The typical dental office has several regular meetings that can help to keep the team on track. We hear from our members that as the staff gets bigger, the meetings get longer and less productive. It’s so important to have an agenda and a moderator for your meetings to avoid this problem. Essential meetings include:
- Daily huddle to review patients and needed treatment
- Monthly goal and progress meeting to review production and collection benchmarks
- Monthly meeting between manager and owner/dentist to review reports and team updates
- Quarterly meetings between the hygienist and dentist to review periodontal and treatment protocols and new procedures
- Quarterly administrative team meetings to review treatment plan appointment rates, new patient protocol and collections rates
As you can see, these could take up much time if not managed correctly. We recommend having a designated moderator who keeps you on topic and notes who is responsible for any new tasks. We also like to hear that meetings are held after attending conferences so that new information can be shared among the team. After our annual conference, AADOM managers will hold these meetings and share new skills they learned. Our conferences focus on all topics that a manager will need to successfully run a practice. Our most popular topics are human resources and team leadership. We supplement these mainstays with courses on coding, case presentation and hygiene profitability. At this year’s conference we will also bring the respected Preventing Abuse and Neglect through Dental Awareness (P.A.N.D.A.) program, which helps team members handle this sensitive issue. As front-line health providers we are uniquely capable of identifying this in our patients.
The tone of your office meetings should always be one of sharing. You all have the common goal of providing quality care to your patients but need regular alignment of goals to do this. Plan your meetings with purpose and remember to have fun!
