Welcome to Business Management
Thursday, April 5, 2007
The Right Staff - Inoculating Your Practice Against Staff Infections
OK, so you’ve figured out the kind of people you need, and you’ve hired the right ones into your practice. Now, how do you keep them on board? Believe it or not, you can’t just live happily ever after with staff unless you put a little work into it. So what do you have to do to keep ‘em?
TELL ‘EM WHAT’S GOING ON Communication is always at the top as far as business complaints, and medical practices are no exception. Most bosses, including physicians, assume this means talking more. That’s only half of it. When you hire good people, one of their characteristics will be that they want to know they’re making a difference. How will they know that? They’ll know it when you make it a point of telling them what’s happening with the practice. Now, you don’t have to tell them everything, but you should keep them abreast of the important stuff. Like what you ask? Well, how about challenges the practice is facing, new equipment or procedures you’re considering and how they will affect the practice. You might let them know when you or other principals are going to take time off, and even give them a little report when you get back. Tell them honestly how their work is affecting the success of the practice, people want to know when they’re doing things right. By the way, if there are bad things going on, focus on the effect of those bad things (gossip, customer service issues, incomplete work) rather than pointing out individuals and ‘hanging it on them’. There IS a time to do such a thing, but it’s when you’re meeting one-on-one with the person involved, don’t point out individual problems in staff meetings.
LISTEN TO WHAT THEY’RE TELLING YOU This is the second important part of good communication. Physicians are challenged for time, so planning for listening is important. Set up a bi-weekly or a monthly meeting for listening. You want to avoid a gripe session, so – especially at the beginning – carefully script it. It’s wise to take notes, and then to take action where action is called for. By the way, there’s nothing wrong with deciding that you are NOT going to do everything that staff would like, but it IS important to respect them enough to tell them face to face that you’ve decided not to, and why. Regular feedback is CRITICAL. In a small office, feeding back action on the past month’s concerns is enough. In a larger office, you may want to post a bulletin board with concerns and the action that followed them. One office set up a team whose job was to follow up on staff concerns and see that action was carried through. Done in cooperation with the docs, this is a very good idea, as long as the team and the physicians are communicating regularly.
INVOLVE THE STAFF IN MAKING THE OFFICE WORK Everybody wants to be part of a winning team, and good staff especially so. Once you’ve laid out the challenges that the practice is facing in your “listening meetings”, find ways to get the staff involved in helping to meet those challenges. The same practice that had the team for dealing with staff concerns also had staff teams for other major areas, such as the physical plant and practice processes. The process team was able to make several changes in scheduling procedures that had a significant effect on flow through the practice, patient satisfaction, and physician satisfaction. You might be surprised at what staff can do;but again, take the time to plan for it – don’t turn everything over and ignore it.
REWARD STAFF FOR MAKING THE PRACTICE SUCCESSFUL Finally, a reward system for making the practice successful is really an investment, not a cost – if it’s done right. To do it right the rewards have to be tied to important values and results within the practice, not just to monetary gains. Do you want patients to be happy with your practice? Find a way to reward for that. Are you concerned with a smooth flow of patients and information through the practice? Look for the data that will allow you to monitor the flow. Monetary rewards are the most common, but they should be tied to practice performance, so that they are only paid when the practice is performing to known goals. Rewards can also be in the form of awards, pins, dinners, but should always be tied to actions or results that make the practice more effective.
TELL ‘EM WHAT’S GOING ON Communication is always at the top as far as business complaints, and medical practices are no exception. Most bosses, including physicians, assume this means talking more. That’s only half of it. When you hire good people, one of their characteristics will be that they want to know they’re making a difference. How will they know that? They’ll know it when you make it a point of telling them what’s happening with the practice. Now, you don’t have to tell them everything, but you should keep them abreast of the important stuff. Like what you ask? Well, how about challenges the practice is facing, new equipment or procedures you’re considering and how they will affect the practice. You might let them know when you or other principals are going to take time off, and even give them a little report when you get back. Tell them honestly how their work is affecting the success of the practice, people want to know when they’re doing things right. By the way, if there are bad things going on, focus on the effect of those bad things (gossip, customer service issues, incomplete work) rather than pointing out individuals and ‘hanging it on them’. There IS a time to do such a thing, but it’s when you’re meeting one-on-one with the person involved, don’t point out individual problems in staff meetings.
LISTEN TO WHAT THEY’RE TELLING YOU This is the second important part of good communication. Physicians are challenged for time, so planning for listening is important. Set up a bi-weekly or a monthly meeting for listening. You want to avoid a gripe session, so – especially at the beginning – carefully script it. It’s wise to take notes, and then to take action where action is called for. By the way, there’s nothing wrong with deciding that you are NOT going to do everything that staff would like, but it IS important to respect them enough to tell them face to face that you’ve decided not to, and why. Regular feedback is CRITICAL. In a small office, feeding back action on the past month’s concerns is enough. In a larger office, you may want to post a bulletin board with concerns and the action that followed them. One office set up a team whose job was to follow up on staff concerns and see that action was carried through. Done in cooperation with the docs, this is a very good idea, as long as the team and the physicians are communicating regularly.
INVOLVE THE STAFF IN MAKING THE OFFICE WORK Everybody wants to be part of a winning team, and good staff especially so. Once you’ve laid out the challenges that the practice is facing in your “listening meetings”, find ways to get the staff involved in helping to meet those challenges. The same practice that had the team for dealing with staff concerns also had staff teams for other major areas, such as the physical plant and practice processes. The process team was able to make several changes in scheduling procedures that had a significant effect on flow through the practice, patient satisfaction, and physician satisfaction. You might be surprised at what staff can do;but again, take the time to plan for it – don’t turn everything over and ignore it.
REWARD STAFF FOR MAKING THE PRACTICE SUCCESSFUL Finally, a reward system for making the practice successful is really an investment, not a cost – if it’s done right. To do it right the rewards have to be tied to important values and results within the practice, not just to monetary gains. Do you want patients to be happy with your practice? Find a way to reward for that. Are you concerned with a smooth flow of patients and information through the practice? Look for the data that will allow you to monitor the flow. Monetary rewards are the most common, but they should be tied to practice performance, so that they are only paid when the practice is performing to known goals. Rewards can also be in the form of awards, pins, dinners, but should always be tied to actions or results that make the practice more effective.
# posted by gopi @ 6:23 AM 
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