Quality Staff Equals Productive Practice!

It's been my experience and the experience of thousands of doctors around the world who understand that a high quality staff can affect the ultimate outcome of their patients response to treatment. I have found that many times the patients will share their experiences with the staff when they feel uncomfortable sharing them with the doctor.

One of the most common questions I get from physicians is;

How do we find quality staff members, who will care about our patients?

For over twenty years I have hired many excellent staff members, in fact many were former patients or family members of former patients. These individuals had a good experience in our office and were able to understand our procedures and convey them to our new patient's.

We also hire people based solely on personality style not based on skill. For instance, you can't train someone to be outgoing and expressive or detail oriented, these are inherent characteristics, however, you can train most people the skills necessary to be part of your health care team.

Many times, the people that we hired, who where highly skilled had one major problem they had a syndrome that we call: The Other Place Syndrome! You have probably been there before if you have ever hired anybody. That's when an employee comes to you and says, well at the other place we do things like this!

The problem is that might not be the way you do things in your own office, and these people find it very difficult to change their ways.

The good news is, when we hire people based on their personality styles, with little to no previous training or conceptions, we get to mold them into the system that we currently have in place .It has been my experience that a majority of the time they turn out to be your best employees.

So what are some steps that I can take in order to find quality staff members?

1: In order to find quality staff members you need to A. S. K. or you will not G. E. T. put out the word to your best patients and let them know that you're looking to bring on new staff members for your health care team.

2: Schedule group interviews and bring in three to four prospects at one time, give them an overview of the position before you even do the interview and observe their body language.

This will give you a lot of information before you get into the formal interview process. Many times when a prospective hire hears an overview of the job position they realize immediately it's not the right position for them and that's okay.

3: All new employees should go through the basic procedures that a new patient would follow from filling out the forms in the waiting room to the report of findings. They even should be put on a regular treatment program.

This will give your new employee, a true perspective from a patient's point of view on how they perceive your practice. This will ultimately assist them in building rapport with your new and existing patients which is the precursor to effective results.