the experiential evidence the sim already provides. Off by default; enabled per cohort.
Enabling & previewing
- In the Faculty Console Setup tab, toggle Knowledge Quiz on for the cohort. When on, the check runs at the end of the simulation (after Q8) for every team link in the cohort.
- Preview the student experience without writing any data by appending ?quiz_preview=1 to a team or faculty link.
What students see
- A randomized draw of 10 questions from a pool of 50, each carrying one hidden CODA-standard tag used only for the scoring rollup.
- On submit: an overall score plus a per-standard breakdown, with a short rationale per question.
- Results persist across reloads and feed the Final Report "Knowledge Check" block and the cohort CSV.
The question pool
- Ships with a founder-seeded bank of 50 dental practice-management questions tagged to the knowledge standards — emphasis on 2-18 (legal/regulatory), 2-19 (practice management) and 2-21 (ethics), with 2-10 critical-thinking framing. No clinical or patient-health content.
- Each student gets a stratified randomized draw, so teams don't all see the same questions.
Write your own questions
- In the Quiz card, open ✍️ Write your own question: enter the stem, four options, mark the correct one, add a rationale, and tag the CODA standard.
- Save to your cohort bank, or also publish to the shared global bank so other cohorts can draw from it. Authored questions appear in the cohort bank list, where you can delete them.
- With the AI features flag on, generate a draft question from a plain-English prompt (the same secure proxy as the AI Curveball Generator), then review and edit before saving.
Item analysis & export
- Per-question item analysis (percent correct) helps you spot weak or ambiguous items.
- ⬇ Question Bank (HTML) exports a printable bank grouped by source and CODA standard.
- Per-standard knowledge scores appear in the cohort CSV and the Pilot Outcome Report's Knowledge Assessment section.
⚖️
Conservative framing. The quiz provides assessed-knowledge evidence toward a CODA standard; it does not satisfy it. ClinicReady remains an adjunct to a course that owns formal assessment. Faculty-authored questions are Contributed Content under §6.4 of the Pilot Program Agreement.
Section 12
Historical Cohort Benchmarks
| Cohort | Winner | Winning Score | Class Average | Low Score |
|---|
| 2024–25 Midwestern | Team Aurora | 82.4 | 63.1 | 38.5 |
| 2023–24 Midwestern | Practice Rx | 79.2 | 61.0 | 35.8 |
| 2022–23 Midwestern | Oakview Group | 77.8 | 58.4 | 32.1 |
| 2024–25 Pacific Coast | West Dental | 85.6 | 65.3 | 40.2 |
| 2024–25 Northeast | Capital Smiles | 81.3 | 62.7 | 37.4 |
Section 13
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Likely cause | Resolution |
|---|
| Student cannot access Faculty Console | Using a student team link, not the faculty URL | Confirm they navigate to base URL + ?faculty=1 with no team= parameter. |
| AI Curveball Generator tab not visible | features=ai_curveball not in URL, or Core license | Ensure the faculty URL includes ?features=ai_curveball. Contact hello@getclinicready.com. |
| Event Editor not opening | Browser pop-up blocker | The Event Editor opens as an in-page panel. Try a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R). |
| Trigger conditions greyed out | You selected a library event, not an AI-generated event | Trigger conditions are read-only for library events. Use the AI generator for editable trigger conditions. |
| Injected event not firing | Event was configured after the target quarter was already played | Configure before students begin that quarter. |
| Team data not appearing in Class Overview | Student has not completed at least one quarter | Instruct student to complete Q1 and submit. |
| NP Bankruptcy warning not appearing | Bankruptcy Mode disabled or team in Guided Discovery | Pedagogy Mode must be High Stakes. |
| CODA table not in Final Report | Team has not completed Q8 | The CODA table generates only after Q8 submission. |
| Cohort Insights panel not appearing | Fewer than 2 teams have completed at least 2 quarters | Panel requires minimum 2 teams with data. |
| Partner sees decisions as active | Partner's name in URL does not match np_managing_partner (case-sensitive) | Check that name= matches np_managing_partner exactly. Regenerate links from the Faculty Console if unsure. |
| Partner Chat panel not visible | Link is missing np_session_type=partner, or Build a New Practice module not active | Confirm the link includes np_session_type=partner and track=new_practice. |