October, 2010

Morning Meetings Start Your Day Off The Right Way

By Roger P. Levin, DDS

“The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.” – Tony Robbins, author and success coach.

Effective communication keeps a practice running smoothly. When everyone has access to the same information, it increases productivity and promotes staff harmony. On the other hand, miscommunication can wreak havoc on practice operations, leading to high stress and low employee morale. Promoting good communication habits is one of the smartest things an orthodontist can do in his or her practice.

Levin Group highly recommends that every ortho practice start the day with a morning meeting. This is one of the best ways to keep the entire team informed about what is going on in the practice. It’s not a meeting where the orthodontist and team the talk about the future of the practice. This meeting focuses on what is going on that day in the practice and how the office is performing meeting its weekly, monthly and annual goals.

Many doctors are hesitant about sharing production information with their staff. However, Levin Group has found that by working toward a goal as a team, you have a much greater chance of achieving it. When you involve the staff in the numbers process, everybody comes together in a team effort. This creates an opportunity to help the office achieve its goals.

The items that you should review in the morning management meeting focus on month-to-date production and your starts:

• Goals vs. reality
  What is the month-to-date production? How does it compare to your goal? It is good for the staff to know if the practice is ahead or behind because a good team will rally to work with the orthodontist to reach the goal. You also want to tell them what today’s projected production is. When the front desk people see themselves as part of the case presentation process, it creates opportunities for growth and for teamwork.
• Month-to-date collections vs. the collection goal
  Are you ahead or behind? Are you sharing this information with the staff? If so, this creates a real opportunity for the staff to come together and work toward common goals. Such information would be reported by the treatment coordinator.
• Monthly exams vs. goal
  How many exams has the office done this month verses the exam goal? Again, is the office ahead or behind? This keeps everybody in check because the lifeblood of the orthodontic practice is the number of starts.
• Monthly starts
  Are they where they should be? Have too many consults not converted into starts? If this is the case, the practice needs to know immediately so steps can be taken to change the situation.
• Open time
  Look for holes in the schedule. What happens if a new patient cancels? Is there someone the office can move up? How about if somebody calls—can the practice get the individual in that day? Always expect the unexpected. Kids get sick, cars break down, traffic jams occur. It’s always best for the team to know what kind of day they are about to have. Better everyone know of any obstacles than to be surprised by them later.
• Emergencies
  Is there room on the schedule for them? Are there too many emergencies? Are some emergencies not really emergencies at all? Can scripting be changed to better determine what constitutes a genuine ortho emergency?
• Patients overdue for hygiene or restorative treatment
  It’s important for the treatment coordinator to act as a liaison between the orthodontic practice and the restorative practice. No ortho practice wants patients to be woefully behind on hygiene visits or restorative treatment because non-compliance can adversely affect orthodontic treatment.
• Review accounts receivable
  If nine-year-old Johnny Jones is coming in and his parents are three months behind in payments, the office needs to know this. A decision needs to be made about how to handle it. Who is going to talk to the Jones family about this? It is usually the financial coordinator or the treatment coordinator. Levin Group encourages the staff member in charge of financial affairs to be the point person, but if you feel that the treatment coordinator has a particularly good relationship with those parents, she might be an ideal person to have a preliminary conversation.
• Are there any problem patients? Special-needs patients?
  Are these patients anxious? Are they talkative or disruptive? Special-needs patients are a unique commitment but protocols for these appointments must be strictly followed to avoid causing distractions or disruptions for other patients.
• Target siblings and observation patients
  Any patients coming in who have siblings should be identified for follow-up to see if the siblings should come in for evaluation. Don’t forget observation patients. Is it time where that child coming in might be ready for the conversion to orthodontic treatment? If so, the office needs to know that.

Conclusion

Morning meetings set the tone for the day. When team members fully understand their roles they play in practice success, they are more motivated to help the practice achieve its goals. Use these factors to create best morning meetings possible!

Orthodontic CYBERjournal readers are invited to download Dr. Levin’s latest white paper at  The Ortho Resource Center, Levin Group’s state-of-the-art website designed to meet the practice management and marketing needs of orthodontists. For more information, go to: www.levingrouportho.com.