DECEMBER 2019 | EYEWORLD | 63
TO COME
Contact
information
Wohl: czwohl@gmail.com
Pinto: pintoinc@aol.com
• For each person or category of people on the
list include: The status of your relationship
now (score it from 0–10 so you can better
judge later on if it has improved), reasons
for wanting to improve it, what steps you will
take to accomplish your goals, and a deadline
for taking the first steps.
3. Take action with what you
have learned
This is not a brief exercise. It will take discipline
and time to accomplish successfully. Gather
what you have learned during this period of
discovery and now prioritize the further actions
needed. Prioritize and/or delegate item by item.
You will now have the supporting data to either
develop or update items such as hiring strate-
gies, onboarding protocols, running productive
meetings, and how to improve communication
throughout the practice. Professional growth
and practice improvements are the result of cre-
ating goals, applying discipline to push through
some uncomfortable situations, including your
team in the process, and taking action.
2. Tune-up professional
relationships
Your practice is not just built on training and
equipment and a hefty payroll. Your practice is
built chiefly on a complex web of relationships.
These exist among workers up and down the
chain of command, venders, payers…and, of
course most critically, patients. Make time to
step back and write out potential improvements
in each of these domains. How can we be
closer to patients? Is partner-to-partner discord
holding us back? Do we only talk to vendors
when we are unhappy, or take the time to thank
them periodically for exceptional service? The
more invested you are in the people around you,
the more enthusiastic they will become in your
interests.
• Prepare a list of all your professional relation-
ships. These will include doctors, managers,
employees, referral sources, vendors, insur-
ance brokers, institutional associates (e.g.,
local hospital administration), and personal
networking contacts.
• Create a written a plan for yourself with
deadlines.
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