“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. … If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
Henry David Thoreau Walden
For a printable version of this tent poster click: Castles in the Air-Walden
A tree withstands storms but continues with its systems.
Just a note here about procedures:
Keep the structure of your business – its policies and procedures — in place. As much as you can, stick to your usual routines.
Certainly, you want to integrate needed changes to prevent the spreading of the virus. And obviously, for many of you, patient volume has changed, so you may have to adjust your work hours and staff hours.
You do need to be flexible. Improvise — where needed, adapt, and overcome! (Paraphrase of Marine slogan!)
But do not let the virus be the tail that wags the dog!
Keep the recalls going. Keep the billing going. Hold staff meetings, if only by Zoom. Rally the team! Review numbers and SET GOALS. Give staff study assignments. If anything, increase your patient communication 5 times – or more.
Strengthen your network.
I bring this up as I have seen a few offices start to slack off on their procedures, and while this is understandable in many situations, it can be a slippery slope. This can set a precedent for neglecting other procedures. This is what leads to office anarchy and what I call “Procedural Atrophy.”
Procedural Atrophy is the gradual dropping out of procedures. For example, you used to call every new patient after their first adjustment and send out birthday cards. Then, you became so busy that you “didn’t have time” to do the calls or to makes sure the staff sent out birthday cards. Two years later, you wonder what happened to all your patients.
We are NOT victims. We will respond positively and use this opportunity to strengthen our resolve and our health network.
Hold true to time tested procedures during unusual conditions.
Stability breeds confidence. Your patients are looking to you to be the rock that they can count on.
Management’s job is to hold the structure of the organization in place. (And then improve upon it.) It may have to be abbreviated, economy of time, effort and money come into play, but … do the usual. Set your goals and stick to your successful procedures to reach them.
Do this, and after this storm passes — your business will be busier than ever.
Working now for the future,
Ed