Okay, let’s wrap up our 4th component of smart teams with the rubber meeting the road through execution!
In fact, let’s focus today on individual execution. We do talk so much about teams here and that is what dentistry is all about – it’s a team sport.
But none of this matters if each person isn’t on his/her game because it only takes one to break the chain of patient trust and erode the congruence of the experience.
Therefore, picking up from where we left off last week where we discussed preparation, now it’s time for the four keys to individual execution.
Today we’ll tackle clinical team members and next week we’ll move to the business and administrative team.
The Four Tactics of Execution for a successful patient engagement (please remember the preparation lesson we covered that last week, now we move to direct treatment room execution).
1st – Patient Personal Engagement
2nd – Patient Clinical Engagement
3rd – Doctor to Patient Engagement
4th – Patient to Treatment Coordinator Engagement
These are the most critical pieces of execution by every clinical team member with every single patient. And if you are going to win you must see the visit through.
Quickly I will explain and then you will discuss together how to improve each of these individually and together.
1st – Patient Personal Engagement
This is the rapport and friendly greetings that you already do that should be taken care of within the first 3-5 minutes of the patient visit.
2nd – Patient Clinical Engagement
This is the immediate (and I do mean immediate) integration of updated photographs of the patients’ mouths so you are observant and attentive before you get ‘busy’ and into the visit itself (where you have identified new opportunities and brought to life previously diagnosed and pending treatment).
You are establishing the problems that the doctor is then going to solve. This is critical and the single most important execution item of every clinical team member. It should be their top priority for the visit.
3rd – Doctor to Patient Engagement
Now you must convey the treatment to the doctor when they come into the room and this requires preparation and timing. You have to take this part of your execution very seriously.
Without this done effectively, not only will treatment be lost and the patient lack the belief and trust in the process, treatment will get missed and go undiagnosed.
This includes past treatment already in the system, it has to be brought up as if it is new again to the patient, not just rehashing old news.
4th – Patient to Treatment Coordinator Engagement
Of course, we then have the culmination of the visit where the patient is transferred over to the next team member (usually the treatment coordinator). Here, treatment in the form of the clinical yes is conveyed to the person who will schedule and secure the investment from the patient.
No successful visit can occur without all four of these engagement tactics and execution steps happening.
You need to assess how well you are doing now and what can be done better. Especially if any of them are non-existent or ineffective on a regular basis.
Back next week with the flip side of execution on the administrative front of the patient experience.
