Patient compliance is built on trust and leads to healthier, happier patients and a stronger life-long relationship with them.  Non-compliance on the other hand results in unnecessary delays in recovery, relapses and side effects.

• In what ways can you help build a solid relationship with your patients?
• What do you think prevents patients from being non-compliant? And how can you help turn that around?

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No, being organized is not always easy!  But the more organized you are, the more productive you can be!  First, we all need to ask ourselves...

• What really needs organizing? Is it our work station? Our desk? Our closet(s)? Our piles of paperwork? Our files? Our email? Our schedule?  Our thoughts?
• Now that we've identified some "problem areas" - can you suggest systems that can be put in place to help us manage them?
• What has worked for you?
• Or is there something in particular that we can help YOU better organize?   

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• Do you have a cell phone policy in your practice for staff and/or patients? What does it say?
• If yes, is this policy strictly enforced? How?
• Do you find that the policy is abused?
• Are there consequences for not following the policy?
• How does the doctor deal with a patient who is on their cell phone when he enters the treatment room?
• How do you deal with patients who present to the front desk on their cell phones?
• What is the reaction to patients who are on their cell phones in the reception room (by other patients?) Do they seem annoyed?

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Sometimes, it seems a never ending battle to keep our schedule on time and sometimes it all stems from the doctor's inability to get out of the treatment room. Please help others by sharing ways to keep the patient flow on time!

• What are some of the reasons you have experienced that allow the doctor to fall behind schedule? 
• What or who is to blame?  Faulty protocol? NO protocol? Talkative people?
• What is your "trick" "tool" "method"  to getting the doctor out of the room with the patient when he/she has been there "too long?"

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• Are you personally involved in dispensing products in your practice?
• Any successful tips you can share?
• What products does your practice offer to patients?
• How do you choose your products?
• How do you manage inventory?
• Do you have an incentive program associated with product dispensing?  

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Hard Skills? Soft Skills? What's more important in the hiring process?

Technical competence is important, but that should never be the only thing to look for. If the proper training program is put in place, individuals can be skillfully trained to do what they need to. Think more about their soft skills...Does their personality and attitude fit your workplace? Are they easy to get along with? Optimistic and self motivated? Can they make decisions on their own? Do they have common sense; a sense of humor?

For many, it's the hard skills that get the interview, but it's the soft skills that are needed to get (and keep) the job.

Q: What do you look for in a new hire?

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