Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

25Practice ManagementNovember 19-25, 2012United Kingdom Edition BOC LIFELINE® emergency resuscitation equipment. Saving minutes, saves lives. BOC Healthcare can assist your dental practice with the provision of emergency resuscitation equipment. For further information or to place an order contact BOC Healthcare: Tel 0161 930 6010, Email bochealthcare-uk@boc.com LIFELINE oxygen kit • Lightweight oxygen cylinder • Built in regulator • Next working day refills* • Variety of oxygen masks * Depending on location Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) • Simple and easy to use • Rescue Ready technology • Seven year warranty • Four year battery guarantee BOC Healthcare can assist your dental practice with the provision of emergency resuscitation equipment. • Lightweight oxygen cylinder BOC Healthcare can assist your dental practice with the provision of emergency resuscitation equipment. It was exactly 9am when she knocked on the locked practice door. The brass plaque on the door stated that the surgery hours are 9-5 pm Monday to Friday. It was 9.02am on Monday morning and the practice was still closed. A number of seemingly unsur- prised patients were forming an orderly queue at the front door. It was 9.05am when the reception- ist arrived and opened the door. The patients filed into the wait- ing room but the receptionist disappeared into another room and then reappeared to establish which patients were present. Pia approached the reception desk and introduced herself: “Hello, I’m Pia” “Have you got your appointment card?,” the receptionist asked abruptly. “I’m here to start work” Pia re- plied. “Are you sure? ... Okay then….I suppose you’d better take a seat for now and I’ll ask him when he gets in!”, the receptionist said, giving Pia a cold, steely stare. At this point Pia considered walking out the door and go- ing home. Was this practice’s patient-centred ethos fact or fan- tasy? Considering that deteriora- tion in the relationship between herself and her previous employ- ers she was wondering whether she had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire! At 9.10am Hugo Hope arrived in a flustered rush and went di- rectly into his surgery. Pia got up from the waiting room and knocked on his surgery door. Dr Hope opened the door and see- ing Pia said, “Hello… I’ll be with you in a minute… I’m just getting changed…. I’m running late as usual. You know what Monday morning traffic is like!” At this Pia asked the recep- tionist where their staff placed coats and bags. She was shown to the staff room. As Pia placed her coat on a hook she looked around in dismay at the array of personal belongings carelessly discarded in this unlocked room. Pia said to herself “Either I stay and work on this practice, or I go now… Which will it be?” If I decide to stay, am I up to the challenge? Will I get the support I need? Can I make this prac- tice into the place Jon-Luke and Hugo described when they inter- viewed me?’’ What do you think Pia should do? Answer: Pia was very disap- pointed when the Endeavour and Hope practice fell short of the de- scription given to her at the job interview. If they really did un- derstand the CQC standards and were prepared to make changes to realise the ideals they had dis- cussed, Pia should stay and make the dream into reality. Pia should set herself the target of making Endeavour and Hope the best ever dental centre. If Pia is to succeed she needs a plan. She will need to: • Define clearly and in de- tail, what the practice needs to achieve. (The ideal scenario) • Conduct a gap analysis • Plan the steps to move from where they are now into the ideal scenario. Preparing the plan is relatively simple. Making it happen will not be at all simple. Pia is going into a practice where the team have had their fill of new management ini- tiatives, each of which has raised expectations and failed to deliver. As a result new ideas are respond- ed to with the ‘They‘ve been on another course!’ She needs to fully understand this and find ways to engage the team. Pia needs to begin by estab- lishing the parameters of her new job role. In particular she needs a clear job description. She needs to clarify the boundaries and per- missions for the whole team. Pia needs to win the respect of her new colleagues and the support of her new boss. She must achieve this without compromising her authority, by producing tangible results, small successes, and all fairly quickly. Pia would find the support of fellow practice man- agers, through her local practice managers’ network to help keep her focused on her goals. DT Contact info Specific Nationally recognised quali- fications for dental professionals are available from centres around Britain and in home learning formats from MINT Nationwide. See www.mintnationwide.co.uk