Tag Archives: front desk

Capacity Constraints: Hidden Practice Barriers

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Fixing the weakest links.

Your practice should flow smooth, fast, and uninterrupted, like a clear mountain stream.

Most offices, unfortunately, have hidden dams that slow or even block the flows within their office. This limits growth and increases stress.

For example, I have often seen the front desk so clogged with paperwork that new and active patients were inadvertently discouraged from coming in.

Every department and function of your practice is vulnerable to innocuously seeming events that add friction that choke production. Interruptions in the billing department, poor note-keeping systems for doctors, too many therapies to choose from, insufficient space, staff unclear of their goals, staff driven into apathy by being micromanaged… there are many potential opportunities for roadblocks.

Generating more new patients to increase your patient volume is usually a good idea. But often, the increase in volume is short lived because the office had too many hidden log jams and wasn’t set up for the higher patient volume. Even the doctors, while saying they want more new patients, can become fatigued by the end of the day and privately look forward to lighter days.

There are several remedies for these clogged flows.

First, clear up the goals and outcomes of each department. For example, the goal of the front desk is not “completed paperwork.” (A “Fully Scheduled Day” would be better!)

Second, you can review and refine the flow of patients into, through, and out of your practice. Draw a patient flow chart. Start with your new patients. List the sequence of actions your new patient goes through on their first day at your office. Later, you can do this for their second and third day. You can later work out a flow chart for reactivated patients, re-injured patients, and different types of cases.

Then, you and your team can rehearse the entire sequence to see what is missing or what needs to be eliminated.

I cover this in The Goal Driven Business:

Broken flow patterns that remain invisible “clog up” the system and slow down everyone’s best efforts to produce valuable outcomes and excellent service. These are bottlenecks. Discovering and eradicating them is a significant function of the Goal Achievement Process.

In his 1984 book, The Goal, Eliyahu Goldratt introduced what has come to be known as the “Theory of Constraints.” By making a chart outlining the flow of your customers, for example, you’ll better identify “leaks” or constraints which lessen your ability to achieve high quality and quantity customer outcomes.

As Goldratt states, “Since the strength of the chain is determined by the weakest link, then the first step to improve an organization must be to identify the weakest link.”

Every three months or so, do a “walk-through” with your entire team, where someone takes on the role of customer. This rehearsal will bring to light many duplicated or omitted functions. You’d be surprised to discover that many of the tasks you assume are done for your customer are actually skipped or poorly linked in. Sometimes you find tasks from decades ago, that no longer apply, are still being done.

Be an engineer to your goals and discover the constraints holding your office back, and remove them.

Be…… A Goalineer!

Ed

PS For those of you who have purchased my book, The Goal Driven Business, you are welcome to schedule a no-charge consultation to see how you can remove your bottlenecks and achieve your goals. SCHEDULE NOW

If you haven’t purchased the book yet, please do so here.  BUY THE BOOK

What Do You Think of When The Phone Rings?

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This New Year has reminded us of a powerful fundamental principle in practice management and marketing.

It started with an office out West. 2020 was a bad year for them. There was COVID, of course, but there had also been repeated staff turnover and other issues. A once busy office in an upscale mall, it had seen better days. The doctor, staff, and I just could not find a way to get the office going like it once was. New patients had decreased to a trickle. We tried one thing and then another – nothing worked. With little fanfare, sometime in late fall, the lead doctor finally resolved a long-term personal challenge that had been haunting him for years. Not much seem to change in the office, but when I got the numbers for January and plotted them, they were literally off the chart. Somehow, doing nothing really that different, the office saw its highest number of new patients since it began, over 20 years ago.

Just last week, we had another reminder. Over in another part of the country, an office had been struggling with some recent procedural changes, and December and January (last month) saw its lowest new patient numbers in years. Ordinarily a high volume two doctor office, the first week of February wasn’t looking any better. We got together on a conference call to sort things out. Then, the team got together for a comprehensive meeting with doctors and staff and worked out confusions and log jams, focused on the mission and its WHY. Just a few days ago, the second week of February, they reported their highest number of new patients in months.

What does this tell us?

A few years back I wrote an article that I think explains this phenomenon.

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What Do You Think About
When the Phone Rings?

You are sitting there, trying to finish your notes. You hear your phone ring. You are a bit behind. Maybe slightly irritated by an arbitrary denial of an insurance company and you haven’t yet planned out tonight’s evening with the family, spouse, or friend.

The phone rings again.

What are your thoughts? What are your feelings?

Do you kinda wish it wouldn’t ring? Is it a bit of an interruption? Do-you-just-want-to-answer- the – dang-phone-to-stop-the-ringing-so-you-can-get-back-to-your-work?

Essentially, your thought is “Stop.” It is: “Don’t call me.” “Phone, don’t ring, don’t interrupt me!” I am sure this has happened to you – even if ever so slightly or subconsciously.

Now, imagine if your front desk has these thoughts when the phone rings?

To some degree, even the most devoted and hard-working staff can reactively feel put upon by phone calls. Or, in fact, by walk-ins. Or, in fact, by any patient encounter. I have seen this happen on the front desk when the doctor was busy with patients. But remember, this can happen with even the most ethical team member, including you! I have seen doctors do this often. (Extreme examples: “Oh, only two patients coming in on Saturday, go ahead reschedule them. It is MY office, and I can do what I want.”)

Our thoughts can and do determine our behavior and affect how we treat others. Our environment mirrors our thoughts.

Going back to your front desk, realize that the staff on the front desk have tremendous control over the office, nearly as much as the doctor does. The front desk can be a magnet for your patients and attract or repel them.

When the phone rings, you want your front desk, and all staff, including yourself, thinking “YES.” “Call me. Phone – ring now!” “I can hardly wait to talk to this person and see how they are. I am interested in them and how they are doing. I want to help get them to come in for care — and their family too.” “They must be really really cool and nice if they are calling us.” “I WANT to know more about them.” “I am grateful for their call and appreciate the effort they made in calling us.”

These are good thoughts. These are positive thoughts that can help bring in more patients.

You can practice this with your staff at a team meeting.

For example, someone acts as the prospective patient calling. The person acting as the front desk assistant should answer the phone with the attitude of really not wanting to talk to the person. Act it up. This can be funny. Try it a few times.

Then, do the same rehearsal with the front desk assistant positively anticipating the phone call, wanting the phone to ring, and then eagerly answering and talking to the prospective patient.

Keep the role-playing brief. You can and should do it again. It should be fun and act as a reminder to one and all that we should want to meet new people, talk to existing patients, and look forward to phone calls. We can always dismiss the occasional telemarketer or wrong number.
This can also be rehearsed in other types of patient encounters, from taking the new patient back to the exam room, sitting down to do a financial consultation, or checking a patient out and collecting their payments.

And speaking of how our environment does mirror us, here is a little trick you can use. Get a real mirror, about 4 inches by 4 inches, and put it at the front desk counter so that the team member can see it. You can write something on it like: “Are My Teeth Showing?” “Am I Smiling?” And staff, you can also put one of these in your doctor’s office on any day that he is feeling grumpy. It applies to us all.

So, the next time the phone rings, smile. Be interested and curious in who is taking the time to call. Make your thoughts happy so they help create an office that is brilliant, colorful, and full of happy patients.

Ed

What Do You Think About When the Phone Rings?

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You are sitting there, trying to finish your notes. You hear your phone ring. You are a bit behind. Maybe slightly irritated by an arbitrary denial of an insurance company and you haven’t yet planned out tonight’s evening with the family, spouse, or friend.The phone rings again.

What are your thoughts? What are your feelings?

Do you kinda wish it wouldn’t ring? Is it a bit of an interruption? Do-you-just-want-to-answer-the –dang-phone-to-stop-the-ringing-so-you-can-get-back-to-your-work?

Essentially, your thought is “Stop.”   It is: “Don’t call me.”  “Phone, don’t ring, don’t interrupt me!”   I am sure this has happened to you – even if ever so slightly or subconsciously.

Now, imagine if your front desk has these thoughts when the phone rings?

To some degree, even the most devoted and hard working staff can reactively feel put upon by phone calls. Or, in fact, by walk-ins. Or, in fact, by any patient encounter. I have seen this happen on the front desk when the doctor was busy with patients.  But remember, this can happen with even the most ethical team member, including you!  I have seen doctors do this too. (Extreme examples: “Oh, only two people for the spinal care class – cancel it.” “Oh, just Jim is coming in, reschedule him. I am going to leave early. It is MY office and I can do what I want.”)

Our thoughts can and do determine our behavior and affect how we treat others. Our environment actually mirrors our thoughts.

You may have heard or read about this scientist in Japan. Fascinating experiments. The fellow’s name is Dr. Masaru Emoto and was also in the movie, “What the Bleep Do We Know?”

According to the movie, Dr. Masaru Emoto claims that crystals formed in frozen water reveal changes when specific, concentrated thoughts are directed toward them. He says that he found that water from clear springs and water that has been exposed to loving words shows brilliant, complex, and colorful snowflake patterns. In contrast, polluted water, or water exposed to negative thoughts, forms incomplete, asymmetrical patterns with dull colors.

You can check out Dr. Emotu’s new book, The Hidden Messages in Water.

So, if our thoughts can affect the formation of water crystals, they probably can have significant effect on our office.

Going back to your front desk, realize that the staff on the front desk have tremendous control over the office, nearly as much as the doctor does. The front desk can be a magnet for your patients, and attract, or repel them.

When the phone rings, you want your front desk, and all staff thinking “YES.”  “Call me. Phone –  ring now.”  “I can hardly wait to talk to this person and see how they are. I am interested in them and how they are doing. I want to help get them come in for care — and their family too.” “They must be really really cool and nice if they are calling us.” “I WANT to know more about them.” “I am grateful for their call and appreciate the effort they made in calling us.”

These are good thoughts.  These are positive thoughts that can help bring in more patients.

You can practice this with your staff at a team meeting.

ACTION STEP. As an example, someone acts as the prospective patient calling. The person acting as the front desk assistant should answer the phone with the attitude of really not wanting to talk to the person. Act it up. This can be funny. Try it a few times.

Then, do the same rehearsal with the front desk assistant positively anticipating the phone call, wanting the phone to ring, and then eagerly answering and talking to the prospective patient.

Keep it the role playing brief. You can and should do it again. It should be fun and act as a reminder to one and all that we should want to meet new people, talk to existing patients, and look forward to phone calls. We can always dismiss the occasional telemarketer or wrong number.

This can also be rehearsed in other types of patient encounters, from taking the new patient back to the exam room, sitting down to do a financial consultation, or checking a patient out and collecting their payments.

(Note to PM&A clients & members: Your PM&A Coach is experienced in these types of trainings. Have one of us facilitate one of these trainings next time we visit your office.)

ACTION STEP. And speaking of how our environment does mirror us, here is a little trick you can use.  Get a real mirror, about 4 inches by 4 inches, and put it at the front desk counter so that the team member can see it. You can write something on it like: “Are My Teeth Showing?” “Am I Smiling?” And staff, you can also put one of these in your doctor’s office on any day that he is feeling grumpy. It applies to us all.

So, the next time the phone rings, smile. Be interested and curious in who is taking the time to call.  Make your thoughts happy so they help create an office that is brilliant, colorful, and full of happy patients.

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[Petty, Michel & Associates offers special practice development programs designed to help you achieve your goals. Give us a call for more info: 414- three three two -4511]