Would you be willing to "Act Like A Rookie?" Drs. Joanne and Greg Szalai and Team in Allen Park, Michigan can tell you how....

[Christina Toconis]

Drs. Joanne and Greg Szalai along with their team have taken things back to the basics...and are acting like Rookies again.  This enthusiastic team greeted me with so much energy yesterday morning, sharing all the successes they have experienced since we last met, specifically getting back to the basics.  As a team they have peeled away some of the framing from the past and by doing so, discovered areas of opportunities that had been forgotten in the practice---one area as basic as offering fluoride.  When asking the team if they would be willing to try a simple question with each patient to "boost" their fluoride acceptance, they readily said, "Give it to us!" 

 

A suggestion of each doctor simply ASKing the hygiene patient upon entering the treatment room, "Has Betty done her fluoride YET?" has stirred such commotion in this practice today, I wish you all could be here to see the smiles of success on their faces!  As each hygienist would finish with her patient, she would want to do a "happy dance" and give the doctors a high five when their patient responded with a "YES!" to fluoride. This happy hygiene team gradually discovered that for a while now we didn't have Approval Addiction---we had what we are now going to call "Assumption Addiction"!  Like most practices, we continued to assume patients were declining fluoride because of the lack of insurance coverage or simply the fee itself.  By simply posing this question from the doctor to the hygienist, the doctor or hygienist noting to the patient the length in time since they had their last fluoride treatment--and ASKing why it has been so long--provided answers that kept this team amazed in how MUCH they had assumed in the past.  Patients that simply didn't know they had a simpler, faster process for fluoride treatment, for one---accepted left and right once the team addressed the patient's concern.  The results? So far, they have had 95% acceptance on fluoride for every patient in hygiene (3 hygienists with full schedules today) AND have placed fluoride on crown seats, preheating patients about how to expect a full fluoride treatment at their next visit with their hygienist. The team has felt success all day and it has inspired them to continue to look for simple opportunities that produce long term results!

 

Drs. Greg and Joanne Szalai AND team have made a conscious effort to work together with the Rookie attitude and it shows!  Way to go!!!

[Tanya Bailey]

Great job team!!!!