Athena Consulting: Dental Practice Solutions

Many years ago when I was living on the East Coast, my day was divided between my daytime job and my evening job. I worked as a treatment coordinator in a large group dental practice until 5 p.m., then moved on to work in local dinner theaters in the evening.

I did everything from set construction to directing at these theaters, but my favorite job was stage managing. I ran the show from behind the scenes. I “called” every lighting and sound cue and kept everything in the production moving smoothly.

Every evening, well before curtain time, I would “walk the set.” Before the audience and the actors arrived, I would step onto the front of the stage and walk its full length, checking that the stage was properly set for the evening’s production. I would check for missing stage props, furniture out of place, costume pieces left on stage, and anything that could throw off the actors, the production or the audience’s perception.

These habits of a stage manager stayed with me when I became an office manager, and every day I would get in early and “walk the office.” Let’s go through a composite of these walks I have taken and talk about what I would see.

I’d start in the reception area, the “lobby” that our dental “audience” enters first. As soon as I entered the door, there would be the once-lovely plant sent by a neighboring office, badly in need of watering and starting to droop – item No. 1 on my checklist to fix before the audience arrived. Next, I would see a paper coffee cup a patient’s mom left late in the previous day and the magazines strewn around by this same patient’s little sister – items No. 2 and 3 to correct. Finally, I’d noticed that someone’s fluffy angora sweater left its calling card on one of our black cloth chairs – item No. 4.

Now I move to the front desk area. Empty cola cups from yesterday’s lunch at two of the work stations and a pile of unfiled charts that is starting to look like Mount Everest – items No. 5 and 6.

I head down the hall to the operatory and notice bulbs missing in the lights, some loose carpeting and an area of paint that has been badly scuffed. A call to building maintenance is definitely overdue – item No. 7.

As I enter the operatory, the first thing I notice is that the sinks weren’t fully cleaned before we left last evening. Next, I see that sterilization (open and visible in that office) was left a mess. Finally, through an open door, I can see that our lab looks like a plaster bomb went off in it. I’m sure everyone planned to take care of all this in the morning, but we’re now getting close to the time when the first patient will be here and staff members have yet to begin arriving. These become items No. 8, 9 and 10.

Ten items were wrong with my stage. In my stage-manager days, heads would have rolled by the time I got to No. 5. And we haven’t even discussed the cast members and their appearance!

As an older, mellower office manager, I cleaned and delegated (when staff finally appeared) and reminded the staff at morning meeting that this must not happen again. At our next meeting, we also reviewed areas we should check before we leave for the day. Had I not “walked the stage” that morning (and many others like it), the ten things I saw are the ten things the patients and their parents would have seen.

And while we’re discussing what the patients and parents see, let’s not stop at the stage. Let’s move on to the cast of our production.

We are having one of those days when everyone comes racing in just in time to do a quick setup and get-together for the morning meeting. Because we were having a really busy day the last time we washed scrubs, they were left in the dryer until they became thoroughly wrinkled. Staff members have good intentions of ironing before donning their scrubs, but didn’t remember, or were unable to arrive early this morning. So we now have a rumpled, messy operatory staff.

Our receptionist is also frazzled this morning. She quickly pulls her hair up with a rubber band and is greeting our first patients with the Pebbles Flintstone look atop her head. Our treatment coordinator has an issue with the temperature in the office and has declined to wear the nice matching polo purchased for her by the office in favor of a rather ratty looking sweatshirt that “at least keeps her warm.”

The doctor had to run his son to school and grabbed a bagel off the counter at home to eat on the drive. He had no time to brush because patients were already being seated, and is now greeting young clients and their parents with poppy seeds in his teeth.

Take a moment now to view your practice through your patients’ eyes – as if they were going out for an evening of theater. As soon as the curtain comes up, you begin to study the stage for clues to what tonight’s performance will be about. You look at the “set” to get a feel for the backdrop against which tonight’s entertainment will be played.

Our patients do the same. Even when we’ve stopped noticing drooping plants, chipped paint and ancient, messy magazines, these things tell our patients they’ve stepped into an inferior office where people don’t care enough about what they do to present themselves well. As a staff, we become immune to our surroundings because we spend so much time in them each day, but our new patient sees the office with fresh eyes and will not move past the initial exam if they’re not impressed. Sadly, these are the things that will stay with patients and their parents much more vividly than your great case presentation or your advanced technology.

Someone in the office – be it office manager, treatment coordinator or all staff members working in tandem – needs to take charge of stage managing: walking the office on a regular basis and looking at it with the eye of an audience member/patient. You all need to take charge of being sure scrubs and general staff appearance are presentable, the office is tidy and well kept, and the entire office environment is one of efficiency and attention to detail.

Doctor, if you think I’m exaggerating, get to your office a bit earlier tomorrow and “walk the set” yourself. I’d be willing to bet that unless you’ve already taken the “walk” and coached your staff into the best of habits, you’ll be in for quite a surprise. If you don’t have a “stage manager, your office may have a problem. Someone needs to be setting the stage and keeping the “house” looking good if you want this to be a long-running, profitable production.

It’s easy for an office to slip into disrepair and sloppy behavior, and it often takes way too long for the doctor to realize how damaging this can be to the practice. A beautiful, well-kept office and a tidy, well-presented staff are all about details – and our insistence that we follow up on those details. Being sure your audience sees only a flawless production keeps them giving you and your office great reviews and happily referring friends and family to you. This is the job of your stage manager(s)…maintaining an award-winning office that keeps the “house” full every day.