Dianne Glasscoe Watterson, MBA, RDH
Dear Dianne,
I am a solo practitioner with about 2,000 active patients in my practice. My hygienist and I have full schedules. I employ two women at the front desk who get along well, maybe a little too well. It seems they struggle to get their work done, and that area of the office is always chaotic. I try to avoid the front desk, but many times I hear them engaged in social chitchat. Both women have great personalities and have worked with me for five years or more. I’m probably lucky to have such nice business assistants, but I’m tired of the excuses about why this or that doesn’t get done. What can I do to get them to focus more on their work and less on socializing?
— Dr. Bob
Dear Dr. Bob,
The business desk is the nerve center of the practice, and I’ve observed many, many offices with disorganization in that area. The disorganization is usually a result of not having good systems in place, which includes job descriptions for each position. Add excessive socializing to a lack of systems, and it’s easy to see why the work suffers.
When I encounter a business desk with two (or possibly three) people, the first question I ask is, “Whose job is it to fill the openings that occur in the hygiene schedule?” The staff members often look at each other and say something like, “Well, we all do it if we have time.” In other words, no one is held responsible for that very important job. Another telling question I ask is, “Whose job is it to monitor the accounts receivable and contact delinquent payers?” Again, a typical answer is, “We try to stay on top of that, but it’s hard to find the time.” Neither of those answers is acceptable.
The best way to hold people accountable is to have good job descriptions in place that clearly spell out what is expected. Since the business desk has two main functions—scheduling and collections—I recommend that each staff member have a primary purpose. One staff member should be the scheduling coordinator, and the other should be the financial coordinator. Everything pertaining to the schedule is the responsibility of the scheduling coordinator, and efficiency can be measured by a number, which is downtime percentage.
The efficiency of the financial coordinator can also be measured by a number, which is collection percentage. There should be time set aside in the schedule each month for you to meet with the financial coordinator to review past due accounts and what actions have been taken toward collection. You should also meet with your scheduling coordinator to hear the report on how many patients were contacted and scheduled and to learn the monthly downtime percentage.
Of course, there are many duties at the business desk that staff members will share, such as answering the phone and check-in and checkout duties. However, when staff members know their efficiency is being monitored and reported, hopefully their performance will improve.
You are blessed to have two “people persons” at your business desk. Friendly, happy faces greeting patients as they arrive and exit is such an asset. When you have two social butterflies at the front desk, there will always be some socializing. The goal is to reduce that socializing through better systems and monitoring.
All the best,
