Management

Create a Practice Culture and Manage By It

By Ken Krivacic, OD, MBA


May 18, 2016

SYNOPSIS

Your office culture should send a message that you provide exceptional care and service. When your culture is well-grounded, it keeps OD and staff focused on meeting high standards and growth goals.

ACTION POINTS

DEFINE CULTURE. Express your vision, values, communication, physical environment and staff.

CONSCIOUSLY CREATE CULTURE. Write down this vision and wordsmith it to be able to best communicate it to staff and patients.

COMMUNICATE CULTURE. Review values by comparing what was done to the ideal culture statement, then discuss how to do it better next time.

I opened my practice 30 years ago. If there is one thing I’ve learned, as practice owner and CEO, is that the practice leader sets the tone, defines the vision and maintains the standards of performance that the entire practice aspiresto. It’s called creating a “practice culture.” If the culture of a practice is clearly defined and consistently maintained, it informs every decision that’s made–and it’s a powerful growth tool. A practice culture that’s weak and inconsistent is a recipe for closing your doors.

The culture your practice shows to staff and patients sends a message about you, as practice owner, and about the services you have to offer to the community. I’ve carefully considered my office’s culture, and me and my staff live out our values, and use those values to ensure patients have a high-quality experience in our practice.

The introduction to the values of Dr. Krivacic’s practice offered on the practice’s web site. Dr. Krivacic says a positive practice culture attracts and retains both good employees and loyal patients.

Define Key Aspects of Your Culture

Culture is defined, in the world of business, as the values and practices shared or adopted by a group, so therefore, office culture is the values and practices shared by members of an office.We don’t have a mission statement, but my staff and I are clear on the most important points about our practice culture. The defining characteristics of our office culture are the same characteristics that many office share, only they are interpreted by us for use in our practice. These characteristics include:
Vision: The vision of a company is the values that guide every decision a company makes. For our optometric practice that is to provide the most technologically current optometric care that is respectful of the patient’s time. What does that mean? We pride ourselves in having the most current instruments and the newest contact lens and optical products available to our patients. It also means we pride ourselves in not running behind schedule and making patients wait to be seen. The vision should be simple and focused. Pick a few things you are passionate about and concentrate on them. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

Values: The vision gives the company purpose. The values give a set of guidelines for behavior that allows the company to carry out its purpose. We emphasize staying current on equipment and products, which helps us attain our vision. Also, scheduling properly, and having the mindset that we will stay on time, keeps us focused on our vision.
Communication: Communication is a key component in maintaining our office culture. If you don’t constantly communicate to your staff what you feel is important, you will gradually going off course. For that reason we have weekly staff meetings that are used to reinforce the culture of our office. For example, in staff meetings we use patient reviews as teaching moments. Our culture does not punish an employee for making an error; rather we use those situations to brainstorm and try to come up with a better approach in the future.

For instance, we recently discussed how best to handle patients who arrive late for their appointments. A patient had voiced displeasure in being turned away after arriving 15 minutes late. After much discussion, in which no one was blamed, we decided that rather than turn the patient away, to consult with the doctor’s tech and see if the patient could be worked in, or could be worked into another doctor’s schedule. That approach is reflective of our practice’s specific culture. Your culture could be to reschedule that patient, and I would not think that a bad thing because it would be a reflection of your culture.

 

The optical in Dr. Krivacic’s office. Your office environment, including how well maintained and convenient the office layout, sends a message to patients about the service you provide.

Physical Environment: Your physical environment says a lot about your practice. In the clinical/retail environment of an optometric practice it is critical that your office be clean, inviting and maintained. Few patients will want to frequent an office that is dirty and cluttered. Take a few moments each week to walk around your office, sit where patients sit and ask yourself if you would frequent a practice like that. Just as your physical environment is important, your virtual environment is just as important. Make sure your web site is easy to find, easy to use and inviting. Many times your web presence is the first impression a patient will get of your office. An engaging web site is a practice builder.
People: No optometric practice can build its culture unless your staff shares your vision and values. It is imperative that you constantly train staff in your culture, whether that is through formal training, staff meetings or simply pulling aside an employee and reinforcing how you want things done. You can also begin the process by hiring people who appreciate and fit into your culture. Steven Hunt at Monster.com notes that one study found applicants who where a cultural fit would accept a 7 percent lower salary, and there was 30 percent less turnover at a company if there was a cultural fit. People stick with cultures they like, so it’s important that you “sell” your culture during the interview process.

Define key aspects of your culture

Finish these statements:

1. The five things I am most passionate about seeing happen in my practice are…

2. To make sure staff is focusing on the things I am most passionate about seeing happen in the office, at each weekly office meeting we will…

3. The three changes we need to make to improve the physical environment of our office are…

4. My plan for training my staff to understand the things I am most passionate about seeing happen in the office is…

5. This is my plan for how I am going to gauge how patients perceive my practice…

6. This is my plan to get my vendor reps to understand my practice culture…

ROB Editors

Consciously Create a Culture

Our office was established over 30 years ago. Over that time period the office culture was established, interpreted, re-interpreted and tweaked to where it is now. I consider this a fluid condition. The office culture can change over time depending on the owner’s vision, the type of employees and the demands or wants of the patients.

The establishment and promotion of office culture starts at the top. As the practice owner/doctor it is up to me to have the vision of what I want the office to look like, perform like and which services to emphasize.

Train New Staff in Practice Culture

We train new hires in our office culture in several ways. When they are first hired they are provided with a copy of an office manual. The manual contains a job description related to them and descriptions on how we expect them to dress and behave. This sets the groundwork for our office culture.

The manual also contains a brief practice history so that the new hire gets a feel for how the office came to be and what it has evolved to. One other way we pass on office culture is to have the new hire “shadow” a current employee who has the same job description. This is another way to communicate what we expect of the new hire.

Gauge Patient Reaction to Culture

We use patient satisfaction surveys to gauge how our office culture meshes with how our patients perceive us, and how happy they are in their practice experience. The feedback we get from the surveys allows us to tweak our office culture when we feel it would benefit the patients.

For example, we recently made a change based on the urging of several patients on our patient surveys that we open on Saturdays. We had not been open on a Saturday for over 15 years. However, we decided to heed the request from patients and open Saturdays. Even though this move benefited patients it changed our office culture. The change was in how employees viewed the practice. Previous to the move, a major benefit for working at our practice was staff did not have to work weekends, and most employees valued this benefit. We noticed a shift in employee morale, and for the health of the company culture, we closed again on Saturdays after trying it for about six months.

Partner with Vendors That Understand Your Culture

It helps if a vendor understands what our office culture is. This helps in the type of products we will carry. The type of product also helps reinforce your office culture. For example, we want to be known as a practice that is constantly bringing in the latest products.

For contact lenses, this means using the latest lenses available to the market. We let patients know that we promote the latest offerings, so when new lenses are available we will have them as options for our patients. That is not to say that all patients get the latest and greatest, but they are all told about them. In some cases, patients tend to stay with an established lens, yet they still know that we are constantly looking for better products.
In our optical we lean more toward high-end frame lines, and frame lines that have recognizable brand names. Here again our office culture is shown through what we promote. Ours is not a discount frame practice, or one that carries non-branded product. This sends a message to patients, and they understand what types of frames they will be purchasing. Obviously, this is not for every patient, and we do have patients who want to shop elsewhere if price is the only issue, but we let them know that we carry quality products and that we stand behind those products. We tend to think of it as “getting what you pay for,” and want this to be part of our office culture.

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Ken Krivacic, OD, is the owner of Las Colinas Vision Center in Irving, Texas. To contact him: kkrivacic@aol.com.

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