Practice Managers: Five Steps for Starting Your Day Right

There are a few things that everyone should do to ensure that your day gets off to a good start.  If you are in a leadership position in your clinic, these are must-dos and certainly very important for you to teach your staff in the clinic. These small tweaks will lead to blue skies for you and your staff.

First thing every day:

1. Get to work on time. I have harped on that A LOT.  It is important to be on time, every day.  Taking it a step further, I firmly believe that you should aim to arrive 15 minutes early to “get your bearings straight” every day before your scheduled work shift begins (not before the first patient, but before your shift) even if this is not time that you will be paid for.

2. Take a deep breath. Make sure you are in the now, the present moment.  Leave all of the “stuff” from home at home and focus on work.  You may have to deal with an issue, project, or argument from the previous day of work, but make sure you try to treat each day as a fresh new start, with a sunny outlook. (Happiness and positivity is a choice, I assure you.)

3. Organize your work station and prepare for your day. Pretty self-explanatory, but review your schedule or tasks for the day and ensure you are prepared well in advance for the patients coming in.

4. Check your e-mail inbox, voicemail. You should be at work early enough to sort thru e-mails and voicemails and stay on top of them until mid day and end of day, rather than playing a constant game of catch-up Also if you send out e-mails requesting anything you need early, gives you the entire day to receive back the information.

5. Huddle Up. Do a quick huddle of the complete office or each department in larger clinics, review any upcoming patients or issues that need to be flagged for the day, and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Utilizing these five steps every morning and/or at the start of every shift is a great way to set the tone for the day, and ensure smooth sailing.