How Can Your Staff Interactions Impact Practice Results?

As we have begun the new year, we have focused on communication including scheduling your staff meetings in advance and developing an agenda.

This week we continue to emphasize the importance of staff communication and review the importance of everyday interactions with your staff. Maya Angelou once said that “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Our experiences tell us that physicians consider this when dealing with their patients but usually do not connect it when managing a staff.

Our diagnosis process begins with individual conversations with the practice staff because we understand the direct connection between the employee experience and the patient experience. During these conversations we learn how the practice leader interacts with their staff.

The question that we ask is “What is the most challenging aspect of your role?” You might think that we would hear about difficult patients but the most common response is around abrupt conversations or emails with a negative tone from the practice leader. More often than not, the comments are consistent from all staff members so it is not a perception issue, it’s the staff’s reality.

Frequently, after sharing specific examples, the staff members will make an excuse for the behavior by saying “We’ll they are really busy and don’t have time to think about what their saying.” This is no excuse for making a person feel inferior.

The lesson is simply to be cognizant of how your words impact your staff. Words have a ripple effect and will impact patient care and practice results. For example, you hear from a patient that the staff made an error with their appointment time and they had to wait an extra 40 minutes. When you hear this and have three choices.

If you want to enhance your practice, ignoring a patient’s feedback is never recommended. Example B assumes that your staff made a mistake and immediately puts them on the defensive. You are assuming that your staff did something wrong. Example C reflects respect and makes no negative assumptions. C will also ensure that if a mistake was made that the staff is able to learn from it and they will be encouraged to implement a systemic change to prevent future issues.

Moving a practice forward can only be done if your staff is supportive of your vision and goals and this can only occur when you are supportive and respectful of them even in stressful times.

If you would like to help more patients, we can help you. Contact me at smays@impactpracticeconsultants.com