Our office “systems” or procedures are the habitual way our staff does their work – how they file insurance, schedule patients, or collect overdue accounts.  These procedures can either be well designed and reliable or they can be disorganized and inconsistent.

When things go wrong in the office, i...

Many practices have lost control of staff time off.  Too many “sick days”, poorly planned vacation time, chronic late arrivals, & more than one staff out at a time.  All create havoc to our schedule.

After struggling with this issue for years, we came up with a system that gave us most of what we w...

You know how you want things done. You know how things should work. 

So, why does the staff keep making mistakes?

Why can’t they do what you’ve asked them to do?

Why do they keep forgetting how you want it done?

And why do you feel you have to micromanage them in order to get it “right” every ti...

Maybe she was rude to a patient or she continuously makes the same mistake.  Possibly she doesn’t seem to be improving her performance or isn’t getting alone with other staff.  Or she won’t consistently get to work on time or is constantly using her cell phone against the office policy.

Whatever th...

I’ve found that it’s nearly impossible to make any significant improvements to the practice after Thanksgiving and before the New Year.  Everyone is so distracted by the Holidays.

So, after many years of failed attempts at trying to make practice improvements during this season, we finally gave up....

Confronting an employee is tough to do and easy to avoid.  A dental practice is an intimate environment and there are few places to have a confidential conversation without everyone else knowing about it.  That being said, WE are the ones who benefit or suffer from the behavior and performance of ou...

“I’ve tried everything, but she just doesn’t seem to get any better.

Do you think I should I let her go?”

It’s always a hard decision.  All new hires need training to become a productive and integral member of our team.  Some more than others. But when have we done enough?  In what situations is a...

“Dr Steedle, your staff doesn’t think that they can EVER please you.”

Clearly uncomfortable, the Practice Consultant was giving me (and my business partner) the feedback from our team.  Apparently, he was doing reasonably well.  Me, not so much.

My initial reaction was to get defensive.  Wasn’t i...

For several years, I had been following the classic advice to “Praise in public, correct in private.”  During staff meetings or at the morning huddle, I would single out an assistant who I thought was worthy of praise and tell everyone (in some way or another), what a great job they were doing.  I t...

Early in my practice, I noticed that several of my chairside assistants were sitting, staring off into space instead of talking with the patient when waiting for me to come to their chair.  Several times, I had asked them to spend this time engaging the patient in conversation instead. A few assista...