In this blog I will describe two incidents which have happened in my practice.
Sometime back there was a good looking fair handsome boy working in my clinic as an auxiliary staff.
One teenage girl who used to come for some basic dental treatment to my clinic fell for this boy. They exchanged telephone numbers. Thereafter, she used to call the boy off & on.
Fortunately the girl’s father found out & questioned the girl. The girl feigned innocence & in fact blamed the boy & told her father that the boy used to call her.
Her father did not verify the facts. He then approached the local hoodlum cum politician.
The next day in the evening the local hoodlum & the girls father came to my clinic.
Luckily the boy at that point of time was working inside the operatory. As is the system in my clinic I don’t delineate work as reception staff & operatory staff. All staff work in the operatory & the reception desk as per requirements.
My other female assistant who was at the reception desk tipped me & I went outside to talk to them. Their body language & their style of speaking made it clear that they had come to assault the boy.
I quickly asked the boy to hide inside the operatory as I went out to talk to them.
They probed very aggressively about the boy. I told them that he works in my clinic but today he is absent. They were suspicious & kept on probing extremely aggressively.
The atmosphere was tense. There was a patient on the chair & the boy was standing behind the partition.
The hoodlum wanted to come inside the operatory. I told them that there is a lady patient on the chair and it would not look good if they come inside. By the grace of god they somehow agreed.
They told me that when my assistant comes they must be informed. It was tense 15 minutes conversation.
Luckily the patient sat quietly on the chair & the boy also stood like a statue inside the operatory.
My other female assistant was on the reception desk standing with worry & tension on her countenance.
The girls father & the hoodlum eventually walked out & I continued with my work but the rest of the evening session was disturbed.
I did not talk to the boy about it. Later on I learnt that the boy went to the hoodlum & sorted matters out.
The incident left me disturbed but within a few days the boy left my clinic for some other job. I did not stop him . It was a in fact a good riddance.
Recently one of my female staff asked money from one of the patients for money as a temporary loan. I was unaware of it & after a few day’s my other staff told me about it. The patient was offended and she refused to give money to her. I do not know whether the patient or her family would ever come back again to my clinic.
So as is clear from the above at times the interaction of the staff with the patients is not healthy and professional.
At times the patient is also at fault.
Most of the patients respect the auxiliary staff of the clinic. However , a miniscule few do not.
The dentist must also ensure that the patients also that the auxiliary staff properly.
If any patient talks down to the staff or misbehaves with the auxiliary staff it must not be tolerated .
Patient should be counselled about this. As per my experience there are in fact a very few patients who actually would misbehave or talk rudely with auxiliary staff. But occasionally we do get such patients.
Where most of these rude patients responded very well to are counseling there could be a few who are obstinate Such patients need to be phased out.
Auxiliary staff must also be trained to report to the dentist , if there is delinquent patient behavior and also if there is any patient who behaves rudely with then.
My takeaways & lessons from these incidents :
1. Any healthcare facility is in terms of business is a human business wherein we deal with live human beings. The dentist must do pre-employment counseling to the staff as to how to interact with patients.
2.The dentist must always keep a tab on the interaction of auxiliary staff with patients.
If he finds it going off track immediately corrective action needs to be taken. It could be the patient who is at fault or vice versa.
3 Counselling, soft skills training etc should be a continuous process from a trained counsellor or a practice management consultant.
4.Get staff mentors at & systems evaluated by practice management mentors at regular intervals.
5. Put in place an incentive system so that staff works for growth of the practice
To conclude the quality of auxiliary staff greatly affects the success of the produce .
Furthermore , patients tend to form relations with auxiliary staff which are independent of their relations with the dentist .
If these relations are healthy ,they will in fact help in the growth of the practice. If not , it will create a negative effect on the practice.
The dentist needs to keep a close watch on the relations and interactions of auxiliary staff with the patients .
