In all my consulting I have found that sighting the perfect room setup is something akin to seeing the abominable snowman or the Dodo bird. Your hear about these things and you hear that someone’s cousin knows someone who says that their best friend’s staff sets up their procedures perfectly every time. However, each expedition reveals that these perfect setups are very elusive and don’t even leave very much evidence of their existence.
I am starting to believe that NO perfect room setups exist and for sure no “from scratch” perfect setups exist. Let me explain. First off, it is possible to take all the time in the world and review all the stuff that the doctor might need for a long time and MAYBE get everything right the first time. Maybe. I still say that without checklists or systems that it is unlikely, but let’s say that it is possible. Now, let’s throw in a little bit of hurried or frenzied pace during the hectic workday. What are the chances that the staff person will get the room setup so well that the doctor can sit down, do the procedure without any delays, and that the assistant will never have to leave the chair to go get something that was forgotten in a reasonable time frame (around 6 minutes if starting from total scratch)? Nada. Zero. Zilch. That’s what I think. I don’t care if you have these cool little plastic tubs set up with everything you need ready to go into action. On the busiest of days, when you finally exhaust your premade supply of these tubs, and your thinking about 30 things at once, your system is bound to break down to the point that it will become improbable that you will be able to work in that extra crown on the emergency patient. Some little something will not be right and it will cost you precious minutes.
There are many talented super assistants that can hold off the inevitable for a long time, sure. But, I hope that you have let me convince you over the course of your readership here that relying on superstar staff is a very tedious strategy for the long haul.
Let me convey this story from one of my good friends, a true superstar dentist if there ever was one.
He had a couple of “Superassistants.” They were awesome and I saw it with my own two eyes. They routinely convinced him that they didn’t need any system to “slow them down” as they saw it. Finally, after a couple of years, the doctor decided to force them to get a room setup system implemented into their own office. Against their will, they succumbed and trained on the system. The doctor even made all his assistants get certified with my system. All of the assistants finally passed, not just the 2 Supers.
Then the unthinkable happened. Both his front desk people had issues that forced them to miss 3 months at the SAME time. He was forced to move one of his Superassistants to the front and the other quit. His newbie clinical staff was able to hold things together in the back until the front office people returned and his best chairside assistant could return. He confided that without a system in place, he could have never maintained his production levels.
In all practices staff members hold secrets that the doctor knows nothing about. They can hold back even the best dentists from reaching their peak performance.
Once you discover the secrets that your staff members are hiding, you can break down the barriers that have sapped productivity and caused squabbling in your practice for so long. One of the greatest findings of Dr. Griffin during his consultation with dental practices has been that once everyone is aware of the few little things that have been nagging at them, they can resolve longstanding issues and enjoy fun, profitable growth to superstar levels. You can get your free CD explaining the 5 most common Staff Secrets at http://www.dentalstaffsecrets.com.