Sandy Roth and
Terry Goss
This month, we invite you to take a very good look at your staff configuration and your physical plant as you consider how you might shift from a practice based on a "front-back" model to one organized around these three arenas: administrative, behavioral and clinical. In preparation for your team meeting, each member receives three pieces of paper. One page is labeled "Administrative," a second "Behavioral," and the third "Clinical." Other than the labels, the pages are blank. Team members are asked to respond to the following instructions and answer these questions:
(1) Your first step is to identify all of the administrative jobs in the practice and list them on the appropriate sheet. Do the same thing for the behavioral and clinical jobs.
(2) On another piece of paper, draw a rough blueprint of the office space. Label each area with an A, B, C, or a combination of these letters to indicate the types of work that go on there. Once you have completed this task, look at what portion of the office space is dedicated to administrative work, behavioral work and clinical work. Also consider whether administrative and behavioral work have the privacy needed to accomplish the stated goals.
(3) In considering your own role in the practice, what portion of your job is administrative, behavioral, and clinical? Where are you expected to do that work and how effective are you given the physical plant layout and competing job expectations?
At your team meeting, use a flip chart to consolidate your lists and blueprint drawings. Did members of the team see things similarly? If not, use the meeting time to discuss the differences.
Consider how work assignments and space might be allocated differently to provide for a business office (administrative space) and consultation rooms (behavioral space). Discuss any limitations to your current staffing configuration and physical plant layout, and what you might do to change it. Be sure to talk about how any changes might have a positive impact on your ability to communicate with your patients.
