Your Staff: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

Your patients’ experiences in your medical, dental or veterinary practice are only partially correlated to your own care. Your staff interactions with patients often play a far larger role. Just look at any of the dozens of online review sites and you’ll see how many negative patient reviews cite uncaring, mean-spirited, unprofessional and disinterested staff as the reason for the negative review.

While some people are simply unsuitable for work in medical, dental or veterinary healthcare, most office staff cannot be faulted for their lack of sufficient training. Most healthcare staff members have never been trained properly to perform at the level you need. Sometimes, they forget that they work in a caring profession and lose sight of fact that patients are often sick or worried and need empathy or compassion from everyone in your office.

Good healthcare trainers are hard to find

With so many training companies making so many claims, it’s difficult to differentiate a real professional, dedicated healthcare staff training company from one that’s only looking to turn a quick profit. Don’t trust any firm or individual who promises to “tape your staff” in action prior to training during a “mystery shopper” phone call. This practice is illegal in many states.

Practice Builders has provided mystery shopping and staff training services to doctors, dentists, veterinarians and other healthcare providers for over 35 years. They have never taped or recorded a single mystery shopper call. In addition to often being illegal, it’s unnecessary. There’s no need to embarrass an employee who has not yet been properly trained. A true mystery shopper call establishes a baseline and identifies areas of strength and weakness – in writing – that can be addressed during training.

What you should expect from proper staff training

The goal of staff training is to help create superlative patient interactions at every level in your practice. The trainer’s goal is to create a positive atmosphere by instilling pride in your team members and pride in the practice, the level of care, the practitioners and each other. A good trainer teaches your staff about systems, communication, efficiency, patient messaging – even scripting, if necessary – to ensure their success and, more importantly, to ensure real patient satisfaction.

The best staff trainers have worked in healthcare and held staff positions in private medical and dental practices themselves. They know what your staff is going through and they empathize. They communicate effectively and train from their own real-world experiences. They can even help improve your staff morale, which has a direct correlation to improved patient care and satisfaction.

If you are considering a staff-training program that can really help generate positive patient experiences and reviews while improving morale in your practice, take a closer look at Practice Builders.

Learn more about proven staff training programs for customer service excellence, case conversion and practice representatives by calling Practice Builders at 800.679.1200 or emailing info@practicebuilders.com.

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Your feedback is always welcome

If you have questions or comments about this newsletter, please email them to: hedgar@practicebuilders.com.