Staff Member Over Advising Dentist?

I received an email from a dentist who wanted to know what to do about an assistant who kept making treatment planning and treatment progress suggestions/comments that were not appropriate. I called the dentist to determine if the dentist was overreacting or if the staff member was indeed out of bounds.

In this case, the dentist was right. The staff member was young and inexperienced. She kept making treatment suggestions that were not reasonable and kept saying she was seeing things in the mouth during treatment that were not present. She was causing confusion and apprehension for the patients. I told him he needed to talk to his assistant about HOW to appropriately make suggestions/comments but remember that she was only making suggestions out of enthusiasm and wanting to do a good job.

On the opposite side of this conversation, when I was a young dentist, I had a very experienced lead assistant who had previously been the head of the DAU department at UCLA. She knew as much about treatment planning, materials, labs, etc. as the majority of dentists. Her input to me was extremely valuable to me in the moment and in building my skills for my career. I actively encouraged her to professionally discuss anything she noticed or suggested. She was 100% professional and my patients felt surrounded by a friendly and expert team.

It is a fine line for staff to walk. Staff want to make appropriate treatment suggestions, make sure you are seeing everything and to be involved but this can crossover into being over aggressive and cause confusion for the patients.

The real trick is that the suggestions/comments need to be made in a professional manner. The staff member cannot sound like they are finding fault in the dentist’s treatment plan or treatment itself – rather the staff is adding additional ideas or perspectives. The patient wants a supportive and collegial dentist staff relationship. They want to know that all the various options are being given to them. They want to see that the dentist is self-assured and surrounds themselves with bright and interested staff members.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Response to my last post?

I find it amusing that my last post incited so many responses. Some people thought it was not appropriate to write a post discussing that staff members might flirt with patients or vice versa and how should a dentist/owner deal with that situation in the real world.

I think we should be mature and understand that our offices are filled with people. Some of those people are staff and others are patients. In the real world, adults will often flirt and be social with one another– this is just the reality of people being people. You can make rules to discourage in office flirting but it will only reduce it – not eliminate it. Social interaction is just part of who we all are – we cannot escape being humans.

I 100% agree that neither staff nor patients should act crudely, say hyper-sexual things or act in an inappropriately manner. If that occurs, it needs to be stopped immediately. Luckily most of the interpersonal exchanges between staff and patients are rather harmless and light-hearted. It is just regular, well-meaning people being social – nothing out of bounds or inappropriate.

I think everyone needs to lighten up a little and stop trying to create a rule for everything. Inappropriate conduct should not be allowed in the office place- period. Any staff member who feels they are being harassed should be able to stop that conduct immediately – and no staff member should act aggressively or offensively to a patient. BUT – regular, normal, social, people-being-people, welcomed, two-way social interactions are fine and cannot be over-regulated.

I’ll say it again – if the conduct would be appropriate at a church social event – then it is fine in a dental office environment.

Dr. Corey Gold
President – Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Flirting in the Office with Patients???

Yet another grey area in the dental office – lol.

Our offices are typically staffed by young, energetic people who are social and outgoing. Often they will meet patients who they have an interest in and a little harmless flirting will occur. It is not uncommon for staff members and patients to date. I even had one staff member meet her husband in my office. This natural social interaction is fine and not inappropriate when the flirting is not excessive or over-sexual in nature.

I also had one staff member who was constantly inappropriately flirting. She was a very attractive girl with a full figure and she would make sexual jokes and innuendos – making her intentions over obvious. Her conduct often left both patients and staff uneasy. Eventually we had to have a very challenging staff meeting about appropriate office social behavior.

It is not possible to set hard and fast rules about flirting and human interaction in the office. What one person sees as harmless flirtation another sees as hypersexual conduct. My advice to my staff – think you are flirting in church – would your social interaction be appropriate in church – if the answer is NO then it is inappropriate in the office.

Dr. Corey gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www,aces4ce.com

Patient Who Harassed Staff Member

If you practice long enough, you will experience a situation where a patient touches or sexually harasses a staff member. Most staff members are young and often attractive women and every blue moon you will have a patient that thinks your office is the local gentleman’s club. I don’t understand the logic but I have seen this behavior happen a number of times over my career.

Normally, the dentist can stop this behavior by nicely asking the patient to cool it. It takes a little finesse and humor but the offender typically backs down once it has been pointed out that he is out of line.

On one occasion the offender would not stop being inappropriate. We changed staff members working on the patient and finished the procedure at hand and then we dismissed the patient.

Next, we sent an official letter from the office informing the patient that he should seek further treatment elsewhere. We said that we would be happy to send his records and X-rays to his next dental office and wished him well.

We did NOT mention the reason for asking the patient to change dental offices. We figured that the patient knew and there was no reason to inflame the situation further. We just wanted the patient never to return to our offices while leaving the least amount of collateral damage. The patient never inquired as to why we asked him to leave.

If you are wondering why we finished the dental treatment and just did not kick the patient out of the office at the time of the offense – there are several reasons. (1) We did not want to escalate the situation by accusing the patient of sexual harassment. He might have started to argue or become a larger problem in the office. (2) We did not want to be left with a patient abandonment problem – a legal problem.

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com

Dentist Wants More Time Off – How to Deal With the Staff?

A dentist recently told me that he was going to take five weeks of vacation this year and did not know how to deal with his staff. In the past he had given his staff members two weeks of paid vacation and he did not know how to approach the situation with his six staff members.

His first thought was to give them all an extra week of paid vacation (for a total of three weeks of paid vacation) and then to take the other two weeks of his vacation time as non-paid time away from work. He felt if he closed for five weeks and increased their paid vacation by one additional week that they would be happy. He approached his staff about this idea and was nearly burned at the stake! He called me and asked for my advice.

After laughing for quite some time at the picture that he painted of the mutiny in his office, I asked him to look at the situation from his staff’s perspective. His staff relied upon their income from his practice to keep their households afloat. Two weeks of reduced pay was a hardship for them. He was asking them to take a pay cut so that he could enjoy longer vacations.

I suggested that he PAY his staff for all five weeks of his vacations. That they use that time to – clean the office, restock, clean up charts, call patients, make sure the hygiene schedule was on track, take continuing education courses, talk at elementary schools about oral hygiene (bring the big teeth) and do other activities that would make the practice nicer and run better.

They decided that each staff would get one extra week vacation (for three weeks away), that each staff member would use five days to do their continuing education units and that they would use the remaining five days to do additional work in the office pertaining to their job.

The dentist will get his five weeks of vacation, the office will be in better condition, everyone will be up to date on their continuing education needs and most importantly – there will be NO STAFF MUTINY!

Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com