Best Practices

Dear doctor: Treat staff like you treat patients

For a successful practice, apply some TLC to staff too.

By Allan Walker

Physicians have two customers — patients and staff. While the need to provide consistent and exceptional service to patients is obvious and paramount — they pay the bills and sustain the practice — insightful physicians view their staff as customers who deserve the same treatment afforded patients. As bosses, physicians are responsible for compiling a talented, functional and happy team that consistently meets best-practice standards while producing a profit. To ensure your staff is top-notch, treat them well. Here is how to embrace a staff-as-customer philosophy.

Take the practice temperature. Regularly assess the state of the practice from a personal perspective. Your goal is to be the best, most effective boss possible. Ask and answer questions that impact your relationship with staff: What is the overall mood of the practice? How do I impact that mood? How do individual staff members view me and my style? What is the staff respect level for me and for each other? The questions are many and the answers can be elusive, but they need to be considered on a frequent basis.

Adopt the golden rule. Treat staff members as you want to be treated. While this sounds simple, it’s not. Your practice is busy and the pace is hectic. It’s easy to just blast through the office, firing off orders and impersonally taking care of business. That’s understandable and necessary at times. However, there is no reason to be derogatory, disrespectful, or mean.

Accept change. These are dynamic times that demand ever-increasing levels of adaptability and flexibility. While a certain amount of consistency and reliability is always helpful, it is not the time to be rigid, especially when it comes to how you view and treat your staff.

Encourage open and honest communication. Continue to hone your communication skills, both verbal and listening. Engage staff frequently and really listen to what they say. They are in the trenches and likely have valuable insights. The more candid interactions you have with staff, the more they will trust your decision-making and leadership abilities.

Set a high bar. Setting the bar too high is rarely a problem, especially if you lead by example. Be visible and engaged. Be respectful. Act and dress the part. Roll up your sleeves and pitch in. Be there for your staff and they will gladly follow, emulating your style, passion and desire to be the best patient-focused practice possible.

FUN FOR EVERYONE

Remarkable things happen when physicians view staff as a valued customer. While some physicians may be challenged to think and act this way, coming to work every day becomes much more fun for everyone when the physician and staff relationship is based on providing exceptional “customer” service to each other. OM

Allan Walker is director of publications with BSM Consulting, an internationally recognized health care consulting firm headquartered in Incline Village, Nev. and Scottsdale, Ariz. For more information about the author, BSM Consulting, or content/resources discussed in this article, please visit the BSM Café at www.BSMCafe.com.