Life in the Huddle: How Making Like a Penguin this Winter Can Improve Your Dental Practice

This article was printed in The Profitable Dentist.

Have you ever spent time learning about penguins? They survive the harsh Antarctic winter by forming a ‘huddle.’ When the Penguins spend time in close contact, they’re safe from the weather, safe from predators, and able to survive until spring.

A huddle’s not a static group. It’s more like a slow dance. Over time, penguins on the outside move into the inner circle. Everyone’s needs are met in turn, because all of the penguins have come together in one space.

In the cold, dark months of winter, it’s easy to turn anti-social, even in a busy dental practice. People are in and out with the flu. Days are short, and everyone feels drained. It’s easy for your staff just to go to their desk or bay, start working, and chug along without feeling connected to each other and the big picture for the practice.

Making like a penguin and huddling once a day can bring everyone back to the same place and help keep your practice a warm and welcoming place for your patients.

What is a Huddle?

For penguins, a huddle is a tightly packed group on the ice, impervious to the weather. For a dental office, a huddle is a quick, information-packed meeting that takes about 15 minutes each morning. It brings the whole practice, dentists, hygienists, and support staff, together in one space. It gives you a chance to plan the day, spot looming problems, and plan for the patients.

A morning huddle helps people warm up to their jobs and protects them from the sort of choke points and problems that prey upon a dental practice. Everyone leaves the huddle with their needs met, and the day goes more smoothly for staff and patients alike.

At each morning’s huddle you should:

• Quickly review returning patient files to see why each person is coming into the practice today. Look to see which patients need more care, and balance hygiene schedules accordingly.
• Alert staff to new patient appointments. Give a little background on each patient and prepare to wow them from the moment they step in the door.
• Think about patient flow. When will various machines be in use? How can you choreograph appointments so that patients spend as little time as possible waiting for the next stage of their appointment?
• Go over the financials for the day’s patients. Does anyone have outstanding balances on their accounts? Does someone have financial distress that might impact the treatments offered or the treatment schedule?
• Look for gaps in the schedule. Have you left space for emergency patients? If someone calls with an emergency, what is your plan for fitting them in?
• Are there any concerns that need to be addressed at a weekly or monthly meeting, rather than in a huddle?

By dealing with all of these issues at the beginning of the day, before the first patient arrives, you remove a major distractor.  Everyone is prepared for what is coming. Questions have been answered, plans are in place. Suddenly, instead of waddling through the day like a penguin on ice, your practice is runs as gracefully as a penguin flying beneath the Antarctic ice.

And it all starts with a huddle.

https://youtu.be/XZm6y0ALDCc

Have you added a morning huddle to your practice? What did you find difficult? What have the advantages has your team seen?

For more tips and tricks to improve your office production in 2017 take advantage of $500 off doctor tuition to any Productive Dentist Academy Productivity Workshops.

Bio: Productive Dentist Academy (PDA) was co-founded in 2004 by Dr. Bruce B. Baird and Victoria Peterson to help dentists­ increase their productivity. What started out as a few dentists huddled around a conference table has grown into a movement helping thousands of dentists, team members, practices, and communities all over the United States. Being member built and driven, PDA has grown to meet the needs of our industry by providing three productivity workshops annually, multiple private speaking engagements, business development coaching, and full service, in-house marketing including ForeverSite^TM website development, marketing coaching, branding, direct mail, SEO, online advertising and more.