The Practice Quarterback

Re-defining the structure of the front office staff

by Tyson Steele

A head coach in the National Football League once made a startling decision. One day, he evaluated the positions on his football team by making a list of required skills for each position. In so doing, he decided that the position of quarterback was far overvalued. After all, he reasoned, if the quarterback is just executing plays designed by the coaches, then the quarterback doesn't need to understand strategy. In fact, the quarterback's position really only requires the ability to hand off the ball or pass it to the guys who make the touchdowns. When it comes right down to it, the quarterback only needs to know how to throw the ball. If you've got great coaches, linemen, runners and receivers, you've got everything else covered.

Realizing that the quarterback position had been overvalued for so long, the coach decided to change the position name to "Ball Passer" and substantially reduced the salary for the position. After all, he reasoned, it's really the other positions who are doing the work.

The coach took all the money he saved by reducing the quarterback's salary and poured it into new high performance equipment. Ultimately, his team won seven consecutive Superbowls, all the other coaches followed suit and the position of "quarterback" went the way of the dodo bird.

Of course, I'm joking. This would never really happen. No coach in his right mind would underestimate the value of a great quarterback.

The Team Quarterback

Here's the funny thing though. We've been undervaluing the "quarterback" on our dental teams for years and nobody seems to realize that we're insane. We're shooting ourselves in the foot, and I think it's about time we talk about it.

If you haven't guessed by now . . . I'm talking about the position of the receptionist/scheduler.

Of course, most dentists know that having a great scheduler can dramatically affect everything from your production level to your stress level. In fact, the scheduler is the closest thing we have to a team quarterback -- controlling the flow of each and every day.

Unfortunately, despite the incredible power the scheduler has to control each day, the dental profession has traditionally failed to place great value on the scheduler position. In fact, as a whole, we have undervalued this position. We even occasionally call the scheduler a "receptionist." This, of course, is a terrible misrepresentation of the importance of the job. After all, receptionists at banks, accounting offices and law firms have little impact on daily revenue. For, although traditional receptionists must be organized, friendly and professional -- they rarely affect production levels, rebuild the schedule, make financial arrangements, explain treatment recommendations, interview new clients or perform any of the other highly important duties of a dental practice scheduler.

A New Position

So, it's time to reconsider the importance of the practice scheduler position. To start, we should begin using more descriptive language and quit using the title "scheduler/receptionist" for good. Rather, we should redefine the position -- calling it the PRACTICE COORDINATOR.

Of course, some of the duties of the practice coordinator will be same as the receptionist/scheduler. But the importance we place on these duties must be carefully reconsidered.

So, let's examine the duties of the practice coordinator (P.C.):

The Duties

1.Coordinate the strategic scheduling of all patients -- The P.C. will personally schedule most patients. (Back up staff members will occasionally schedule appointments when the P.C. is unavailable.) Patients will be scheduled with two goals in mind: to maximize production and to facilitate a smoothly running day.

2.Execute strategies to increase daily production -- move patient appointments, work recall lists, confirm appointments, fill-in last minute cancellations. The P.C. is responsible for keeping each day's schedule highly productive and full. This should take priority over all other duties.

3.Coordinate all other team members -- Everything revolves around the schedule. Someone has to take the lead. As the team quarterback, it is the P.C.'s job to direct and coordinate all other team members in accordance with an agreed scheduling strategy. The P.C. should lead the morning huddle and adjust scheduling strategies for the day as necessary.

4.Interview new patients -- The P.C. should carefully interview new patients on the phone, explain office financial policy and begin reinforcing the patient's decision to join the practice.

5.Other duties -- The P.C. may have other duties as well, such as collecting payments at time of treatment. However, the P.C.'s primary goal to keep the schedule productive should take precedence over all other duties. (In other words, the P.C. should be focused on improving the schedule while someone else takes payments, posts accounts and does other clerical work.)

The P.C.'s paramount goal is to facilitate a perfectly running, highly productive schedule. Nothing else is important. The schedule affects your day more than anything else. Keep your P.C. focused where it will help you the most and leave the busy work to other team members. (You wouldn't ask a football quarterback to order new uniforms, would you?)

Personality Traits

Not all people have the personality traits to be a great patient coordinator. For that matter, even some scheduler/receptionists don't have the appropriate traits -- at least not at the level required for this highly important team position. So, what kind of traits make a person a great practice coordinator?

1.Tenacious -- P.C.'s must be driven. They must have an intense desire to "win", to meet production goals, to fill the last minute hole in the schedule. They must be willing to turn over every rock until a missing appointment is filled. They must not give up. They must persevere until they can truly say that there is nothing left to do.

2.Highly intelligent -- P.C.'s must be a strategic thinkers. They must be able to understand the clinical side well enough to know how a chain of appointments can be moved slightly to fit in that extra production. They must be intuitive enough to know when the clinical team will "hit the wall" on a hard day, and be able to pace the schedule accordingly.

3.Thick skinned -- P.C.'s must be tough. As the team quarterback, everything swirls around them, and they carry an increased burden over other team members for both successes and failures. They must be persuasive with patients and staff, and they must be able to endure both deserved and undeserved criticism in light of the ultimate goal of keeping the entire team productive.

The Reward

Clearly, a great practice coordinator would be worth her weight in gold. If you had one, you would rest easy in the knowledge that your schedule would be full of productive treatment. You could expect few last minute cancellations and no shows to leave unproductive space on your schedule. Your stress level would drop dramatically as days became more evenly paced and production stayed consistently high. You would no longer worry about gaps in your schedule. And when you did have gaps, you would relax, knowing that every attempt had been made to fill the opening.

In other words, a great P.C. could dramatically change your life -- substantially increasing your profit and reducing your stress levels.

The Compensation

A great practice coordinator should be the type of person who is driven to excel regardless of monetary compensation. However, logic dictates that a great P.C. should receive a salary that mirrors her contribution to the practice. Salaries ranging from 50% to 100% higher than those of a traditional receptionist/scheduler could certainly be warranted. After all, if your P.C. was effective at eliminating just one hole in your schedule per week, you would easily make up the difference.

By paying an adequate salary for this position, you will send a message regarding the position's importance to the entire practice. This, of course, is something that we have traditionally failed to do. In other words, we have paid schedulers some of the lowest salaries in dentistry while expecting them to carry a great responsibility.

If your P.C. isn't worth the salary, don't lower her pay -- get a new P.C. Don't settle. Pay more and expect more.

Where to Start

In some practices, the current receptionist/scheduler would make an excellent practice coordinator. In other practices, the office manager or a clinical assistant may be better suited to the position. In some cases, a new person may need to be hired to fill this role. Regardless of where you find your candidates, you should fill this position with the best person you can find.