Essence of Practice Management
To paraphrase Plato, necessity is the mother of reinvention. As it turns out, the last few years have prompted many small business owners to reinvent themselves. A recently released Citibank survey revealed that a majority of respondents, 53%, have reinvented their businesses to stay afloat during the challenging economy. In doing so, they focused their attention on expanding products and services as well as improving technology and personnel.
Nearly every respondent indicated that they took other steps to keep up with the competition. In fact, 88% reported that they increased their personal knowledge about their field of business, and 70% increased face time with customers. In the coming months, the majority of survey respondents plan to increase marketing efforts and introduce new products or services.
What does all of this mean to the small business owners in dentistry? Plenty. For those of you whose favorite mantra is “I just want to do the dentistry” - great. Seize the opportunity to reinvent your practice, starting with an expansion of your services. Virtually every recognized leader in the dental profession has long urged practitioners to become proficient in at least some of those areas that they have historically referred to specialists, including endo, ortho, perio and others.
As the survey also showed, knowledge is power. Small businesses that are succeeding are making the effort to better understand the business itself and their customers. It is here that dentists have huge potential for growth. Most doctors, regardless of where they are in their dental careers, find the business and personnel side of the dental practice to be extremely challenging. What is perhaps most frustrating is that the doctor may be a truly superior clinician, yet the practice is struggling because the business systems and staff are weak.
There are 20+ practice management systems that require ongoing attention in most dental offices. However, two areas in particular - employee accountability and staff training - are critically important. They both dictate the effectiveness of your customer/patient service and impact virtually every other practice system. But what does “employee accountability” mean? It means that staff members understand clearly their responsibilities and the doctor’s expectations.
There’s no “Well, I thought that was her job” or “I didn’t know I was supposed to do THAT.” Thus, when issues, concerns, or questions come up with patients, coworkers, insurance companies or practice systems, staff know who’s responsible and how to respond effectively to address the situation. The problem: Many doctors think employee accountability automatically happens in their practices. It doesn’t.
Breakdowns in employee accountability commonly occur because time and again doctors mistakenly assume that staff intuitively know what to do and what the doctor expects. After all, the doctor reasons, “I know how to do my job. Staff should know how to do theirs.” It is an assumption that we see routinely in troubled practices and it spells disaster. Ensuring employee accountability requires specificity.
You cannot run your practice, let alone “reinvent” it, if employees do not know what you expect. Tell them in writing in the form of a job description. From there, establish performance measurement systems to enable you and the employee to determine their effectiveness. And finally, train them to succeed in your practice.
Essence :
치열한 경쟁에서 살아남는 법: 시스템을 개혁하라!
치열해지는 경쟁사회에서 살아남기 위해서는 테크닉과 인적 자원뿐 아니라 제품과 서비스에도 집중해서 개발하고 차별화해야 한다. 일반적으로 비즈니스 분야에서 경쟁에서 살아남기 위해 88%는 해당 분야의 지식을 높이고, 70%는 고객과 접촉하는 시간을 늘린다는 조사결과가 발표된 적이 있다.
치과의사는 어떤가? 치과 같은 소규모 비즈니스 업종은 치과분야 자체와 고객을 더욱 잘 이해한다면 성공 가능성이 높다. 바로 이런 점에서 치과도 성장 가능성을 높일 수 있다. 그러나 임상가로서 치과의사의 역할은 훌륭한 반면 시스템과 스탭의 역량이 따라주지 못하는 경우가 많다.
‘스탭의 직무와 교육훈련’과 같은 분야가 점차 더욱 중요해지고 있다. 실제 이들 분야가 병원의 경영에도 직접적인 영향을 끼친다. 스탭의 직무란 의사가 기대하고 있는 스탭 자신의 업무 이해도라고 볼 수 있다.
많은 의사들이 경력직원들은 자신의 역할을 충분히 이해하고 있다고 생각할지 모르나 병원마다 스탭의 역할범위가 다르기 때문에 기대치에 못미치는 경우가 발생한다. 따라서 의사는 경영자로서 스탭이 해야 할 업무범위와 역할에 대해 명확하게 그리고 세분화하여 알려주어야 한다.
병원의 차별화된 경쟁력은 스탭들의 역량이 뒷받침되지 못한다면 의사 혼자만의 힘으로는 이룰 수 없다. 서면으로 정확하게 업무범위를 명시하고, 업무 평가시스템을 만들어라. 그리고 직원들에게 충분한 교육 기회를 제공하라.
