The Patient Experience - How Doctors & Dentists Increase Patient Referrals & Revenue Applying These Four Lessons From Walt Disney To Health Care by Travis Frederickson & Travis A. Frederickson

Author:Travis Frederickson & Travis A. Frederickson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Creating Change, Inc.
Published: 2014-01-19T14:00:00+00:00

In determining where a particular staff member is on the spectrum of understanding, we use a standard first introduced by Dr. Michael E. Tomlin. Described below and shown in Figure 6, this concept strips the accountability model down to its most basic form. In the expanded and most formalized process, each staff member’s aptitudes are plotted within along the two axis, with a clear demarcation of where they stand individually and collectively. In health care, we utilize the principles and the concept, but stop shy of plotting staff. Unless the practice is large enough to warrant a more formalized process, the process itself becomes an intrusion to the purpose of the practice.

As you view the graphic, you clearly see how it works. The simple explanation is that desirable staff are in the green zone (upper right) and undesirable staff in the red zone (lower left). The polarities are critical to understand. First the horizontal polarity of Unable and Able.

Able and Unable are aptitude based. This measures where the staff member has demonstrated the ability to perform a task. This is an obvious training line. The horizontal line you see in the graphic represents a five-point scale, with 1 on the far left, 3 at the intersection, and 5 to the far right. If you were performing a formal skill-based review on the specific aligned objective, the staff member would be rated on the 1-5 scale.

The vertical line represents attitude, displayed as Willing at the top and Unwilling at the bottom. Again the line represents a five-point scale with 5 at the top, 3 at the intersection, and 1 at the bottom. On the specific performance objective, the staff member would be rated along that plot line in reference to the approach or attitude, and the willingness to perform the task at the level of excellence.

Returning to our front-office person example, the specific skill may be the initial answering of the phone. When answering, she said almost all of the right words, exhibiting the aptitude and demonstrating near mastery of the skill, warranting 4 out of 5. Her enthusiasm toward the process left something to be desired, and was reflected in the phone conversation between the staff person and the caller. The staff member would be scored perhaps a 3 for her effort in willingness. Carrying this through then, the staff member would have a 4 on the horizontal with a 3 on the vertical. If you were to extend out the lines where the staff member’s performance was plotted, the result would fall to the right, but center. Our hope is for all staff to be above and right of center. Encouragement and expectation would then be set, with additional training on the tone and inflection expected when performing this task.

In a more practical application, the front-office person may be asked to rate themselves as they perform this task, providing they have the standards on which to rate. She would be made aware that both attitude and aptitude are expected in this skill.

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