Interesting Health Care Articles From Around the Web

Found a few interesting article this past week that I wanted to share with you all.

Primary Care’s Image Problem

The first one is an article by Dr. Pauline Chen in The New York Times. She makes the case that primary care has an image problem, thus medical students and residents alike look down upon it.

Dr. Chen, argues, however, that primary care is at a crossroads and that there is an opportunity to change its image right now.

In my opinion, I didn’t think Dr. Chen provided any practical examples as to how primary care ought to change their  image other than suggesting the “medical home” model could help doctors in primary care become the center of the health care realm. However, it doesn’t address how to proactively change their imagine.

What are your thoughts? Do you think primary care has a bad rap? What about the medical home concept? Is that the future? Is the medical home any different than what what primary care already does day in and day out?

To read Dr. Chen’s article, click here

The Practice Management Exchange

Sermo,  the online physician community, launched a practice management exchange. The exchange is designed to bring physicians together to interchange business advice, earn CME credits on practice management as well as aid in the patient care.

I’m not a part of Sermo (obviously, I’m not a physician, although sometimes I do play one on TV…) and either are my doc’s. However, I’ve heard great things about the organization.

Here is what Dr. Daniel Palestrant, CEO and founder of Sermo had to say about the exchange:

“There is a powerful trend in this country towards physicians exploring innovative new business models and, in doing so, re-establishing the centrality of the doctor-patient relationship in the healthcare delivery process.”

Has anybody out there tried this? What are your thoughts?

Killer Apps

I also came across this post titled, 9 Killer Telemedicine Apps That Will Revolutionize Healthcare. Got to admit, some of these are pretty cool. But the cynical, smart-ass, glass-half-empty kind of guy comes out when I see these things. First thing that comes to mind is, yeah, great, but who is going to pay for all this stuff?

On the other hand, Henry Ford’s quote comes to mind in which he says, “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” So, I’m not about to discourage innovation, new ways of delivering medicine or enhancing a patient’s experience.

Experimenting with Social Media

The last thing I wanted to share was this blog post that talks about how non-profits are experimenting with social media to engage with their audience.

The post highlights results from a study that KRC Research, in partnership with Weber Shandwick conducted. The results indicated that social media had made an impact on how non-profits spread their message. This caught my eye:

“The survey also found that social media contributes to nonprofits’ success, with 92% of executives saying their online presence raises awareness of their organization, keeps external audiences engaged (86%) and reduces costs relative to traditional media (77%).”

Why is this study important to health care you may ask? Well, my answer is, if it works for non-profits, why can’t it work for us in health care to create awareness for our messages?

Let me put it this way, the American Academy of Pediatrics has around 60,000 members. If half of them utilized social media tools like blogs, Facebook, Twitter & YouTube, to educate people about the true cost of refusing vaccines, teen pregnancy or STD’s (just to name a few), imagine the impact pediatricians would make.

With a strong online presence, parents searching on Google if vaccines are safety information would not find sites that try to convince parents that vaccines are not safe (because they’d be buried in the results), but rather, find a plethora of sites, blogs, tweets, videos, and presentations about, among other things, how in 2008, 137 cases of measles were reported in the US to the CDC and how measles, is a vaccine preventable disease.

Just sayin’

The True Cost – An Emotional Story

I’ve heard a lot of people question why would parents/patients disregard their pediatrician’s advice (and credible scientific evidence), over a Playboy Bunny’s unscientific conclusion that vaccines cause autism.

The answer is simple, really. Jenny McCarthy is telling an emotional and tragic story that depicts a mother struggling against all odds to overcome the challenges of her son’s disease. The pediatrician, on the other hand, is just relaying boring scientific data and repetitive “facts.” It is like telling a teenager that smoking can give you cancer versus showing them a patient with emphysema.

Just like sex, a tragic, emotional story sells. Think about Oscar winning Hollywood movies… which one tend to do better? Most of the Best Picture winners are stories with characters that overcome extraordinary challenges like injustice, discrimination or a forbidden love. Hollywood directors and screenwriters know that a story without conflict or crisis will bore the audience.

Whether or not McCarthy’s story has any scientific evidence, to Oprah’s audience, it doesn’t matter. McCarthy’s story depicts a fundamental conflict between subjective expectations and cruel reality. Both of which are the elemental ingredients of a story that sells.

In my opinion the pediatric community has never been able to emotionally “sell” the importance of vaccines the same way McCarthy has been able to put a face on autism.

Until now!

“Emily Lastinger was only 3½ years old when she came down with the flu. Her parents, Joe and Jen, tried in vain to keep her high fever under control, but Emily’s condition worsened, and several days later, she stopped breathing. Emily died of complications resulting from the flu, including pneumonia and empyema.”

“It’s tough to see your child in pain because of getting a shot, but it passes. To see him or her on a respirator, that’s really tough. But to have to plan a funeral for your child, that’s the worst thing in the world.”

 

These are just two very powerful and emotional comments from the book Vaccine-Preventable Disease – The Forgotten Story.

If you haven’t heard about this book published by Texas Children Hospital, I recommend you buy a few copies for your office. The book, which illustrates stories of families and patients affected by vaccine preventable diseases, is very powerful and emotional.

Our office received a courtesy copy of the book a few months ago and we found the book so compelling, that we ordered 50 copies to  give to parents that are either refusing vaccinations or are on the fence about their children’s shots.

Dr. Vartabedian says it best “…when we publicly put a human face on the victims of vaccine-preventable disease we would begin to win the war against antivax propaganda.”

Thanks to Dr.V for his post (which inspired my post) and link to the Vaccine-Preventable Disease – The Forgotten Story website.

 

Please Urge Your Senators to Make Health Care Reform Work for Children

 

Edward Ogata, CEO of Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago sent out the message below.  We all have to do our part if we want change to happen.

In the coming weeks, Senate leaders will vote on legislation to reform the nation’s health care system – and it’s up to us to make sure that their final health care reform bill guarantees that children have the benefits and access to care they need.

We need your help! We have a very short window of time to influence the content of the Senate legislation. Please take just a few minutes to go to http://capwiz.com/nach/issues/?alertid=14249546 to send an email to your Senators. Under the “Action Alert” box you will be asked to type in your home ZIP code and click “Go”.

We encourage you to personalize your message – describe why it’s important to you that the children in your community have access to the right care in the right place at the right time. Personalized letters make the greatest impression on elected officials.

In addition, if you use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter or have a blog you can help us spread the message and encourage your networks to send letters to the Senate as well.

Sample Status Update for Facebook:

Make health reform work for children! Click on the link below to send a message to your Senators letting them know it is important to protect children’s benefits and access to care in health reform. http://capwiz.com/nach/issues/alert/?alertid=14249546

Sample tweets:

Tell Senators that health care reform must work for children. Take action now! http://bit.ly/33hJ0n

Kids need access to right care, at the right place. Take action with an email to your Senators http://bit.ly/33hJ0n

Bloom’s Taxonomy in a Medical Practice

Photo Credit: Wesley Fryer

During my MBA, I ran across something called Bloom’s Taxonomy; which is a classification of learning objectives educators set for students. Bloom’s Taxonomy is often depicted as a stairway, whereas students are able to attain a higher level of “thinking.” In almost all circumstances when an instructor desires to move a group of students through a learning process utilizing an organized framework, Bloom’s Taxonomy can prove helpful. This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as the goals of the training process.

Here are the different objectives in Bloom’s Taxonomy:

REMEMBER – The learner must be able to recall information, such as dates, events, places, ideas, definitions, formulas, theories, etc.

UNDERSTAND – The learner must be able to grasp the meaning of the information, express it in their own words, and/or cite examples.

APPLY – The learner must be able to use or apply knowledge or skills to new situations.  The learner must be able to use information and knowledge to solve a problem, answer a question, or perform another task.

ANALYZE – The learner must be able to break down knowledge into parts, and show and explain the relationships among the parts.

EVALUATE – The learner must be able to judge or assess the value of material and methods for a given purpose.

CREATE – The learner must be able to pull together parts of knowledge to form a new whole and build relationships for new situations.

In our pediatric office, we are always learning. Pharma reps come by daily with new information about their products. Our admin staff is always trying to keep up with new rules, policies and the likes. Billers are trying to remember and keep up with crazy insurance rules; and management is always coming up with new ideas to implement or  wanting the staff to use new equipment which generally add to the complexities.

However, understanding how to properly create a organized framework of learning, we can achieve better results training our staff to have knowledge, good judgment and keen insight.

Do you think something like Bloom’s Taxonomy can be helpful when training employees? Or do you think this is MBA blah, blah, blah?

To read more about BloomsList you can go here and here.

A Blog You Should Be Reading, If You’re a PM

I’ve mentioned before that when I find something that benefits the practice management community at large, I think I should share it with everybody. The Manage My Practice blog is no exception.

Manage My Practice is a great blog I frequent. It is written by Mary Pat Whaley who has tremendous insight into medical practice management. She is a very experienced manager with keen insight into technology and does a great job merging these two fields with her blog. She also talks about leadership, innovation, reimbursement, HR and customer service, just to name a few.

To get you started, I’m including links to some of my (recent) favorite post.

• 101 Ideas for Increasing Revenue and Decreasing Expenses in Your Medical Practice
• Ten Golden Rules for Your Medical Office Staff
• Chris Brogan Gives Good Advice to Small Businesses (and Medical Practices are Small Businesses)
• 16 Tips for Landing Your Next Healthcare Management Job

If you know of a great blog (especially if it is a practice management related blog, but it doesn’t have to be) share it with us. I’m sure I’m not the only one that wants to know about it.

Does Your Paycheck Depend on Your Performance?

So here is something to think about…

Photo credit: Publicinsomniac

What if your pay checks were not guaranteed, but instead you got paid solely on your performance? How would you treat patients knowing that the way you took care of them, the way you responded to them, the way you acknowledged them, stems your paycheck?

I suspect things would be different. You may still get annoyed with parents, but you’d keep that smile on your face the entire time. Would you not?

If you think about it, we are not that different from someone that solely earns money based on their performances. As a staff member you may get a salary or get paid by the hour, but the “practice” does not get a guaranteed paycheck every month. We only get paid when we provide a service/perform. If there is no one to provide a service to, we don’t get paid.

So, have this in mind.  Each encounter with our parents/patients is in essence a performance in which our pay is based on. If we perform well, parents will continue to come back. If we satisfy their needs, they’ll leave money in our guitar case, so to speak.  If we exceed their expectations, they’ll most likely tell their friends about our performances. And if we continue to exceed their friends’ expectations, pretty soon we will have a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.

Remember,  every encounter (with the patient) counts; your paycheck does depend on it.

Customer Service Issues as a Result of the Credit Card Policy

In my last blog post, I mentioned a new financial policy we implemented in an effort to curb the growing trend of bad debt write off as a result of the economy and the rising cost of health care benefits.

Today, I wanted to continue the same topic and address some of the customer service challenges we’ve had and how we’ve dealt with parent’s concerns.

How has it been so far?

It has been 3-months since we’ve put our policy in place and I’m happy to report that the vast majority of patients haven’t even blinked at the credit card requirement. The front desk reports occasional issues with parents. Most parents with concerns pout, but they end up handing over the card. Quite frankly, I was prepared to have more families upset and leave the practice.  But I’m happy to report that only 4 families have left so far (that we know of). That is pretty good considering we have over 3000 families visit our office in a given year.

Not to say we haven’t had complaints and customer service issues.  I’ve kept track of some of my parent encounters and I found that around six families came around after I explained and addressed their concerns. They understood the policy and felt comfortable leaving the card on file once they talked to me.

Four families said they would think about it and decided to “weigh their options.” These parents said they loved our doc’s and they understood why we had to implement such a policy, but didn’t know if leaving a credit card on file was worth it for them. In other words, they felt that it was too much of a risk versus the value we provided (Ouch!).

Five families decided to leave the practice altogether because they didn’t like the policy even after I talked to them personally. However, one of those families already has come back to the practice and agreed to the new policy. So I guess that makes only four families that have left as a result.

Of course I only know about those that expressed concern and discontent. I’m sure there were those that were unhappy and left without a fight or voicing their concerns. Nothing I can do about that.

Below are some of the concerns, issues, questions that parents had once they found out about our credit card policy. I’ve also included our thoughts and comments behind our parents issues.

Are you denying care for my child?

We would never deny care to a patient that is sick. If a patient is sick and her parent refuses to comply with the credit card policy, we advise the parent that we will happily treat the patient’s condition, stabilize it or resolve it altogether first. Moreover, we let the parent know we will continue to treat the patient for emergencies ONLY during the next 30-days, but once the 30-days lapse from the date of service, the patient will be dismissed from the practice.

If we find that a parent has not been properly informed before the date of service either because they never received a statement or letter, we explain that we will see the patient for that day and agree to see the patient for emergency visits only during the next 30-days.

If a parent brings in their child for a well-visit and they have been informed of the policy in the past, yet they still wish to receive services, but refuse to acknowledge and sign the policy, we do deny care.

What about identity theft and privacy?

This is the number one concern and it is a legitimate concern. We tell parents that under HIPAA, we are under strict rules and guidelines in terms of protecting patient privacy and the credit card is considered protected health information. We also let them know that because of HIPAA rules, medical facilities are far more secure than most retail establishments as it relates to identity theft.

Secondly, we tell parents that we already store sensitive information. We have their DOB, home address, employer, SS, how many kids they have, home numbers, cell phone numbers and emergency contact numbers, all of which are highly sensitive. So if they didn’t have privacy concern before, then there isn’t a reason for concern now.

Lastly we point out that when they use their credit card at a restaurant, the server disappears for 10-minutes, and then comes back with their card. Nobody has an idea what the server did with their card. But nobody thinks twice about handing over a credit card to a stranger at a restaurant.  And I also remind them we have far less turnover than the restaurant down the street.

Why am I being penalized?

We tell parents this is not punishment. All we’re asking for is a guarantee of payment. I often frame a hypothetical question and ask “…when a hotel asks you for a credit card to put on the reservation for incidentals, is that considered punishment? Us trying to collect 4-months after we’ve provided services, that IS punishment (I don’t mention this out loud, but I do say it my head) . All we’re doing is asking for a security. It is not a penalization, it is a guarantee, we emphasize.

You should only apply the policy to people that have a history of delinquency.

We address this issue by letting parents know that it is impossible to know who is going to be delinquent and who is not. Just because a family has a good track record doesn’t mean they will continue having a good track record. They can lose their job, declare bankruptcy or encounter other financial hardships. Therefore, we must be proactive and request that all families give us a credit card. If we wait to find out when patients are delinquent, it is too late.

I’ve never had to do this before at any other doctor’s office.

We acknowledge that this is a departure from what is normally done in medical facilities, but it is not uncommon in other industries. For example, hotels, car rental companies and even Blockbuster all have policies that require one to leave a card on file. Try to stay at a hotel or rent a car without a credit card. If you don’t follow the merchant’s policy, they’ll charge the card, as simple as that. We tell parents that just like Hyatt and Blockbuster, we too want to be paid for our services.

Why I’m being singled out? I always pay all my bills.

We assure parents this policy isn’t personal, thus we apply it to our entire patient panel. We let parents know that we don’t want to be in a position to say who needs the policy and who doesn’t. Hence we have a policy that applies equally to every patient. So instead of having to discriminate, we prefer to apply the policy across the board. By doing it this way, the temptation to play favoritism is eliminated and it removes us from the uncomfortable situation of having to decide who has to follow the policy and who does not.

We always try to reinforce the policy and try to get them to understand that if they are current with the practice, they don’t ever have to worry about having their card processed. The card is only intended for accounts that are delinquent.

Why do I have to “pay” for other people’s mistakes?

I agree with them that a few bad apples ruin everything for the rest of us. In our society, we all have to pay for other people’s bad behavior.

At the airport for example, why do I have to take off my shoes, belt, jacket, remove my watch, wallet, etc., etc., and then be subject to an uncomfortable pat down if I’m not a terrorist? Worse yet, why do my kids have to be subject to the same screenings?

We acknowledge that it shouldn’t have to be this way, but the truth is a few people always ruin it for everybody. And the reason we have to do this is because not everybody pays their bills.

We also remind patients that if they pay their balances within the allotted time frame or give us a call to make payment arrangement, we won’t have the need to process the card. So in essence, they do not have to “pay” for anybody’s mistakes.

I don’t have a credit card.

We remain firm with parents that give us this excuse. The policy is very clear and we do not deviate from it. I tell parents that we informed them about the policy over 6 months before actually implementing it. We gave all families plenty of time to find another pediatrician if they couldn’t comply with the policy.

However, if they still would like to keep us as their pediatrician, then they can pay “cash” for the services we provide and submit their claims to insurance themselves.

Personally, I don’t buy this excuse at all. I know there are people out there that don’t have credit cards, but most have at least a debit card.

I figure they are a few reasons why someone would not have a credit card. Maybe they don’t have a card because they’ve declared bankruptcy, are maxed out, or declared unworthy of credit. If this is the case, then I certainly don’t want to be extending credit to this type of patient.

They might not have a card because they don’t believe in credit or have a moral principle against credit. If this is the case, then they should be accustomed to paying cash for everything.  To this patient we offer them the chance to be processed as a “self pay” and they can submit their claim themselves.

In a few more months I’ll be posting how our account receivables have improved as a result of our new policy.

Does Your Medical Practice Have a Problem with Bad Debt? Here is a Solution

Photo credit: barsen

With the economic downturn that started last year thanks to the housing and consequently the financial market, it didn’t take a genius to figure out that medical practices were going to feel the pain. People were going to be losing their jobs/benefits, people were going to find ways to spend less on premiums, benefits diminished, and people were  going to put their medical bills at the bottom of the “to be paid” pile. Result? Bad debt was surely going to increase. Especially when you consider we have this backwards system someone created where doctors are the only ones that don’t get paid at the time of service.

Did everybody’s prediction come true? Yes.

Our practice had two options when we looked at what was coming last year.  Come up with something to prevent writing off bad debt or prepare to work for free a little more than in previous years. The latter was not an option, so we instituted a new financial policy that enables us to collect 100% of what we are entitled to for our services without the unnecessary administrative and financial burden of collecting overdue balances.

Our new financial policy requires ALL patients to leave a credit card on file as a guarantee of payment.

Fact is doctor offices are extending credit by not collecting at the time of service. So why then do we carry all the risk? No other business that I know of extends credit without some form of guarantee. At the very least companies that extend credit check patrons’ credit worthiness. But no other business lets customers walk out the door without some guarantee. Why do we?

We understood this was a big departure from what is traditionally done in medical offices. However, in other establishments such as video rentals, cell phone and car rental companies, giving a credit card as a payment guarantee is very common. So why can’t we ask for a credit card just like Blockbuster does? Think about it… Can you book a hotel room without giving a credit card first?

This is what we said to parents.

• Patient/parents must leave a credit card on file if they wish to be seen by our doctors.
• The practice will continue to bill insurance and balance bill patients just like we’ve done in the past.
• The practice will continue to offer payment plans for large balances.
• If the practice is unable to collect a balance after 90 days, we reserve the right to charge the credit card on file. In other words, the credit card only gets charged if the patient has been delinquent more than 90 days.

We felt this financial policy was a fair compromise to reduce bad debt write offs (virtually eliminate account receivable greater than 90 days) while not completely disrupting the insurance claims submission model we all love (insert sarcasm).

So this is how we went about the process.

• Wrote a letter that explained the situation and why we had to implement this policy. Click here to see the letter. Feel free to use it if you’d like.
• Letters started going out in January inside every statement. We also handed over to parents the new policy when they checked in at our office. We also noted our website.
• Despite advising parents since January, the policy did not go into effect until July, giving parents ample time to find a new physician if they didn’t appreciate the new policy.
• In July we executed the policy. We wrote up a memo and included the credit card form where the guarantor placed their card and signature for our files. Check out the two documents here & here.
• The form gets scanned into the patients medical records (we have an EMR) and the authorization with the credit card number gets shredded as soon as it is scanned.

Scary proposition

I’ll confess it took a lot of guts to implement this policy. I didn’t know if parents were going to be OK with this. I haven’t heard of a medical private practice instituting such as policy. But losing money due to bad debt is bad business. As I’ve said before, our ability to offer health care diminishes if we are unable to collect for our services. Needless to say, we committed to the policy and have stuck behind it 100%.

With the policy, we can shift our focus from health care provider/collectors to health care providers because we now have a way to guarantee payment and removed the risk of extending credit.

The credit card financial policy has been in effect for 3-months now. In a subsequent post I’ll write about how parents took to the new policy and how I’ve addressed some of the customer service issues we’ve had as a result.

Stay tuned.

Twelve Customer Service Rules

Lately, we’ve been getting customer service complaints at our practice. If you’ve read my post in the past, you know that customer service is a huge thing for me. So admitting we’ve been having customer service issues is a big deal.

But this blog isn’t only about our successes as a medical practice, but also about our challenges, lessons learned, and how we’ve dealt with those challenges.  If you notice up at the top of this page, the description of the blog reads, “dissecting the business of a private practice for the purpose of examining its parts and discourse.”

Anyway, I wrote an email to our staff letting them know my thoughts about the customer service issues we were having and I came up with a list of 12 things to have in mind in customer service.

I wanted to share with you the email because I think they are good reminders.

Oh, one thing that I want to mention before I share the note is that we recently implemented a new policy that has pissed off a few of our parents. I’ll blog specifically about the new policy in a subsequent post, but I wanted to mention it because my memo (to the staff) makes several references to this new policy.

Staff,

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of customer service complaints. It seems that I get at least two a week. As you know, this is an important subject for me. For me, customer service is KING in business. It doesn’t matter how good a product or service can be, if one does not provide proper customer service, one will not do well.

I agree some of the problems recently have been about our new office policy. However, many of the customer service issues have not been about the policy alone, but rather the “attitude” the front office has displayed. Many have told the doctor, “…it wasn’t the part of about the policy; it was the way it was addressed.”

Parents have also been complaining about the constant “personal” chatter and how they have to wait until [the staff] finishes [their] “water cooler conversation” before acknowledging the patient. Two patients have brought this up.

Parents have complained about “texting” as well. “Every time I approach the [front] desk, someone is always texting or fiddling with their phone,” said one parent to Dr. B the other day.

I know working with the general public is VERY difficult. And I also know the new office policy has put a lot of patients on edge. But the issue here is not that people are complaining about the policy alone. I can live and deal with that complaint if that were the only problem. But it seems there is a level of apathy and lack of enthusiasm when dealing with parents.

Needless to say, this is unacceptable and it must stop.

Remember, we are here for them… there is no other reason. So please, have these things in mind.

1)      Acknowledge people as soon as they approach you. Say hello, good morning, say hi to the patient, make a joke, comment on their clothes, something.

2)      Empathize with parents… try to have a genuine understanding for their needs.

3)      Resolve. Look around corners, go the extra mile, make that extra effort.

4)      Smile, always. Even when on the phone.

5)      Remember, parents are on the same team as us. Don’t take the stand, “…this is how it is, so, you either like it or not.” It is a partnership. Try to help them understand why we have to do, what we have to do.

6)      Say: please, I apologize, unfortunately, unable… find words that don’t sound as bad. Sometimes we do have to say no. But how we say it makes a huge difference.

7)      Take responsibility and ownership for the practice, its policy, and its members. Don’t insinuate, “It is the doctor’s policy,” suggesting, “I have nothing to do with this, I’m just letting you know.” On the contrary;  the practice ought to be yours as much as it is ours. It is YOUR place of work. Embrace everything about it.

8)      Perception is everything. It doesn’t matter if you think you are not being rude or you said something the right way. If the parent’s interpretation or perception does not jive with what you intended, then try again, because you are not doing a good job of communicating.

9)       Frame the situation. If you say, “well, this is the policy and it applies to everybody and that is that” you won’t get a gentle response. Rather, you can approach the patient and say, “I understand why XYZ may concern you, but this is what we’ve done to ensure your concerns does not happen…” or instead of saying “It is the doctor’s policy to always see the patient and not treat them over the phone” one can say, “I think it is best if you bring Timmy in today because it will be difficult for the doctor to make an appropriate assessment over the phone.” Or “the doctor would prefer to see the patient because that is really the only way to make sure and know what Timmy really has.”

10)  Communicate and inform. Let people know what is going on, how long they will have to wait. Also, offer water, a magazine or maybe ask the parents if they would feel better waiting outside where it isn’t so cramped. Offer to put a movie.

11)  Do your jobs carefully, but faster. If you need to enlist help, do so (including me).

12)  Be aware of what is going on and act. For example, how long have people been waiting? Who needs what and when? What can I do to make the experience for the patient better? What can I do to help get this patient out of here faster?

What we are asking from you is EMPATHY, ENTHUSIASM & RESOLVE.

If you think these are good things for your staff to remember, then I’m sure you’ll also like these Ten Golden Rules for Your Medical Office Staff.

How about you, what else would you add to the list?

Want To Be A Better Manager? Work The Front Lines.

So, if you are director, go out with the sales team. If you are an engineer, work at the factory assembling line. If you are an architect, work construction. If you are a practice manager, work the front desk.

Working the front lines…

1. Helps managers gain first hand insight into what customers/patients want, what they call about, what their complaints are, what they like and dislike about the office, the product and the service.
2. Brings awareness of all the task required of the front line. In our medical practice, we give the front desk a lot to do. Working along side helps us put into perspective everything we ask them to do. First hand account encourages managers to think twice before giving front line employees more things to do.
3. Provides an opportunity to lead by example. Ever had to put together furniture or assemble a toy for your children? The instructions are helpful, but the pictures of how to put together everything are much better. Working the front line helps demonstrate how things are supposed to be done. And who better to show them how it is done, if not you.
4. Enables one to reinforce protocol. Let’s face it, front line employees sometimes get sloppy. They start cutting corners, overlook things and get lazy. They’ll complain why they don’t have time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. But by having a presence, one is able to underpin the importance of certain things.
5. Creates and opportunity to train employees. Leading by example and reinforcing protocol are essentially opportunities to train. Furthermore, give front line employees the tools and resources they need in order to do their job better.
6. Fosters communication. Communication is the staple of business, right? But we don’t always do it very well. Spending time and working alongside with the front lines creates a different kind of opportunity to communicate. It is one thing to discuss things in a meeting or in your office; but there is something to be said about talking with employees on their turf.
7. It helps me earn respect and gain authority. Remember Mel Gibson’s movie Brave Heart or Russell Crowe’s Gladiator? In both these movies Gibson’s and Crowe’s character fought side-by-side with their subordinates. Despite having leadership roles, the characters chose to be on the front lines, and as a result, their men respected them.

Working the front lines gives you a better insight into your customers, into your employees and frankly into the business. It is one thing to make decision and affect change from your office and it is another thing seeing first hand how those decisions get played out in the real world.
Do you ever work the front-lines? Have you learned any valuable lessons as a result? Or do you think working the front desk is a waste of time? What are your thoughts on this subject?