Physicians Practice - April 2008 - (Page 32)

MANAGEMENT The key to Wishon-Powell’s success in managing change was simply doing what her Disney teachers taught her. She explained to the staff that these “silly things” were essential to helping their employer continue growing by providing service excellence. Soon the staff saw themselves as vital contributors toward a common goal. Wishon-Powell coached them along, providing small incentives for established benchmarks, and soon the group buy-in she sought drove patient satisfaction off the charts. Whether you are teaching your staff to say “please” and “thank you” or overhauling your entire practice management system, Wishon-Powell says the key to implementing change in any business environment is communication. And that communication must come from the top. Whether they do so consciously or not, the staff put physicians on metaphorical pedestals, says Wishon-Powell, also the author of “Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation: How Much Does Money Really Matter?” So when a practice initiates a change of any kind, it must have the backing of the group’s top brass. “And that doesn’t mean making pronouncements via e-mail,” says Wishon-Powell. “Doctors really need to be involved with their staff in person-to-person communication.” with evolving technologies and customer service trends — is also a truism. It’s human nature to want to stay within the conﬁnes of one’s comfort level, especially in the workplace. So what do you do? Empower your staff to be the change agents — even if they’re not. “Staff need to think they have a part in change, even if they don’t,” says Wishon-Powell. “To buy into change, staff must have a sense that they are part of it.” So they need to be involved from the start. “The worst thing physicians can do during a major change in an office — or even a minor change — is to act like it’s not happening.” SEE NO EVIL Kimberly Wishon-Powell, Holston Medical Group IN SUMMARY Yes, instituting change is difﬁcult in any situation, particularly in the workplace. Employees settle into their respective comfort levels in carrying out their duties, sometimes to the extent that even the smallest policy change can greatly affect their emotional equilibrium. What can you do to anticipate and respond to staff resistance to change? Consider the following: • Communication is your best tool when instituting a policy change, no matter how small. Don’t catch your employees off-guard with a completely unexpected announcement. employees in the change process. For example, if you must cut back on beneﬁts, elicit their feedback regarding their available options. them. Nurture a teamwork environment that is not dominated by strict top-down management. you know how different employees are going to respond to different changes, but you may ﬁnd yourself surprised by individual reactions you never anticipated. • Whenever possible, involve “The worst thing physicians can do during a major change in an office — or even a minor change — is to act like it’s not happening,” says Wishon-Powell. To further dampen staff attitudes, physicians can have a negative attitude about the change. If staff hear their supervisors complaining about a new procedure or product they are expected to learn, “you can make sure they are going to follow suit and resist it too,” she says. ASK FOR INPUT • Work with your staff — not against • Don’t assume. You may think “The only constant is change” may be a cliché, but it’s also a truism. For any business to succeed, it must constantly work to achieve ever-increasing levels of customer satisfaction as the marketplace vies for consumer dollars. Healthcare is no different. But staff resistance to change — particularly within the healthcare delivery arena, which notoriously lags behind its business counterparts in keeping up “Communication is your best weapon for any kind of change process,” says Becky Kronauge, practice administrator for Acute Care Consultants in Dayton, Ohio, and PAHCOM’s (Professional Association of Health Care Ofﬁce Management) 2007 Medical Manager of the Year. Change affects different people different ways, she says, and resistance to change is often the result of physicians or middle management not asking for staff input, not conveying vital information, and — most important — not allowing their employees to verbalize their concerns. “You want them to be able to say, ‘I don’t agree with this or feel comfortable doing that,’ and we do want people to provide us feedback,” says Kronauge. “Sometimes we make changes whose impact we don’t realize … So we try to be open when we’re making changes to include people in the process along the way, not always being top-down, the management telling everybody what to do.” WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 32 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | APRIL 2008 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

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

Physicians Practice - April 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Medicare Decision Time Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: Outsource Your Pain Noteworthy Cover Story: Trial Lawyers Tell All Management: When It’s Time to Change Ask the Experts Technology: Do You Know Where Your Data Is? The Tech Doctor: Are Your Discarded PCs Really Clean? Billing & Collections: Playing Hardball The Administrator's Desk: Recruiting for Patient Satisfaction Start It Up: Finance - Mastering the Numbers Game Coding The Great Practice Makeover: Taking Care of Business Associates Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - April 2008

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