Over the past two weeks, we have talked about having more time with patients (not necessarily the doctor, but the team as a whole). What are the cumulative minutes of face time and conversation time with patients.
The reality is, it doesn’t even have to be “more” minutes. Though that is part of building trust in that the experience has to be an actual experience and not a transactional fragmented process that feels rushed, inconclusive and incomplete.
It is, of course, about how you use the time with the patients, that matters. In short, I call it being more purposeful.
If you show me two practices: one that has inconsistencies in the weekly numbers of diagnosis, acceptance, collections and production; and one that is dialed in and hitting their targets – there is one team and doctor that is more purposeful than the other, and one that lets things happen by accident by taking very little control (if any) over the actual outcomes.
So, when I say be more purposeful, it’s obvious. Have a point when you talk to patients. Be on a mission to help people. Stay focused on what you are there to do and why they are there in the first place.
How hard is this? Well, actually very tough (as you well know), because it’s easier to do the opposite. To just go through the motions. To see the patients in the schedule, have tunnel vision and just get through the day.
It is not easy, on the other hand, to maximize every opportunity, to always be thinking ahead, to be ever present as you focus on the patient and at the same time work to motivate the patient to move forward on a pathway to health.
In order to do more than make it through the day and to only experience success on accident, you have to have a desire to win. Your goals have to be about more than just numbers and stats; they have to be something real, important, significant, a measuring stick for performance.
Yes, you must engineer your schedule to facilitate having time and proper engagement with your patients – but – it goes beyond that to what you actually do with that experience and how the time is made effective.
This is the discussion you should have with your team this week. What can each person and the team as a whole do better to be more purposeful with every patient interaction?
You see, this is actually the greatest undervalued asset in your practice, period… your relationship and therefore communication with your patients. Making this count and more meaningful leads to healthier patients and healthier profits.
One of the key pillars to ensuring everyone is purposeful every day with every patient is making sure you have Purposeful Daily Huddles. This means they emphasize the responsibility of each team member to realize the opportunity for that day. A great huddle sets the tone, gives motivation, directs focus and hones the collaborative team effort for the day to ensure you are firing on all cylinders.
This is also how you create accountability by ensuring everyone owns the outcomes they are responsible for and everyone is on the same page with strategy for each patient (whether that is unscheduled treatment, x-rays, hygiene or other specialty opportunities for them).
Now, most stop short of doing a good job with the huddle because they are only reading off the schedule or even the charts instead of staking claim to the desired outcomes and results they are going to create and going even further to talk about their direct approach with each patient. It doesn’t have to take any longer but it might – to do a good job.
Again, we have to redefine success and it isn’t just getting through the day or going through the motions. It is about being successful and that leads me to the next point on purposeful interaction with your patients and how you define success.
We invested a lot of thought on this related to your practice and your Life as a whole, leading up to the New Year. We haven’t talked really in great detail about it when it comes to your patients specifically.
I hope you realize this: purposeful interaction with your patients leads to successful days and yet we haven’t even discussed the actual conversations with them. Instead, we are still talking about preparation and what “purposeful” even means.
This is a great extension of the discussion you can have with your team. You will have many ideas. Next week, I’ll give you some points and structure to put around it all. In the meantime, I want to remind you about “preparation”…
Your level of preparation and the level of preparation you facilitate (force) with your team – determines the level of seriousness about your own practice success and professional performance.
Done right, it makes all the difference. More next week…
