Physicians Practice - January 2008 - (Page 70)

CME HUMAN RESOURCES inappropriately, eventually other people will feel that they have that ‘privilege.’” Levoy says there is “no way to make ﬁring someone a pleasant task. You can only minimize the pain and hostility.” Still, when dealing with a poor performer who won’t or can’t improve, dismissal is for the best. Levoy recalls a physician who ﬁnally worked up the courage to ﬁre his longtime bookkeeper after attending one of his seminars. “He said it was without doubt the hardest, most painful thing he’d ever done,” the author recalls. “But he also said it was the best thing for his staff, his patients, and himself. It was hard for him to recognize the negative impact that [the bookkeeper] had on the practice until she left.” Deborah Martin-Norcross, a Princeton, N.J.-based attorney who specializes in employment law, agrees that physicians tend to avoid confrontation more than most other professionals. Avoiding communication with a troublesome or underperforming employee until termination seems the only option is always a bad idea, says Martin-Norcross. You should always give such a staffer a with underperformance, an inability to adapt to a practice’s culture, excessive absenteeism or tardiness, inappropriate behavior with other staff or patients, and — perhaps the most egregious — patient conﬁdentiality breaches. Only that the last infraction is sometimes serious enough to get NIP IT IN THE BUD “Nothing makes employees as discouraged and resentful as having to work alongside people who don’t pull their own weight.” Bob Levoy, author and consultant IN SUMMARY Poor performing or troublesome staff members can drag down an entire ofﬁce’s morale and productivity. When dealing with such an employee, consultants and seasoned managers recommend: • Employing “progressive discipline,” giving the employee opportunities to improve, clarifying duties, and facilitating coaching and training when needed. • Documenting all interactions with the problematic employee, which creates paper trail that fully justiﬁes future discipline and that can hold up in court if necessary. inadequate improvement, issue a “verbal warning,” and document the conversation in writing. perform inadequately or to prove troublesome, issue a “written warning,” clearly delineating what steps the employee must take to improve and what the consequences are if no improvement is observed. be decisive, clear, and brief. • If an employee shows no or • If the employee continues to chance to correct poor performance or inappropriate behavior, and that means you have to be clear about your expectations. “The employee who’s been the recipient of good communication about their performance, their match in the job, or whatever the issue is,” says Martin-Norcross, “at least will believe that they haven’t been run out. And in my experience that lessens the likelihood that they will come after their employers and ﬁle a lawsuit or discrimination charges.” Thomas Weida, medical director of the University Physician Group at Fishburn Road in Hershey, Penn., says that he doesn’t ﬁre employees, “they ﬁre themselves.” He says that when managers work with underperforming employees to help them identify and correct underlying problems, they should recognize that they are dealing with human beings who may have issues outside the workplace that affect their behavior. “But,” says Weida, “at some point they have to work those issues out for themselves.” HOW TO GET FIRED • When terminating an employee, Employees get ﬁred for reasons that most commonly have to do an employee ﬁred on the spot. Most of the time employees are dismissed due to ongoing problems that are not corrected. In these cases, managers unanimously agree that continually documenting their communication with the employee is paramount. “It’s not just a case of saying, ‘You’re out of here,’” says Rick Jamison, the national director of Practice Solutions Consulting in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in Canada. “Employees should not be denied the opportunity to improve and be given the tools they need to do so.” Such tools may include training or personal mentoring, which can be effective for an employee determined to improve or may serve as a wake-up call for others who know they’ve been slacking. All disciplinary actions should be documented, regardless of whether the employee ultimately improves. “You can never have too much documentation,” says Merrilee Severino, a practice management consultant in Seminole, Fla. Whenever Severino meets with an employee to address performance or behavioral issues, she says she “documents every single move.” WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 70 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | JANUARY 2008 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - January 2008

Physicians Practice - January 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Fixing Medicaid Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks Noteworthy Cover Story: Fee Schedule Survey: 2007 Results Adding Ancillaries: Bucking the Practice Ask the Experts Idealab: 'How I Got Over My EMR Excuses' Technology: Don't Be Denied The Tech Doctor: Blessing or Curse? The Administrator's Desk: Learning From the Best Coding Career: To Partner, or Not? Management: Controlling Your Inventory Human Resources: How to Fire an Enployee Finance: Beyond Reimbursment - How to Fix Your Mix Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - January 2008

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