Real-World Strategies for Ortho Success

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[00:00:17] Welcome to Practice Talk, brought to you by people in practice where we specialize in digital marketing, website development, SEO, and so much more. I'm excited for today's discussion as we dive into the topic of Real World Strategies for Ortho success with my two guests, Karina and Bailey. Corina brings over 16 years of experience in orthodontics and currently serves as the Director of Operations at Hallmark Orthodontics known for wearing many hats.

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[00:01:07] And Bailey was hired at a growing orthodontic practice in January of 2022, where she was quickly promoted to the clinical lead after only four months. Bailey brings a certain work ethic combined with a positive and upbeat attitude that sets her apart and helps her thrive in such a fast-paced environment.

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[00:01:45] So welcome Carina and Bailey. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having us. This is my first time having two guests, uh, on practice talk. So, uh, we'll, we'll get through the bumps of, um, trying not to talk over each other. So everybody [00:02:00] just be patient with us as we, uh, figure this out together. Um, also as a reminder to our listeners, don't worry about taking any notes today.

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[00:02:24] So Karina. As the director of operations, how do you go about intentionally creating and maintaining a positive culture in your practice?

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[00:02:52] Um, everybody kind of rides that same wave, so, um, you know, we are. Very open communication within our [00:03:00] office. Uh, we wanna make sure that every team member feels seen and feels heard. Um, so we just, we really want to create that culture within our office. Um, every month every staff member will get a questionnaire from the doctor where she asks us, how do you feel this week?

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[00:03:49] Lacie Ellis: That's a really, um, a really fun and unique way. I haven't heard of offices doing it quite that way. I really, really like that suggestion of having like a little reflection on how the [00:04:00] week went and like really being able to be. Thoughtful in how did I really feel this week? And just being able to be honest about that.

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[00:04:27] 'cause they're like, I don't wanna be the weak link today. And I'm like, but. The point was if you're having, like we're just all humans, right? So if you're having a just day, we want to know so that we can all jump in and support you. Um, so that kind of backfired on us. So I like this way a little bit better to like do a week maybe like recap and talk about how things went and how you're feeling.

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[00:04:50] Karina.: Yes. Yeah. And the nice thing is that, like I said, it is more, um, it's like a private answer. So people are encouraged and, and they are, they feel like they [00:05:00] can bring some issues up that maybe they're not, they're not sure they can and feel heard and we proactively talk about and we say, okay, this is what we're not doing so great.

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[00:05:18] Lacie Ellis: I love that. Um, I also feel like culture building, um, being in enough offices and visiting a lot of different practices, I feel like culture is one of those things where if you don't hire people who care about that and mm-hmm.

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[00:05:48] Karina.: For sure. Agreed 100%. And there are gonna be those people still in the office. But at the same time, it's like picking like, okay, who is that person And how we can kind [00:06:00] of change that and, and kind of incorporate them into our, our practice and our culture and change that really.

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[00:06:32] It's a, the director of operations is no joke job, so

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[00:06:57] Lacie Ellis: Absolutely. So Bailey, [00:07:00] uh, speaking of what, uh, your role is in the practice, how is your chair side flow structured? Um, I'm always just super curious about this, you know, do you follow columns? Do you work in a team pool or have you guys found a different magical method that works for your practice as far as clinical coordination goes?

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[00:07:47] Um, when I first started there, we just went by a flow, so everyone was scheduled in a normal chair situation, but everyone kind of, um, free [00:08:00] for all it if you will. So we would just grab whoever was next. Like when I'm done with Susie, I'll grab Joanne 'cause she's next and whatnot. Yep. Um. That can work for some people, but for us, when I became clinical lead, that was one of the main things that I wanted to change because I feel like if you structure it where each person is assigned a chair, it just makes it a lot more smooth.

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[00:08:42] But it works out that way for us. Um, we like to operate that way. Yeah, that and that way too, if one person's assigning the chairs, you can make sure it's not biased. Like if people are just picking their chairs.

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[00:08:59] [00:09:00] We always thought like, it just makes sense. Take the next available person when you get done with this one, which in theory works great. The hard part about that is you can't really determine which. Team members are struggling with certain procedures or might need a little bit more training with something, um, if you don't have columns and know, like, this person consistently gets behind on a dand, okay, can we offer more training so that DB bands aren't stressful for them?

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[00:09:46] So if you're behind, that's your problem, not mine. And it was, it was really, really hard. So I think it's that perfect marriage of like culture again. We've gotta have a good culture. We have to have each other's backs. And yes, we [00:10:00] want this structure of like. Being, um, in a column and knowing who we're gonna deal with.

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[00:10:27] So. Yeah, I was

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[00:10:50] Lacie Ellis: Yeah.

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[00:10:52] Lacie Ellis: I'm gonna make myself sound real old here when I say, um, I started Chairside, uh, when we were fitting bands. [00:11:00] That's how long ago.

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[00:11:06] Lacie Ellis: I am. I was so bad at it though, like

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[00:11:11] Lacie Ellis: And so the doctor was like, good news. You get every band fitting for the next like month and you're gonna figure it out.

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[00:11:38] So you did it? I did it. I jumped in and figured it out. Nobody died. I had a

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[00:11:54] Karina.: Mm-hmm.

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[00:11:59] I had two before [00:12:00] lunch and two after, and the two before lunch went. Okay. And I just, I had to figure out how to isolate for them, and by the end of that day, I felt so much better about it because mm-hmm. That's a struggle at first.

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[00:12:19] Definitely. Yes. Um, all right, so we like to get questions or comments from our listeners and our people and practice clients about our topic. So let's listen to our first question. Mm-hmm. Do you have any team incentives tied to same day starts or Google reviews or other practice growth goals? Our doctor believes that we pay our team members well, and this should be part of your job and not an added incentive, but we hear more and more from other offices that they get bonuses and incentives for things like this.

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[00:12:53] Baleigh: I just have to say, I love this question because we do, we do have like. [00:13:00] Kind for same day starts and I have heard of other offices not doing them. Um, in fact, a girl that used to work for us started working for another office that didn't do anything for it, and she tried to get them to do what we did because it was so fun.

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[00:13:40] Um, so it really could range too. I mean, today we had a same day start, so everyone drew fives and one person drew a 20. There could be a bunch of ones one day, or we had one day where we were making up for the day before and that day and four of us drew hundreds. In fact, I drew [00:14:00] two of the hundreds. Not to toot my horn pretty good.

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[00:14:23] We still keep trying to get the patients in our chair and make them happy.

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[00:14:33] Baleigh: excited.

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[00:14:35] Baleigh: actually has been times where, um, if we had, there's been a couple times where one of the doctors let us, um, when we had like two same days in one day, he let us draw two bills and keep whichever one you wanted, which obviously we're gonna keep the bigger one.

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[00:14:53] Lacie Ellis: Um, Karina, are there any other incentives you guys have in place other than same day start?

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[00:15:16] Slap slip happens. So, um, if we don't have any missed lab slips, um, and so we all have a, a bonus structure. Um, if all the offices meet a co a collective goal, then we have, um, extras added onto our paycheck. So that's also a nice little incentive as well.

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[00:15:40] Um, I understand the doctor's thought process that like, I pay my team really, really well. And like, these are just things that are like part of your job. So I, I do from a doctor perspective and an owner perspective, I do get that, um. I feel like the practice that I worked in that really nailed this, the best, um, we [00:16:00] did it very short term, so it wasn't an always thing.

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[00:16:29] Yeah. That's really cool. That's

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[00:16:34] Lacie Ellis: and I think it helped. I think the bonus stacking, again from a doctor's perspective can get, like, if I'm paying my team X amount of dollars an hour, like everything is more expensive now than it's ever been. Yes. For a practice. Um, so in, in light of keeping an overhead where it needs to be to keep the practice running, but also keep.

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[00:17:14] Um, I just wanted to share like that. Office in particular, we kind of rotated through what we were getting bonused for. And that was Yeah,

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[00:17:32] Um, yeah, to kinda keep. Keep things fresh. Um, but yeah, I agree with you. It's as a business owner, that's, they have a business run at the end of the day, so they're thinking, well, I'm paying somebody to be here already. Why should I give them more for doing amazing job at their job, which they should be doing anyway?

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[00:18:13] They could just say, Hey, let's, you know, everybody did great. Let's order some Starbucks this, um, tomorrow morning. And just because everybody did amazing, it doesn't have to be a ton of money. Um, a little Starbucks for me would make my entire day for sure. Absolutely. Yes.

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[00:18:29] I always say I, I don't need constant like praise. Mm-hmm. It's just that like out of the blue pat on the back every once in a while that it's just like, oh, oh I am as, I'm as good as I thought.

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[00:18:44] Lacie Ellis: Alright, so let's listen to our next question. Um, how does your practice involve the team in marketing efforts, especially when it comes to social media or patient referrals?

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[00:18:56] Karina.: Yeah, for sure. So. [00:19:00] Marketing it, it is the most effective when it's, um, authentic and genuine. So our entire team will really pitch in and it's a big team effort to make sure that we are, um, you know, telling our patients, Hey, I. We appreciate you. Thank you for sending your friends and family and the people you love to us.

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[00:19:41] So when we go out to our referring doctors, um, everyone on the team, for the most part, everybody goes out and hits different offices. Um, we have events where the doctors are invited to our office, um, for a doctor appreciation event. Um, so we all really just pitch in. [00:20:00] Um, just this week actually, we have a fun, uh, thing.

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[00:20:29] And so really everyone plays a role in this, um, as well as, you know, the review portion and answering to all of our, um, reviews online. And, and it makes everybody feel good saying, Hey, I had that idea and we're executing it, and it went really well. And we take pictures and post it on our social media so everybody can know what's going on.

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[00:21:04] Karina.: Yeah, a little bit of both, I would say. So, um, we have a girl at our, um, main, two main offices, two girls that are for the most part in charge of, you know, um, getting the list together and, and getting the orders placed.

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[00:21:38] Perfect.

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[00:22:05] Dig into marketing and do it. So how have you guys, is it just like everybody on your team is really up for it, or how does that work for you guys in the back?

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[00:22:27] Like the concert, honestly, we have a list, we have four concerts total this summer and we have like a list of who's going to all of them. And the list is like almost and list we wanna going. So like if someone, me, hey, something came up with my husband, I got a message, Hey, something came up with my husband.

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[00:23:04] We had a lot of kids over at our table watching us draw the winner because we were so excited and they wanted it.

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[00:23:27] Mm-hmm. Because those are the things that your patients and their parents are gonna want to go to. You know, like a health fair is fun and all, but like how many people are like, I can't wait to go to this health fair. You know what I'm saying? So. Um, so I think that's really brilliant that you guys have found something that not only, um, does your team wanna be there, but then you know that your patients are gonna wanna be there and potential patients are gonna be there.

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[00:23:58] Karina.: And it's never [00:24:00] mandatory any after, you know, after work. Events are never mandatory. People are paid to be there, but, um, but like you said, you, you enjoy these events so much that you're like, I can't wait for this.

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[00:24:30] Lacie Ellis: That is awesome.

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[00:24:49] Um, so I'm really interested to hear what your team wears and how that was determined and how often you kind of change that up. All of the good stuff there.

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[00:25:10] So we generally wear figs, black scrubs. You can send carina orders them for us. So we will send her links to the specific pants. And tops that we like. Um, so generally we wear black scrubs and then we have black scrub jackets with our office name on the side, and we also have name tags. So usually Monday through Thursday we'll wear that.

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[00:25:54] Like Chris Valentine's Day, t-shirts and stuff like that. Or like, if there's anything locally [00:26:00] going on, like, we live in Indiana, so the Pacers are at the finals. Go Pacers. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Um, so last Friday they were playing, so we all wore Pacers t-shirts and stuff.

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[00:26:15] What's your, uh. Front desk wearing

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[00:26:21] Lacie Ellis: in scrubs. Yeah.

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[00:26:32] They're spinning around the heaters, like rotisserie chickens. And in every dental office.

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[00:26:47] Baleigh: No. Yeah, we just wear whatever shoes. I feel like a lot of us on clouds or Nikes. Yeah.

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[00:27:05] It's not fair. So I think that actually is brilliant to be like, everybody's just wearing the same thing. Um, yeah. And you don't have to worry about it then. Like, I, I think that works.

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[00:27:26] We have such an awesome set of doctors and just like beautiful office and we. Have several roles within the practice. So sometimes say, um, Bailey is TC today, and there was an adjustment that just really needed to be seen, and she had a gap in her TC chair, um, as of yesterday, and somebody got put in there.

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[00:28:05] Lacie Ellis: Um. I hadn't thought of it that way.

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[00:28:23] Karina.: too, it's fine.

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[00:28:29] But, um, but you know, it gets all over you. And then, you know, I'm in my nice. TC clothes and trying to do these things that are probably more sterile and need to have a more sterile environment. Yeah. So it just makes, it actually makes perfect sense to me to do it that way. So yeah, I think that's great advice.

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[00:29:01] Karina.: I think both this has a good solution and it's still a challenge, but we're still actively looking.

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[00:29:31] You know, there's a lot of different turning, um, parts to this. And so, um, we do use a system called Easy Rx. And so if somebody hasn't heard of this, it is, um, it is like an RX form. It's, you can go directly from our patient, um, portal, link it, it'll you create that, um, prescription form and then you can select.

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[00:30:16] And so we, um, it adds on a lot of good, um, value the easy R eggs because. You can see, okay, this has been submitted. Mm-hmm. Um, but how do you work if it didn't get submitted? So we do have a girl that is in charge of, um, going down the scans and making sure that the, um, the things are submitted. So we're still have some that are missed.

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[00:31:04] Make sure the trays are sent. We don't have issues with internal, um, communication. Everybody does such a good job. Hey, this patient's coming in, it's packed. It's, it's traveled, it's here, checked in, whatever. Um, but you know, we have those missed lab slips, so we're still working on a solution. Doctor. Uh, one of our doctors actually has offered.

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[00:31:28] Baleigh: miss. Oh my God. And he, he just has crisp, sculptured hair and I would love to get a little whipped cream in it. You know, I just wanna rough him up. Yeah. He cannot

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[00:31:41] Baleigh: Not bump that light

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[00:32:11] Mm-hmm. Um, I wonder if there is a quick like. Easy way to get those notes down as a chairside person and then like just check 'em off and make sure they're all submitted by the end of the day. Like something, I know everybody wants to be digital, but I wonder if there's something manually that they, they could like have printed and ready to go.

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[00:32:48] Yeah, and I'll say like for myself, I, I have not ever been the best about getting, oh, no. Did I cut out? [00:33:00] No, it just dinged. You're fine. My computer was asking me if I wanted to make changes to my device. Oh.

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[00:33:31] Things like that. Yeah, I feel like you just have to be so on top of it. 'cause we're all running around like. Crazy all the time.

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[00:33:52] They're all important, but like it's really important that you get all those steps in. I like the idea of having it pulled up and just doing it before they even just doing it. [00:34:00] Yeah. Yeah.

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[00:34:12] We all looked and we were like, oh no, it looks like you got a mom. And then I realized I took a patient for some, the next day I get a message, Hey, you've missed this one. And I was like, oh, here are the two people that helped me look, I promise we were looking. Um, and it was somebody that I took for another person in a different chair.

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[00:34:36] Lacie Ellis: Well, like I said, we are humans. Yes. So we're gonna make human mistakes and none of them, most of the time it seems like none of it is intentional, right? Like we're all just trying to do the best we can.

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[00:35:05] Karina.: Awesome. Thanks for having us.

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[00:35:13] Lacie Ellis: that for sure. Um, and so our goal for this podcast is to give you truly tangible items that you can use in your day-to-day life at the office. To elevate the voices of people that actually work in an office and sit in the same chair that you sit in every day.

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[00:35:47] And don't forget to listen to our original podcast called The Golden Age of Orthodontics. Hosted by the founders of People in Practice, Dr. Leon Klempner and Amy Epstein. Until next time, thank you for joining us on Practice Talk where your [00:36:00] voice has value. Thank you for listening to The Practice Talk podcast.

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