Morning Huddle

Let’s begin with the morning huddle. Morning huddles are extremely valuable to your practice and if you can only get one huddle done a day, this is the one I recommend that you do because it allows you to set a game plan for the day. Now, this does require that everybody arrives early enough so that you can meet with your doctor and your team, so this would mean 15-20 minutes early, so that you can ensure that your practice is opened up and so that when you have that 1-2-3, break, you’re ready to go see your patients. Now, side note, if you have a staggered staff schedule and somebody comes in later, it's their responsibility to meet with the team lead or someone within the practice so that they can touch base and be caught up with what the plan is for the day. Your patient reception coordinator or your patient communication facilitator will provide you with a schedule. Review that schedule as a team and look to see, are there any special considerations for a patient that’s coming in, are they in a walker, is it their birthday, what special testing do we need to accomplish that day, do we have any no-shows that we've double-booked? Very, very important, because it's better to know that you have double booked then not, right? That way we know we're able to adjust as we move throughout the day. We’re communicating as a team. When you are pre-appointing or setting your recall date for the patient at their last visit in the exam room, be sure that you’re notating any special testing or special needs or special considerations in the notes section. This actually will help your team huddles be more efficient as well as believe it or not, it’s very helpful in the confirmation process, if we’re needing to call them and remind them of why we are needing to see them. 

You're also going to want to acknowledge any special projects that maybe a team member is working on that day and do they need help, do they need back up, etc. Is there a vendor coming in for the day? Really look at the scope of your day and have a plan that you can be knowledgeable and be ready to be flexible as needed.

Now, your practice administrator, your team lead, or maybe you doctor, will need to hold the team accountable for being on time for these huddles. Coach for success. Remember, our goal is to ensure that we have 5 STAR patient care and that we have a great culture within our practice and everyone's having fun knowing that they're doing a great job. 

Now, you may be saying Robin, “my practice is too large for everyone to meet at once.” If this is the case then your huddle should be your doctor and clinical team. Now, as a side note, we do recommend doctor teams, especially when you have multiple doctors. We go over this in our clinical program. Additionally, I also want to note that if we have our doctor team meeting in the morning, then it's important that our patient reception coordinator or patient communication facilitator is communicating or having a huddle with the key people within your practice so that they know that there may be again that no show double-book or if we have openings and as we go through the day, midday, etc. that we're communicating to the team any changes in the schedule.