Let’s kick off 2023 by diving into a topic that relates to the entire team and discovering what your primary role is in the practice. Now, I understand if you are the doctor or a dental hygienist that your primary role in the practice is clear and focused. However, it is interesting to me how often I talk with team members about what they do in the practice and often times it is, “I do whatever.”
If you do “whatever,” then you might feel like nothing is getting done and scattered all day. Having a clear and focused job description or primary role in the practice can help create a more organized, productive, and stress-free day. I agree that cross-training is an important element of all dental practices because you must wear many hats to get all the tasks completed throughout the day. However, when you have a primary role, you know what your tasks will consist of and you can jump in with other tasks when needed.
So often I see dental teams jumping from one crisis to another because a good proactive workflow has not been put into place for the core systems. The core systems in any dental practice must have an organized plan in place and the people to manage them. We trainers and consultants sometimes call this “Best Practices” or “SOP – Standard Operating Procedures.” These best practice systems need the right people in place to ensure that the practice goals are being reached.
There are about five core systems that reside in the admin side of the practice and many tasks associated with these core systems. If you have an admin team that consists of more than one person, then it is recommended that you design primary and secondary roles for each team member. If you have an admin person, then it is recommended that the clinical team be trained in some of these tasks as a secondary role in the practice.
These core systems might include . . .
- Recare management
- Treatment management
- Accounts receivable management
- Insurance management
- Patient information management
- Patient communications and correspondence
You might think you have the right people in the right position, but still the results you want are not being accomplished. Then again, you might have good systems and the wrong people in the job description and could end up with similar results. The ultimate goal is to have the right people in the right positions with good systems in place. That is what we are going to spend some time on over the next several weeks.
