The Practicon Viewpoint by Ann Page Griffin

A MESSAGE TO TEAM MEMBERS

ONCE THE DENTIST MAKES A DECISION…

Hello, Dental Team Members. Please share the true story that follows at your next team meeting to be certain the lack of initiative described is not a problem in your office.

While interviewing team members on the second day of my consultation in a busy practice, several told me they welcomed a new benefit the dentist had implemented: she would pay to keep lunch supplies (sandwich makings, chips, fruit, cookies, and drinks) in the staff lounge and refrigerator.

Staff members agreed to take turns buying supplies, using the practice's petty cash and providing a receipt for purchases. The plan worked well the first week. Everyone was pleased.

The second week, however, the team member assigned to maintain the lunch supplies discovered a shortage of bread and lunch meat mid-morning.

Instead of getting petty cash from the practice administrator and making a quick run to the market as she had been instructed, she interrupted the dentist while she was treating a fearful, troubled patient to ask her permission to purchase more lunch supplies.

Guess what? In the heat of the moment, the dentist’s answer was "NO!" And while the "NO" was disturbing, it was understandable. The doctor was asked to remake her decision about a trivial matter in front of a difficult patient while trying to concentrate on the procedure and the patient's welfare.

The moral of this tale: once your dentist makes a decision and assigns the task to one of you, go with it until the doctor instructs you otherwise! Do not ask him or her to remake a firm decision again and again.

I suggest your dental team, dentist included, discuss this scenario. Agree on the fact that team members are free to use their initiative when carrying out previously-made decisions. Agree that they have permission to assume responsibilities when assigned until the dentist decides otherwise and communicates the change. The dentist, individual team members, and the practice in general will benefit from the consistency.

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