A Mother-of-Pearl Communication Tip

In my work in the field with orthodontic practices, I regularly see new, innovative ideas that contribute in a small way to the success of a practice and the care of its patients. Once in a great while, I see something that is a real game-changer – a “mother-of-pearl” idea. I had this happen recently.

The group I was working with was an exceptionally well-run and well-staffed office; that point is not so unusual. What was unusual was the way that they communicated with one another.

Every employee in the practice, including the doctors, wore, at belt-level, a small Motorola communication device with a small, discreetly worn headset. There was a charging station in the break-room of the practice, and part of the daily routine included plugging in one’s headset for overnight recharging before leaving for the evening.

These headsets allowed every person in the office to communicate instantly, at any time, with everyone else working in the practice; a small button on the wire leading from the headset to the device allowed the wearer to ‘break in’ and talk. For those of you who do not utilize this technology (and this is the first time that I have seen it utilized in a practice), consider what it would be like to never have to go looking for the doctor or another staff person during the work-day; rather to talk with them instantly, no matter where they are or what they happen to be doing, and to instantly manage patient flow among multiple staff at different places in the office. Everyone I talked to at the practice said that, having had this technology in place for several years, they could not imagine any other way to do things.

I have to say that, having seen it in execution, I understand why.

To address some anticipated concerns of my readers:

• The ‘look’ of headsets is not a significant issue; they are hardly noticeable, everyone wears one, and patients pay no attention to them;
• I saw no evidence of this technology de-humanizing the workflow process or taking away from the quality of interpersonal communication with patients;
• On the issue of interruptions: several times during face-to-face consults with both myself and new patients, the  doctor or TC would, mid-sentence, say “excuse me” for a moment, press a button, quietly talk with the person breaking in, and return to the room conversation without missing a beat. This never caused a problem with consults I observed, and was impressive to watch. I should also mention that, when the doctor was needed, the headset conversation was much less intrusive to our discussion than having a staff person stick their head in the door and interrupt. Think about that.

If your practice day is largely a series of events involving one staff member trying to physically track down a doctor or another staff member elsewhere in the practice, it would behoove you to make this upgrade to your communication process. I’ve seen a lot of good ideas in use among my client practices, but when it comes to having a positive practice impact, this one is among the best and most profound.