Dental Office Business Meetings Weekly

Dental office business meetings held regularly are best.  And my personal preference is to hold these meetings weekly.   Allow the same amount of time at the same time on the same day of the week each and every week.  This way everyone can be sure to be in attendance.  And can begin to prepare for the meeting in advance.

Thursday afternoon is my favorite time for a team business meeting.  I like the idea of scheduling the business meeting right after lunch.  Give everyone their lunch hour first.  Then follow that up with a business meeting for an hour.  So, Thursday afternoons will have a 2- hour block.  One hour for lunch and a second hour for a team meeting.

Create an Agenda Each Week

Post an agenda sign-up form in advance of the meeting.    A sheet of paper with 3 columns is the best!  And those three columns have the headers:  “Date”     “Agenda Item”    “Name” typed at the top.   Post this sign-up sheet on a meeting bulletin board at the beginning of the week.  And use a designated bulletin board just for team meeting agenda items and minutes.

Create a sign-up form that you can save and print each week.  This is such a simple form that will be used to create the final agenda for your scheduled business meeting. So don’t waste a lot of time creating a new one each week.  The form can be left up until the morning of the actual team meeting.  A member of the administrative team will need to type up the final agenda for the meeting.  Let’s look at the actual agenda.

Dental Office Business Meetings Agenda Template

Dental office business meetings have an agenda template.  Create a template that works for you.  And that is easy to update each week.  This is not an area where we want to spend much time either.  There are plenty of other areas that do need our attention!  But let me give you some ideas on items you can include in your weekly agenda.  And the amount of time to allow for each item.

1. Old Business – any leftover business from last meeting (10 minutes)
2. Announcements – vacations? schedule changes? (5 minutes)
3. Production Goals -review numbers –  are we on target for this week? this month?   (5 minutes)
4. Collection Goals – review numbers – are we on target for this week?  this month? (5 minutes)
5. New Business – new patient numbers & new patients of the week -also topics from the sign up form (15 minutes)
6. System Improvement – pick one area each month to discuss (15 minutes)
7. Wrap up – conclude meeting – any business need to be tabled to next meeting? (5 minutes)

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Facilitator and Recorder

Choose a facilitator and recorder each week. Rotation of the facilitator position is a great idea. You can rotate in each week or each month.  Whatever you like best.  But it is great to give everyone in the office a chance to lead the meeting, if they are comfortable.  And to share in the responsibilities.

The position of recorder can also be a shared position.  But the recorder will also need to type up the minutes following the meeting.  Again, the minutes of the meeting can also be in a template form.  A template will allow the minutes to be typed and shared in just a few minutes.  Be sure to post the minutes alongside the new agenda sign-up form on your bulletin board in the beginning of the week.

Dental Office Business Meetings With Solutions

Dental office business meetings are not about problems.   A great business meeting agenda item offers a solution.  This is important to remember.  If you do not have a proposed solution to offer, keep working on it.  Present the solution with the problem together at your business meeting.  Even if the proposed solution is modified or nixed all together at the meeting.   It’s critical to bring a solution, not just the problem.

System improvement is a huge piece of the body of the meeting.  My recommendation is to pick one system each month:  Telephones, Hygiene, Customer Service, Accounts Receivable, Restorative Schedule!  And focus on that one system for 15 minutes within each weekly meeting.  Talk about the system and even use the materials available here as a tool.

Make Meetings Productive

Use your time well.  Work on refining schedule templates.  Write phone scripts for the team.  Find out where the weak links are in your dental office systems and make them stronger!  In just 15 minutes together each week, you can zero in on areas you want to improve with your business systems.  And then when you meet each week, check in to see how everyone is doing with it.

Dental Office Business Meetings For Large Practices

Dental office business meetings will look a little different in a large practice.  Team leaders are the way to go with weekly meetings.  As the entire team cannot easily assemble together each week.  But designated leaders from each department can.  Choose a leader from the front office (reception), a leader from hygiene, a dental assistant, office manager, and accounts receivable.  The size of the practice will determine the  number of team leaders meeting.

Then individual department meetings are held to disperse information.  And each individual team will want to work on systems within that team.  The team leaders may share with each other some areas they notice that need work.  But the team leaders will not need to work together on refining a particular system.  Unless they choose to work together to establish policy or protocol.

Customer Service And Phone Training

Everyone on the dental office team needs customer service and phone training.  We want anyone to be able to pick up a phone if necessary.  And to know how to provide the 5-star customer service each patient deserves.  This can be especially tricky in a large dental practice.   So, it’s important to set aside time for departmental meetings and training.  Or bring the entire group together one afternoon each quarter!  Schedule a time to bring the team together for some bonding and team building!

 

Special team training sessions can also be very effective in small teams too!  Maybe plan a lunch and training session.  Especially if your weekly business meeting isn’t providing you enough time to polish your phone scripts.   Or maybe there is a new team member that could benefit from a bonding and training time with the team!  Please let me know if I can help!  I’m here for you.