Every staff member needs to be aware that patients can most often hear what staff members are saying in other parts of the office.
Private conversations between staff or staff and patients can be overheard by people throughout the office.
Now that everyone has cell phones, private conversations are also heard by patients as well.
Your patients need to see the office as being professional and trustworthy. Make sure your staff fully understands that what they see is heard by others. That their behavior is being judged all the time.
I had my staff members sit in the operatories when I made a phone call from the break room and they all heard the call. My staff now goes out back if the have to make a call that they would not want being overheard by others.
Just be aware, the walls have ears.
Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Firing Patients
I used to have a rule in my office that each full-time staff member had the ability to 'fire' one patient a year. While that option was rarely ever used by any staff member, it did occur on a few occasions.
Every blue moon a patient will enter your office that is high offensive or will make overt passes at your staff members. Some patients will sexually bother your staff or make them very uncomfortable.
My staff like that they could call a staff meeting and ask to fire a patient. They would tell the staff why they wanted to fire the patient and that was that - there was no vote. They could ask for their one prt year firing.
To be fair to the patient we would finish the active work on that patient and then simply ask them to seek future treatment elsewhere. We only had this 'firing' occur a few times over a dozen or so years, so it was not a big deal.
What this 'firing' option did was allow my staff to feel comfortable that if someone was bothering them that they could deal with the problem. It was a vote of confidence for my staff and gave them some power. It said that I trusted them and looked out for them.
Allow your staff to have the option to fire one patient a year.
Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com
Every blue moon a patient will enter your office that is high offensive or will make overt passes at your staff members. Some patients will sexually bother your staff or make them very uncomfortable.
My staff like that they could call a staff meeting and ask to fire a patient. They would tell the staff why they wanted to fire the patient and that was that - there was no vote. They could ask for their one prt year firing.
To be fair to the patient we would finish the active work on that patient and then simply ask them to seek future treatment elsewhere. We only had this 'firing' occur a few times over a dozen or so years, so it was not a big deal.
What this 'firing' option did was allow my staff to feel comfortable that if someone was bothering them that they could deal with the problem. It was a vote of confidence for my staff and gave them some power. It said that I trusted them and looked out for them.
Allow your staff to have the option to fire one patient a year.
Dr. Corey Gold
President - Advanced Continuing Education Systems
www.aces4ce.com
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