Training for Success

Doctor, you now have your first employee or employees for your brand-new practice and you'll need to put a training process in place to set everybody up for success. Give your staff the most comfortable path possible. And, here’s what that looks like. Create a training agenda with deadlines, we know deadlines work. You should have an office policy manual in place. Have your staff observe an eye exam or for sure do an eye exam on your staff. That's not just for your new employee, but doctor, every new hire that comes to your practice should have the opportunity for you to do an eye exam, so that they understand the high level of care that's going on back in that exam room. So, do an eye exam, have the staff observe an eye exam on another person. Initially, maybe that's a family member.

And then create a procedure manual for your new office. So, this is a fluid document. You're going to start this from the day you and your team start putting these processes and procedures in place. Use screenshots, whatever it takes. This is your manual, k? Create also an insurance procedure manual. Whether it be a hard binder or you're going to have a digital copy, for sure you'll have a digital copy, so maybe both and you will receive insurance manuals from each of the insurance companies that you are a provider. But this would be sort of a snapshot, just a summary, to allow other staff to be able to step in to keep the wheels in motion, right, if somebody is out of the office. Take time to review and evaluate the entire patient flow process. This is a really great thing to do in your brand-new office, so you're going to have time to do that. So, maybe even a couple times a day, but just take the step back to say “okay, we saw one patient today or we saw two patients today, how did it feel?” Ask your staff what maybe slowed them down or trip them up or what do they need additional training? So, really great time to do some teaching, have some teaching moments to smooth out those processes in the beginning, k? So, set everybody up for success. 

There's some really great training resources available and let me just reference a couple of them right now. The AOA has some really solid training resources. Your labs, so that would be your ophthalmic lens lab. Oh, they are more than happy to help train you and your staff. Other vendors, so your contact lens reps, your frame reps, and any other, maybe specialties in your practice so rely on those vendors. A great site opticianworks.com, so, O P T I C I A N W O R K S.com, optician works.com. Gosh, look at some billing and coding courses and webinars, a couple resources for those, Mike Sandy books. So, he’s an optometrist, his book is referenced a lot and gets really high compliments. A company called CSEye, so C S E Y E, billing and compliance company. For you doctor, Wills Eye manual is suggested by Dr. Cockrell, our CEO. So, take advantage of those training resources. 

williamsgroup