STAFF MANAGEMENT - Don’t Throw People at Problems!

I was helping an orthodontist with his practice when he called one day worried about his insurance collections.

“I have a staffing problem,” he said. “My insurance is not getting submitted on time and I think I need to hire an insurance person.”

Knowing that the answer to my next question should be around 22%, I asked him, “What’s your overhead percentage for staff right now?”

“Well, it’s at 28% and this will take it to over 30%,” he replied.

“Wow, you don’t have a staffing problem,” I exclaimed. “You have a PRODUCTIVITY problem!”

With those kinds of numbers, this doctor, once again, was making the mistake of “throwing people at problems.”

The thinking goes something like this – “Some important thing is not getting done in my practice. I need to hire someone to do it.”  It’s based on the assumption that we should organize our practice around people who fill certain “positions,” rather than distributing all of the necessary practice “functions” to our staff.

 When problems do arise, a better way of looking at your practice is this:

• We don’t need an insurance person; we have an insurance function.
• We don’t need a marketing person; we have a marketing function
• We don’t need a supply person; we have a supply function.

When the practice is small, duties and tasks are naturally shared among the small staff with many of these items being performed by the doctor.  But as the practice grows, critical responsibilities should be shifted like pieces of a puzzle.  This way, all of the important things (or “functions”) will get done and staff costs will stay in line.

 An Example:

 Several years ago, our practice was growing, and the Office Manager was becoming overwhelmed by all of her duties.  She couldn’t find time to do the marketing we had planned.  We needed someone to spend 15-20 hours per week executing our marketing system.  

We could have hired a part-time person, but decided against it.  Instead, noticing that our two receptionists were not as busy during the mid-morning, we had one of our receptionists leave the front desk during this time and go to a computer station in the back.

For our “Receptionist/Marketing” person, her schedule looked like this:

• 8:00 – 9:00 am – Morning huddle & seat first wave of patients
• 9:00 am- Meet with Office Manager and decide on the “next step” marketing tasks for today
• 9:15 am – 12:45 pm – Work on our Marketing System
• 12:45 – 1:00 pm – Debrief Office Manager on what was accomplished & plan for the next day

Fortunately, we already had established our Annual Marketing Program, with specific plans for what we wanted to accomplish all year long.  The system only needed someone to execute it.

 What to do

So, when you see that something important isn’t getting done in your practice, think first, do I need an additional person, or can this “function” be assigned to one of my present staff? 

If you’ve determined that your present staff is adequate, don’t simply throw this person into the role with no direction.  Rather, identify a person capable of performing this task.  Then:

1. Meet with all the staff who will perform and supervise this responsibility
2. Together develop a reliable procedure to follow (system)
3. Document that process in a protocol
4. Allocate the time & place for someone to perform this function  (You also may have to redistribute a few of her responsibilities so that something else she was doing during this time still gets done)
5. Review and revise the new arrangement as needed

Repeat this process as often as necessary.  Exceptional practices must constantly adjust staff roles & responsibilities to adapt to the patient demand and an ever-changing practice environment. 

Take Away

Organize your staff around all the essential “functions”, not by “positions”.  Redistribute responsibilities as often as necessary.  And whatever you do - don’t simply throw people at problems.  It’s never the best solution if you want a productive staff and a profitable practice.