Running an Efficient Clinic

Are you curious about what key factors contribute to a clinic's efficiency? Mia Vincent has successfully honed the skills that will make your office efficient. With valuable scheduling insights, she is enthusiastic about sharing the positive impact of dental monitoring on their practice. Mia will address listener’s questions, including strategies for handling conflicts between the front office and clinical staff and how to create a positive office morale. Don’t miss this episode of Practice Talk to hear Mia’s valuable insights into managing an efficient clinic.

IN THIS EPISODE: 

• [01:44] Mia shares an overall view of how her practice functions, including welcoming patients coming into the clinic
• [3:49] Mia describes how they run their schedule for the day, and Lacie outlines the use of the report card system 
• [5:40] Mia discusses how her practice manages emergencies and shares how dental monitoring has helped streamline their schedule
• [10:39] Mia answers a listener's question about scheduling doctor time when the schedule is full 
• [14:01] A listener asks what to do about the drama between the front of house team and the clinical team
• [20:32] Mia defines dental monitoring and the benefits of its use
• [25:31] Mia leaves the audience with additional advice on running an efficient clinic

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

• Parents can choose whether to stay in their vehicle or come into the office with their child. The parent can be updated on the progress of the orthodontic procedure either in the chair or they can be updated by going with the child.
• One way to deal with emergency cases is to have an extra chair in the office designated specifically for emergency cases. Staff can then jump back and forth between the emergency case and their scheduled patients and serve everyone. 
• Bickering between staff can change the entire dynamic of an office. It’s vital to deal with this problem sooner rather than later. Many approaches can be taken, but the bottom line is sometimes, someone may not be the best fit for the position or the team.

RESOURCE LINKS

People + Practice  - Website

Practice Talk Podcast - Free Downloads

BIOGRAPHY: 

Mia Vincent graduated from her dental assisting program with expanded functions in Orthodontics, Fixed Prosthetics, Removable Prosthetics, and Restorative. Since then, she has returned to school for her bachelor's degree from Missouri State University in Health Services. In the office, she wears many hats including assisting chairside, Dental Monitoring coordinator, and social media manager. Outside of work, she loves spending time with friends and family, working out, attending church, and shopping.

QUOTES: 

“Patients and parents don't understand the blessing of having room in your schedule to be seen the same day because when you see 100 to 130 patients a day, there isn’t an appointment time available. Whereas when you're seeing 40 to 70, you have room. You can see new patients, and with emergencies, there's always room to see them.” Mia Vincent

“We use a light system in our office. When we need the doctor, even if it's for a question or we're ready to be checked, we turn our lights green, and that allows both doctors to know we are ready for them whenever they are available. If several of us turn green simultaneously, our system numbers which one of us turned their light green first, so they know who to go to first. In a perfect world, that always works out great.”  Mia Vincent