Recently, a healthcare professional came to us saying he needs to change the way he does things because it’s not working for him. He asked me if I’d heard the famous saying, “The definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” And yes, we are quite familiar with this quote.
It’s probably a very safe guess to say that at least 85% of the 6,000 healthcare professionals we have crossed paths with to date met with us for the same reason: things are not going the way they want them to in their practice and they feel they are going around in circles, trying the same solutions over and over again, until they feel themselves starting to slip down towards apathy about ever having things the way they envision they should be. (The ones who come to us have decided to fight back and to learn new ways of doing things.)
The Team
For instance, many have felt that leading a staff team is like trying to herd a bunch of cats by their tails. You may find that your staff has much diversity in personality, opinions, energy level, drive, initiative, and knowledge. This is not a bad thing – in fact, it is a positive. The situation merely requires you to be a strong executive to guide and direct them towards the goals you have for your practice. Having a consultant come into your office to “fix this” is not usually an effective solution because it leaves a practice still in the hands of an untrained practice owner.
Factually, it takes a well trained leader to guide their staff to function as a highly efficient team – all for the benefit of the patients or clients of the practice. Skills in how to give orders properly, how to get compliance to directions given, how to organize for efficiency and productivity, how to train staff from scratch and how to correct them as needed, how to recognize them for their proficiency, how to manage by statistics and not by guess work, and other effective leadership tools were omitted from your professional training in college. So it is natural that you get frustrated sometimes, and feel like you are beating your head against a wall.
Marketing
The word marketing covers a massive spectrum of ways to reach potential patients or clients, yet you don’t always know which to use or how best to incorporate them to grow your practice. As a result, you may feel you do not have enough new business coming in your front door. Many professionals, not being trained in marketing, are using highly expensive marketing companies (often glorified flyer companies who do not know any more about designing the ideal promo piece than you do) and they are experiencing less return on the dollar than they feel they should. But what will work? That is the question.
Sales
Why is it that you do a wonderful presentation to a patient or client and they decide not to go ahead with the treatment plan you so carefully put together and believe in? Does this ever frustrate you? Some professionals have given up trying to get their patients or clients to do the ideal treatment. New presentation (sales) skills can make a massive improvement in this area so that patients or clients accept the ideal care they deserve to have.
Scheduling
Many practices suffer from erratic, out of control scheduling because no one has ever been trained fully on how to book an Ideal Day so that calm and order reign and better service can be delivered. A well-scheduled and fully booked day is a beautiful thing much sought after.
Look Outside the Box
The above are just a few of the common frustrations that many practitioners experience. What to do about them? Look outside of the box. Realize that there ARE answers and seek them from experienced professionals. Demand of yourself that you CHANGE and LOOK for solutions. This is where YOU have to be the driving force!
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