Should you cross train your staff? Cross training has its place when there is a temporary need. But under normal circumstances each employee should have specific responsibilities, otherwise you lose accountability. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with employees helping in an area outside their assigned responsibilities during peak periods or when another employee is absent. But staff need to stay focused on their specific assigned job and functions once the overload is handled.  

In previous articles in this series, we have explored some of the HIPAA rules and regulations that affect the everyday lives of dental practitioners. As most dentists are aware, the data that resides in your office is the most critical data you own: the patient records, schedule, documents, etc. are the lifeblood of your practice. The question is, what are you doing to protect that data? In my mind, there are three areas to concentrate on: 1. A firewall. This sounds easy, right? Just install a HIPAA-certified firewall and be done with it...except, no such animal exists. As a matter of fact,...

Keeping no shows and cancels at 10% or less comes down to having having a scheduler who takes 100% responsibility for ensuring your schedule is full which includes not being too dependent on automatic reminders. Your confirmation system should be tailored to each type of patient and have a personal touch. Anyone who contacts patients must know what they are doing and be an excellent communicator. Role playing with a script as a basic outline of specific types of calls is highly recommended. Here is my basic re-care confirmation protocol as well as what to do for NPs, operative and cancels/no...

UNIFORMS AND DRESS CODE The practice will purchase your uniforms for you. You will be responsible for maintaining your uniform. When you leave employment of the practice, all uniforms must be returned. If uniforms are not returned, you will be responsible for the current cost to replace them. Since our floors are light in color, we require that you wear sneakers or appropriate shoes with white soles to keep black scuff marks to a minimum. You are responsible for the purchase and upkeep of your sneakers/shoes. Please keep them white. Excessive jewelry, nail length, heavy makeup and perfume are neither appropriate,...