When we last left our story, we had a problem with the front desk staff turning off patients by being dismissive and generally unpleasant. The doctor was busy in the back trying to treat patients and tended to steer clear of the front desk in his quest to provide the best patient care possible.
Very clearly, our first task was to address these individuals who probably had skills applicable to other areas, but it appeared that making folks feel at home was not one of those skills. Seemingly, the most obvious solution would be to simply terminate these 3 people and replace them with others who had more of a friendly demeanor about them.
As a general rule, I do not enjoy firing people nor do I ever look to that as a first solution to a problem. Personally, I've been fired without having the chance to make a situation right, and it sucks. In addition, these people had experience in the practice and may have had skills applicable elsewhere. We’ve dealt with a number of staff people who aren’t the super friendly type when patients walk in the door, but may be absolute superstars when it comes to financial, technological or receivables matters. That should definitely be explored.
The conversation with the front desk staff began very frankly with a discussion of what we had heard and observed within the office. That was followed by the standard denials and pushback. That’s never an issue. No one likes to hear that they are considered to be the source of a problem, but once we let the dust settle a bit, we were able to get into a discussion of the problems.
