April 2009

4 steps to practice achievement ...

Step #1 -- the staff meeting

by Timothy J. Gay, DC

When you work with your team, you should be constantly striving to develop a group of people with the tenacity and perseverance to perform their jobs to the best of their ability. All staff members should be in attendance. Participation and a sense of belonging can be increased by having one team member conduct the meeting and rotating the schedule weekly to other members of the team.

The doctor does the first meeting of the month and the rest are alternated by the team, so the same mountain top speech by the DC is only repeated once a month. These meetings are held to review practice statistics and goals and offer a time to renew a sense of purpose and enthusiasm. It's an opportunity, both to provide inspiration and create a team atmosphere with open communication by acknowledging efforts and stats and to improve on goals that are not being accomplished.

We find that staff meetings once a week, preferably on Monday between 12:30 and 1:30, are vital to keeping a communication link between doctors, staff members, and the most important asset of any practice, patients. The meetings should start and end on time and a positive tone should be kept throughout.

Staff meetings need to be a productive time between the doctors and staff -- the team -- and not based on individual performance or negativity. They continue a dialogue based on the departments that have been created and team members held responsible and accountable for the statistics in each department. In addition to having a predetermined outline to insure effectiveness, a scribe should be present to take notes from the meeting so that all involved will get a copy.

The staff meeting agenda/outline should begin on a positive note, based on a success story about one of the patients during the week. A review of the last meeting follows to make sure things are communicated on various projects being done in the office.

Next is the discussion by the various departments that have been divided into parts of each team member's job description for accountability purposes.

The appointment schedule is usually under the auspices of the front desk coordinator. Make sure that your percentage of kept appointments is measured against number of scheduled patients to reschedules or missed appointments, patients staying on schedule, patient flow, scheduled re-examination of patients, goals for patient visits compared to actual visits made, any problems with patients and the solutions to those problems. Remember that what gets measured gets done and small problems have small solutions.

The insurance department makes sure that all billings are up to date and all new patients have been billed. There's always a collaborative effort with collections between over-the-counter collections and insurance billing. The front desk is responsible for all copays and deductibles. Communication between the front desk and the insurance department is essential to creating higher collection percentages in your practice.

One person should be in charge of office supplies (everything from x-ray film to toilet paper) that are needed to keep the practice running smoothly.

Patient health classes are an option in some offices, but a huge benefit for the patients as an educational tool. Find out what the attendance was for the last class and goals established for the next class, as well as the date of the next class and the person who'll be teaching it. Scripts for the doctor and team need to be practiced and adhered to in order to give patients concise answers. Procedure discussions along with practice problem solving issues are also brought up at this time.

Promotions, marketing and advertising is another area of responsibility. This is the time to discuss any promotional projects in progress and who is responsible for them to their completion. Use a one-year calendar-at-a-glance to establish dates, times, and places. Each department of your office should share office statistics and analysis.

Goals need to be set for new patients, patient visits, collections, over-the-counter collections, extra services, and rehab services. Once these are established, actual numbers are placed next to the goals to see what's been achieved and what each department needs to work on. Make sure to set goals as a team for the next week.

The end of each meeting like the beginning is motivational with a thought, a story, video, etc. The person in charge of the weekly meeting adjourns until the next week. Alternating the meeting is far more interesting so mark your calendar for who'll be in charge of the following week's meeting.

Staff meetings should not be used for criticizing individuals, procedures, gossip or negative banter. The use of your time and your team's time is very valuable. Remember, meetings can either be a pain or an extremely useful tool, depending on whether or not they're conducted positively and professionally.

(To be continued ...)

(Dr. Timothy J. Gay, a 30-plus year veteran of chiropractic, is the founder of Ultimate Practice and director of Solana Beach Chiropractic Clinic. He is a highly acclaimed speaker and author recognized for his motivational presentations on practice enhancement. Dr. Gay speaks before enthusiastic audiences at numerous state association conventions, national seminars, and recently at the Amsterdam Chiropractic Association in the Netherlands. He offers a line of products including manuals, DVDs and CDs on his website www.ultimatepractice.com . Dr. Gay can be reached at 866-797-8366, or via e-mail drgay@ultimatepractice.com .)