Blind Spots: Why have a team meeting?

DrBicuspid.com is pleased to bring the expertise of noted practice management consultant and speaker Jan Keller to you on a monthly basis. She'll explore the "blind spots" of your practice: how to recognize them, how to deal with them, and how to benefit from the experience of your colleagues. In this column, she looks at why you should hold a weekly team meeting.

Jan Keller.

Doctors become so involved in "doing dentistry" and caring for their patients they sometimes don't take the time to work on the business side of their practice. As one example, when is the last time you held a staff meeting? If you ask your colleagues, many will tell you that having staff meetings is a waste of time because they are nothing more than unproductive "gripe" sessions.

Setting aside time each week for staff meetings and trainings might seem like a significant commitment of time and resources. However, the benefits -- such as increased productivity and communication, better training, and everyone at the practice being on the same page when it comes to patient care -- make the investment of time worthwhile.

Organize the meeting

In my experience, these meetings are what you design them to be. As a business owner, you set the stage for how your business will be run, and you lay the foundation/groundwork for team meetings and how they are structured.

Each meeting should ideally have a facilitator, a recorder, and the participants. Each person on the team contributes to the agenda. A sheet for agenda items can be placed in the staff lounge or in an area where all members of the team can add an item to be discussed and how much time they think it will take. If you have a good internal email system, you can also ask for agenda items from team members in this way.

The facilitator "sets the stage" for the meeting, setting up the easel or flip chart with markers, making copies of the agenda, and having a new action plan sheet available for the recorder. In general, the facilitator should do whatever needs to be done to prepare for the meeting and ensure that it is not disturbed, except in cases of a patient emergency.

The recorder will go over old business or action plan items to check on progress or completion. If discussions take a turn and stray, the facilitator should bring everyone back on topic. If a topic takes longer than the time allotted, the facilitator asks the team for a consensus to table the topic and continue with the agenda or continue with the topic and adjust the agenda for a future meeting. The entire team votes on which direction to take.

The meeting's focus

The meeting the first week of the month should focus on finances. While your practice is built around your relationships with patients, you need to be fiscally aware to run a business. The team needs to understand that there is a consequence of caring for patients and that a fee is involved for the services provided.

During weeks two and four, an hour is set aside for team training. For instance, how often have you purchased a new piece of equipment but then not taken the time to integrate this new equipment effectively into your patient care routine? When was the last time your team worked on improving their skills and knowledge?

The time it takes to develop your team's skills and expertise is a small overall investment. Training meetings are also centered around building communication skills. What we say and how we say it can make a world of difference between a patient completing treatment or saying, "I need to think about it." Every scenario needs a script, and the team members need time to practice their skills to "own" the dialogue so it sounds authentic and not robotic.

The third week of the month is the teamwork meeting. This meeting is centered around the entire team and can be used for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), HIPAA, or CPR training, or workshops to tweak, develop, and implement new systems. This meeting can also take the form of a celebration or planning a patient appreciation event.

Team meetings are never gripe sessions, they are learning sessions. If someone has an issue with someone else, that discussion should be handled privately. If a team member has a concern about a system, the topic is brought to the meeting for discussion (on the agenda), and a solution is devised. It is each individual's responsibility to contribute to the team effort and to the growth of the practice. How does this happen? Leadership! Who is the leader of the team? Like it or not, as the doctor and business owner, you are.

Jan Keller has more than 25 years of experience in dentistry as an office manager and a software trainer. Now, as a practice management consultant, she provides customized practice development and education to clients and their teams. She is certified by Bent Ericksen & Associates in employee law compliance and also by the Practice Management Institute.

The comments and observations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of DrBicuspid.com, nor should they be construed as an endorsement or admonishment of any particular idea, vendor, or organization.