Even A-Rod warms up

May 30, 2010

Editor's note: The Coaches Corner column appears regularly on the DrBicuspid.com advice and opinion page, Second Opinion.

I love sports metaphors.

Oftentimes, they capture the physical aspects of preparation that lead to high performance. Maybe that is where the word "practice" originated.

This morning as I read about the Yankees come-from-behind win against our arch enemy, the Boston Red Sox, I learned that Alex Rodriguez, in preparation for his turn at bat as the designated hitter (which meant that he didn't play the field), went into the clubhouse and spent five minutes riding the stationary bike to warm up his legs and lower body, then another five minutes doing upper body work to get his arms and chest muscles ready. Alex Rodriguez, whatever your personal feelings about him might be, knows about preparation.

My thoughts then turned to our dental practice and the way we warm up before our time comes to hit. Of course, this means how do we prepare for our first patient and the subsequent ones that will follow? Clearly our preparation is mental, but you can make the necessary adjustments from A-Rod's routine.

We call our daily preparation "The Morning Meeting":

We start the meeting on time. I mean really on time. This is good practice for the often overlooked discipline of punctuality.
Has the facilitator checked with the answering service? Are there any schedule changes?
We fully discuss each patient: the planned treatment, their social and dental history in our practice, appropriate premeds, changes in medical profile and if they are new to the practice, the source of the referral, and the status of their family in the practice. Has the HIPAA documentation been completed? This is the time and place to be inquisitive. The more curious we are, the more we will uncover, which is good thing.
Front desk person reviews finances relative to the daily goal. What do we expect from each patient?
Bring into focus any difficulty (technique or personality) that we might want to role-play.
Ask who is the appropriate staff member to ask for the referral? Check language and comfort for this work. We regularly and systematically invite our patients to refer to us.
Each staff member is polled for work that they will do in addition to their regular duties. Mailing, pack out or order supplies, call list, case list review, review new patient book, and so on. The productive tasks we can find to do are endless.
We have recently added a new agenda item: a short morning reading by the facilitator from the newspaper. Just the first paragraph or two as a way of grounding ourselves in the world outside of our office. Our patients like that we know what is going on in the world.
The facilitator closes the meeting with a joke. Crude is out of order, but good spirits and smiles are not.

Alan Goldstein, D.M.D., F A.C.D., is a member of the Dental Coaches Association, an organization of dentists and professional coaches who are committed to bringing professional coaching to the dental profession. Learn more by visiting www.dentalcoachesassociation.org.

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