Every four years the world witnesses dramatic events unfold in Olympic competition. This past summer the United States was proud to witness an individual dominate his field to one of the greatest extents ever. On the surface, Michael Phelps might be identified as an individual who swims, but if you dive a little deeper you will discover that Mr. Phelps is all about team.

Your eye care practice team shares the same characteristics that propelled the USA to Olympic team gold, or at least it should. The swim team planted the seeds of success long before Beijing. It was through the recruitment and development of young men and women that created success. Yes, they were talented and had the skills necessary to compete, but it was through the culture of the program where these young men and women developed the skills to win.

Whether you realize it or not, your practice has its own culture. You and your employees have a way of doing business, but in order to maximize revenues and increase productivity you must train and develop one of your most precious commodities – the human resource.

Systems Management - A Process with a Purpose

There are basically two things you want your patients to do after a visit to your optometric practice – COME BACK and REFER OTHERS. Sounds simple enough, but herein lies both the challenge and the opportunity. In order to get your patients to value the services and products you provide, you have to educate them. This is not just a person here and there, but a team of professional people that understand the overall vision, mission, goals and objectives of the practice. Obviously doctors or business owners have to be on top of their game when it comes to eye health & vision care, but it’s also important for the entire team to understand the discipline of eyecare as well. Of course the roles vary from person to person, but on a collective level the team understands how to manage the process and production of patient/customer care.

Let’s take the front desk or reception, for example (I prefer to reference this area as “reception”). It is important that the person answering the phone is capable of articulating the variety of tests and procedures conducted during the course of an eye health and vision examination. Of course price is important to both current and potential patients, but when the staff can communicate what you do and how you do it, value is better illustrated and price becomes less important. The benefit to the practice is new patients.

This tactic or strategy is called “shopper conversion.” The key to take away from this is… even the best and most creative marketing and advertising will only generate consumer/patient interest. Your front line team answering the telephone converts current and potential patients into a full, productive schedule. And as an added benefit, an educated patient is less likely to “no-show” as well. This is a small example, but it demonstrates the importance of training and education on a consistent basis internally with your optometric team. Practice care - like patient care - is a process that has a purpose.

It’s important to get your eye care team to think more appropriately about how they can affect practice/customer outcomes. There is an abundance of great ideas that can influence revenues, patient volume and perceptions. Unfortunately, so many of the concepts never get off the ground at implementation for reasons one could write a book over. Therefore, we must have a system that ensures consistent and well organized internal training and education - in other words - business meetings.

I know, I know . . . business meetings are a waste of time, staff only complain and bemoan how hard it is to do their job and how they don’t get enough time off. A client once said to me that she didn’t like training staff because a new one would take their place in about 18 months, so why bother with the effort. I came back to her and said, “What if you don’t and they stay.” We discussed some ideas to make doctor to staff and staff to staff communication more fun and more real.

I recommend that these concepts be worked through together and developed as a team to create a better practice culture:

Mission/Vision Statement
S.W.O.T. Analysis
Goals & Objectives Developed
Cycle of Service

The first three you should be familiar with, however the Cycle of Service requires a little more definition. Simply put, it is the cycle of service or production each patient/customer experiences every time they visit your practice. There are basically ten steps defined (see below).

Cycle of Service

Front Desk 
Marketing - Creates interest with current and potential patients
Gatekeeping – Front line reception converts interest to appointments
Physical Reception & Welcome – Smile everyone, Smile!
Data Collection – Method of understanding patient/customer needs and wants

Clinic 
PreExam – 1st Phase of eye health and vision exam
Evaluation & Diagnosis – 2nd Phase of eye health and vision exam
Treatment & Prescribing – Recommendation and compliance fulfillment

Dispensary 
Product/Service Selection & Dispensing
Patient/Customer Dismissal
Follow Up

This system or structure provides the practice team with a better understanding of patient production and staff participation on all levels within each management center (front desk, clinic, dispensing). It outlines patient/customer care services and provides the staff an opportunity to share ideas on what is working and what might need adjustments within the cycle.

Business Meetings Structure
At times we can get caught up in just seeing patient/customers. Consider carving out time for business care. I recommend the following:

45 minutes to 1 hour each week
At least 1 Representative from each management center
Structured Agenda – (See Service Cycle)
Document Meeting Notes
Design ‘Task Follow Up’ with Deadlines

By using the Cycle of Service system, the practice care team can evaluate all levels of service and patient/customer care. It provides structure that allows for open discussion and an exchange of ideas on how to improve the cycle.

Remember, you are not just individuals in your practice. You are a team of people coming together to provide and do what you do in eye health and vision care for your patients. Think about that and enjoy this quote from Mr. Phelps about the team difference and why the USA took the overall gold medal in Beijing.

"It wouldn't have been possible without the help of my teammates." Phelps said. "For the three Olympics I've been a part of, this is by far the closest men's team that we've ever had. I didn't know everybody coming into this Olympics, but I feel going out I know every single person very well. The team that we had is the difference.”  
Michael Phelps 2008 USA Olympic Swim Team

This is Part 1 of a 3 Part Series on Building and Maintaining Business Excellence
Keep an eye out next month for: Part 2 - Developing a Teachers Mentality – Patient Education.