In a weird way, Covid-19 has snuck into many practices, not the disease itself, but dis-ease about the disease. It is quite insidious how it has crept in and lodged itself in the body of many practices. The answer is to “vaccinate” your practice against it.
When we say “vaccinate”, we mean to proof the practice up against all the sources of the dis-ease. It is completely natural for anyone to be a bit concerned and nervous about this disease because everyone has heard all the bad news about it – mostly media created. It’s how we deal with it that sets us apart and determines which practices will recover fastest and completely.
Vaccinate the Practice “Body”
We have been consulting practices all over Canada during and since the lockdown periods and making sure that they have all the right PPE and regulations complied to. That is the physical side of the vaccination equation. This is not something to play around with or bend the rules on because of the potential outcomes. Most healthcare professionals are well up on this side of things by now.
The Staff Side of the Equation
Another side to the equation are the staff issues that have arisen, especially when you already had problematic staff BEFORE Covid-19. Some staff are using Covid-19 as an excuse to enjoy the summer while living off the government. Others have issues such as elderly parents who live with them and need to be protected, but there are answers for that as we see examples of all the time. There are staff who have children who cannot be left alone and the day cares are closed to some degree, but there are often solutions if the person really wants to solve it (but not always). The day cares and schools should be back open very shortly so these will be non-issues. There are also a lot of temps available due to practices that didn’t reopen yet and/or closed permanently. There are exact ways to handle most of these situations and we have advised our clients on these.
The Patient Side of the Equation
The third side of the equation for vaccinating your practice against Covid-19 is the patient reactions. This is an interesting side because there are many reactions possible in terms of getting patients back into the practice for the care they deserve to have. However, there are exact steps that must be done in order to have a big booming practice right now. For example, was a proper, upbeat newsletter sent out to every patient of record showing all the cool systems and safety measures that have been put in place in order to make it safe for them to resume their very important health care? Are the staff on the front desk all gung ho about getting in touch with every patient and giving them confidence to come back. (If the staff are Debbie Downers, they will have trouble with this.) Are all the systems and structure in place properly so that the patient flow is smooth and constant for maximum efficiency?
Many of our clients have had highest ever statistics in July and August because of how they responded to the other side of the equation which is the people side .
A “Vaccinated Practice”
Here is just one of the many emails we have received back in response to our “How are you doing?” inquiries that we sent out to our clients. Note that our clients are extremely management trained and this is an example of how things should be going when all the right systems and structure are in place:
“Thanks Bob. Yes, doing amazing.
July was my biggest month ever and August will be even higher.
Working hard and staff is motivated. Patients are very responsive to all dental treatment proposed and we broke our record of new patients this month with 60. Thanks for checking on me. Everything is in control for me. Good luck with your business also. Thank You very much.”
Covid-19 Recovery Programs
Is your practice back up above pre-Covid production levels? If not, you should contact us right away to see if we can help. If you ARE at or above pre-Covid numbers, even then you should have a chat with us about strengthening and reinforcing all your successful actions so it continues to grow against any and all odds!
