CDS Member News and Articles

Professional News Articles : : ON PRACTICE MANAGEMENT by Janyce Hamilton : ABCs of being organized: Retrieve any document in 10 seconds or less

ABCs of being organized: Retrieve any document in 10 seconds or less

April 05, 2006

Dentists usually have support staff members, however, it's not unheard of to have dental assistants do clinical duties when it's slow. But is the dentist who often or mostly relies on a dental assistant to do administrative tasks asking for problems? And, what about the dentist reluctant to delegate office tasks?

Carol Halsey, founder and owner, of Business Organizing Solutions, Wasilla, AK, contends that even the best organized dentists will still have to work evenings and weekends if they plan on performing most or all office administration tasks themselves. Ms. Halsey, whose web site www.pilestofiles.com, offers office organization, time management and paper management skills to business professionals through organizing reports, workshops and one-on-one individual coaching. For 20 years she has been teaching methods and techniques essential to getting organized, and they apply to everyone who owns a business, no matter the profession, no matter the level of disorganization.

Ms. Halsey grew up with good organizing skills because her mother was very organized. While she learned by a familial example, she contends we are not born with the inherent ability to organize. Fortunately, being organized is a learned skill that can be acquired through coaching and guidance.

I talked with Ms. Halsey on the fundamental elements of getting organized.

The Interview

Janyce Hamilton (JH): How and where does it all go wrong so that people dread coming into their office and feel like they can't find anything, or even want to begin to look for it?

Carol Halsey (CH): People muddle along, not being conscious of the fact that they are not very organized, until they become so overwhelmed with all the tasks, and stacks of paper on the desk.  Then they realize they have no idea what is going on in their business, and have no idea of what to do first.  They then feel unproductive and it seems they will never catch up. They become very stressed.

Being organized is being in control. Knowing what is happening in every aspect of their business at all times. Every organizing technique is a small piece of the puzzle to get the person to that point.

There is no one thing a person can do to solve the state of disorganization. It is many small skills to apply, such as planning and scheduling time, processing paper to its proper destination, eliminating procrastination, effective delegating and having a follow-up system and a good filing system where one can retrieve any document in 10 seconds or less. Also a method for remembering everything that must be done, and when it should be done. 

JH: Can you provide a list of things a dentist should think about doing to make paper piles, computer time, and record keeping much more reasonable and less stressful?

CH: We must keep in mind that the office will not be organized until the dentist is.  These are just a few suggestions that will help the dentist improve their organizing skills and as a result gain some control over the administrative tasks. 

• Write everything down.  Whatever you have to do, don't trust your memory.  Make a list of things that need to be done.
• Identify specific places for papers to go. In other words, sort papers in like categories instead of all being in one pile.  Papers need a place to go, a home.  If they have a home, they will go there.  Piles of papers are homeless.
• Start prioritizing tasks to be accomplished. Ask yourself, “What is the absolute most important task I must take care of today?”  Identify, then do it, and not be distracted by something else less important.
• You will never HAVE the time to do anything. You must PLAN the time.  Example:  Designate a half hour or an hour (whatever you feel you need) each day or week to update records.  Do nothing else in that time period other than what you have designated the time for.
• As an alternative, identify specific times for specific tasks, i.e., every Thursday night update records, every Tuesday night do paperwork, etc.
• Do not duplicate information.  It can be on the computer or on paper, but not both! It is a waste of time to print out information from the computer unless you plan to delete it from the computer.
• Keep a calendar (only one) for appointments, meetings and other events.  This way you know what is happening in all aspects of your business.

JH: Are there a few simple tips you can give people when sorting through their mail and email each day to quickly take care of it instead of putting it in folders/piles to “deal with later”?

CH: Any mail that can be processed immediately with little or no time involved should be taken care of. This works for both paper and e-mail. If an e-mail message should go into a patient's file, print it out, put it in the file and delete the e-mail. That is something you can do immediately.

If the action requires time to research or hunt for information, it can be done at another time. 

Eliminate the thought of “deal with it later” the key word here being “later.”  Decide when you will take the action (tomorrow? next Wednesday? this weekend?) and plan the time to do it.

Go through e-mails the same as you would for paper mail.  First, eliminate the junk and the FYIs.  Set up mailboxes for sorting e-mails that need to be kept.

If patient information is received via e-mail, do you have an electronic file for the patient where you can move the e-mails, do you print out the patient info and put it in a paper file, or should you set up a mailbox for that patient? These are the three options, and dentists can do it whichever way works best for them. The bottom line is it should not pile up in your “in” box. 

If there is a high volume of e-mails, ask yourself why you are getting so many and how you can remove yourself from some mailing lists.  With a high volume it may be necessary to devote some time every day to handling e-mails.  This may be taking up more of your time than necessary.

If you were to ask me how long you should keep computer disks and CD-ROMs, in response, I would ask you some questions. Just how long do you intend to keep these records?  Forever??  What's the use?  Don't you think if you haven't accessed these files after 3 or 5 years you might as well get rid of them.  They obviously are not important because if they were, you would be going through them on a regular basis.  Get rid of the clutter, you will feel so much better and be glad you did.  The only exception is records you must keep for tax or legal reasons.  Discard those disks older than five years, and every year from now on, discard the disks of the oldest year.  That way you are not disposing of all of them at one time.

JH: Let's say I'm a dentist feeling overwhelmed by papers, computer record keeping, phone calls and filing. How will you help me?

CH: Due to the fact that managing their practices is a secondary, part-time endeavor behind doing clinical dentistry, basically performed evenings and weekends, I doubt dentists would invest the time to listen to a speech or read informational material on office organization.  I could be wrong but I doubt it. If a dentist is sincere and committed to learning organizing skills, the best approach would probably be one-on-one coaching, where I could tell them exactly what to do. This isn't telling them which software system to purchase, this is telling them methods and techniques that would work best for them, over a period of time, in the basics of organization.  They would be accountable to me, which adds some incentive.

JH: How do you do your coaching?

CH: I do the majority of coaching clients one-on-one by telephone.  I have clients  both nationally and internationally.  We work in one hour sessions discussing the client's organizing challenges and coming to solutions for resolving them.  I have found, over the years, that three one-hour sessions is usually all that is needed to help even the most disorganized person gain control of their tasks and responsibilities.  I am also available to work with clients in their offices if this is what they prefer.  I must say, that I have been teaching and coaching business organization for 20 years, and I do not have to see a pile of papers to know why they are there and what needs to be done with them.  I do offer a free half hour consultation to anyone who is interested.  We use this time to get to know each other, talk about the specific organizing challenges, and discuss how we would go about solving them.

JH: Lastly, for dentists to avoid wasting their time repairing the damage done by others or performing tasks they have paid someone else to do, it seems to be wise to hire a dedicated office administrator. How can a competent office staff person be identified during an interview? Once hired, any tips on how that person is most effectively trained?

CH: It goes without say that the prospects must be screened carefully with regard to their organizing and administrative skills.  This as well as their past work history in this arena.  Dentists should not just accept anyone off the street who is looking for a job.  Here are some questions to ask: (based on prospect's previous jobs)

• How do you process incoming mail as well as e-mails?
• How would you go about planning your day's activities? How about a week's activities?
• In previous jobs, how did you keep track of all the projects you were working on at the same time, and what did you do with the papers associated with those projects? 

The answers to just these three questions should give the dentist a good idea of the work ethic of the prospect.  Of course, other questions can be asked that are specific the dentist's workplace.

These same questions should be asked of the previous employer of a prospect when inquiring of the prospect's job performance.

Once employed, it is the dentist's responsibility to train the new person on the specifics of how he/she wants his/her office run, and also to train the new employee on the specific software programs essential to the smooth functioning of the office.  Time spent here by the dentist will result in more time saved by the new employee, as well as the dentist, in the future.

Also, the dentist must have, or develop, very good delegating skills.  Frequently I see many problems between management and staff that could be avoided with good communication and delegating skills.  It is essential that both are clear on what is being delegated and what the end results will be.

Conclusion

Unfortunately office organization is not taught at any level in the education system. Ms. Halsey has clients with MBAs and doctorates that she coaches one-on-one. If you weren't taught to be organized growing up, perhaps you have recognized that there must be a better way to perform these daily tasks. You can research systems on your own and test each via trial-and-error. But if that isn't working, consider getting a consultation regarding professional organizing assistance, either through books, tapes, workshops or personal coaching.

How seriously you will take getting organized is up to you. 

Now, will you print this out, save it to a disk, save it in your online or an offline filing cabinet? You don't have to do any of these, fortunately, because this “piece of paper” has a home—www.cds.org.

Janyce Hamilton is a Chicagoland freelance dental writer and editor. Send suggestions for topics to be covered, or any comments on this column, to review@cds.org.

Copyright 2006, Chicago Dental Society