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OPHTHALMOLOGY BUSINESS 110 October 2018 by Corinne Wohl, MHSA, COE, and John B. Pinto partment meeting and provide the education needed to improve their skills. Perhaps skill sets and goals for each tech need to be implemented throughout the practice. Making suggestions along with lodging your concerns helps solve the problems faster. 2. Be creative. Most manage- ment teams appreciate new ideas, especially when presented with positive intentions. Sometimes it is difficult to see new possibilities, and a fresh approach to a problem will be welcomed. Share creative solutions, especially ones that you've seen work in other settings. For example, do some research with peers across the country. Discover various ways the same problem can be approached and share those ideas within your practice. Ophthalmic practices are the same the world over. If you have a problem in your practice, a colleague you know—for- eign or domestic—has likely tackled it and would be happy to share the solutions they found. 3. Make it easier to accept change; call it "a trial." Resistance to change is common, especially if you want to modify a long-standing protocol. Rather than push for a complete overhaul, suggest a multi- week or multi-month trial period and subsequent evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the change. For example, maybe you do not use a testing schedule template for visual fields or OCTs because you have become accustomed to having the freedom to make it convenient for patients (and yourself) and you can't imagine functioning any other way. If your managers are telling you that total patient wait time is excessive or reimbursement may be impacted, you can agree to an adequate trial period and compare the outcomes. 4. Obstacles to excellence. If you are not in a position of authori- ty and have identified obstacles that may be diminishing excellence in your practice, determine the best person to approach about that. If it's a clinic flow problem, start with the clinic manager. If it is a broader issue, for example, total transit time for your patients on a daily basis, gather the details and discuss it with your administrator or managing criticizes others' work but offers no alternate solutions. Complainers eventually drown out their own great ideas, which will be dismissed or ignored by others who have learned to tune them out. Instead, bring your concerns to practice lead- ership along with ways to make im- provements. Constructively identify issues and present ideas and research to help the official problem-solvers of the practice. For example, if you are frustrated with technicians who are generating testing results you feel uncomfortable depending on, take the time to evaluate the situa- tion. Notice if the inaccuracies occur all the time or only when patient volumes are high. Is it just one tech or many? Whose responsibility is it in your organization to train the technicians? Once you have eval- uated and researched the root of the problem, present the facts and your problem-solving ideas to the clinic manager or administrator. You could offer to keep track of the times the problem is at its worse, or to attend the next technician de- we learned a lesson from Rachael that applies to your practice: Even the least likely person is capable of helpful action. The reason for sharing this story is to help you recognize that anyone in your practice could step in and save the day, perhaps less dramati- cally, and help solve a practice prob- lem, even though no one may have anticipated they would or could—or specifically taught them to do so. It doesn't have to be solely the responsibility of the managing partner, a board member, or ad- ministrator to be the one who sees and adopts new ideas to improve the practice. As an employee of the practice, no matter what your formal title and role, your voice and action can be helpful. Here are ways to formalize your ideas and share suggestions you have to help strengthen and im- prove your practice. This list applies to anyone working in your practice. 1. Identify issues along with the potential solutions. Avoid being the constant complainer who "It is not what we get but who we become, what we contribute ... that gives meaning to our lives." —Tony Robbins "Leaders who fail are the ones who do it by themselves. Leaders who succeed are the ones who allow others to help them." —Simon Sinek Y ears ago, our daughter Rachael had a beloved pet cockatiel. "Celery" went everywhere with Rachael, tiny claws dug into her shoulder. They happily skipped into the backyard one day, only to come upon the neighborhood cat. Celery leaped for his life, but with clipped wings landed awkwardly on the ground. In a split second, the cat was going in for the kill. Our sweet, kind-hearted 6-year- old instantly and bravely responded by stomping on the cat's tail, scoop- ing up Celery and saving the day. Celery lived many years beyond that incident, safely in the house. And Letting every worker help your practice improve To the point: simple practice tune-ups for complex times

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