THE ENLIGHTENED OFFICE

Learning to tango

Managing stress, like dancing, becomes much easier with a bit of communication.

By Cynthia Matossian, MD, FACS

Dictionary.com defines stress as a physical factor or mental state “that disturbs the body’s normal state of functioning.” Scientists are fascinated by these disturbances. I typed “chronic stress” into PubMed and came up with 6,315 entries. The stunning damage that chronic stress can do to the body and mind is just being realized.

Come January, those of us who see Medicare patients will once again be coding to a new payment-program acronym: MACRA, or Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. For most of us, this new CMS requirement will mean reallocating precious staff resources to address new mandatory regulations. Translation: lost revenue.

Translation: stress.

WORKPLACE STRESS

Generally speaking, workplace stress appears in many forms. Meeting deadlines for a presentation; interviewing and hiring for open positions, finding that it is taking longer than anticipated to fill a position; discovering a problem in accounts receivable; integrating a new service into your practice, or spending unallocated funds on a new roof. And, you still have a business to run and patients to see in a smooth and calm manner. How do you address these types of work stresses? By creating an excellent organizational plan and using flawless communication. In short, your house must be in order.

The action plan must detail your strategy step-by-step so one person doesn’t bear sole responsibility for the task at hand. And it’s best to be proactive; by being proactive, I mean engaging in excellent communication from start to finish. You have to let everyone in every department know what is going on. A knowledge void leads to people adding their own interpretation of events in the practice. Incorrect deductions or assumptions will lead to more drama and more tension.

The key is communication. Believe me, we would not want a repeat of the first time we introduced our EMR system. But we learned from it.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE

In hindsight, we needed to communicate better, to engage staff more and to get everyone on board earlier. We didn’t ask enough staff members to become our EMR advocates.

Another thing: I don’t think we allowed enough time to practice the new system. Not surprisingly, more time is usually needed than allotted for new projects. The financial pull was strong because large dollar amounts were at stake. The EMR system was expensive, but so was closing the clinic for training.

It created a stressful situation that led to tension. Staff sounded harried while on the phone with patients, not happy or relaxed. And, the pressure showed up in our patient flow, which was adversely affected. We couldn’t stay on time.

So, the next time we integrate a new system within our practice, we know what we have to do; communicate more, plan with greater detail and allocate more time.

Stress is a reality in any practice, and the current healthcare landscape is no doubt a contributor. But that is no reason why we can’t learn to better balance the needs of the practice and the needs of our staff. It’s like the tango: you learn to dance together, and laugh when you step on each other’s toes. OM

Cynthia Matossian, MD, FACS, is the founder of Matossian Eye Associates. Her e-mail is cmatossian@matossianeye.com