Principles of Practice Management: "My team isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing"
We hear this complaint all the time:
My staff members will not do what they are supposed to do in the way they are supposed to do it.
The cost of poor team performance in a dental practice
When your team doesn’t perform in the way that you need them to, it creates stress and chaos in practices, lowers practice production. and increases inefficiency. Furthermore, not following the right procedures will lead to mistakes, wasted time, poor customer service, and even lost patients. So how do you avoid this situation?
Why dental practices need clear systems
Successful businesses establish a set of systems that must be followed. In fact, a practice leader’s worst bad habit might be not having systems and requiring the team to follow them. Why? Systems help to create the optimal conditions for daily practice operations. Keep in mind that systems must be developed in writing, such as within a step-by-step instruction manual. If this seems overwhelming, just start with one system: scheduling.
Scheduling, accountability, and increased productivity
Scheduling is very complex because in addition to placing patients, you must account for factors such as where and why you place them, no-shows, last-minute cancellations, overdue patients, and active and inactive patients. As you systemize each of these areas and the team is then taught how to follow the system, the practice will benefit, and production and profit will rise.
If team members don't follow the systems, then the systems become less valuable or useless. As a result, over time, team members will make their own decisions about what they want to do, when they want to do it, and how they do it. The problem is that how team members do things is rarely as good as proven systems.
The best practices use proven systems. If you’re not hitting your targets, re-establish your systems, train your team on the systems and require them to follow them. The team has a job to do, and the systems will tell them exactly how to do it in the very best way.
Editor's note: This article originally appeared in DE Weekend, the newsletter that will elevate your Sunday mornings with practical and innovative practice management and clinical content from experts across the field. Subscribe here.
