Eyeworld

EW NEWS & OPINION 16 December 2017 by Liz Hillman EyeWorld Staff Writer "What we mean is that cultur- ally, you want to create an environ- ment where people enjoy working. It takes some purposeful actions. You have to have a great team experience before you have a great patient experience." Focusing on the patient experience Even though Dr. Thompson knows patients were treated well in the early years of his 26-year-old prac- tice, he said "we weren't as under- standing and as purposeful as we are now." There is a difference, Dr. Thompson said, between what cus- tomers expect and what they value. In ophthalmology, patients expect the physician to be experienced, talented, and have the latest tech- nology. What they value and what truly motivates them are how you and your staff treat them. "I always thought that my technology, talent, and experience were the motivators, the reason why people came. What I've learned over the years is patients are expecting that you're going to do your best, they're expecting that you're going to help them with a great outcome," Dr. Thompson said, adding that patients don't thank him for having the latest and greatest technologies. "What they're thanking me for is "In the end, it's really about the people," Dr. Thompson said. "There are a lot of needs in ophthalmology out there … but to truly thrive and take a practice to the next level, it takes a work family to do that." When interviewing, they ask candidates to watch Simon Sinek's TED Talk "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" and answering the question of what is their "why"? "What's at their core? I think it's important we all know what our 'why' is," Dr. Thompson said. "It's important to understand that it's not all about the technology … it's not about our skills in eye surgery. That's important, but if we're going to speak to this patient's heart, it is to help her understand how much we care about her. Where we're going to get a win is if we help her daughter see how much we care about her mother in the process." How one treats colleagues and employees is also a major factor at Vance Thompson Vision. Mr. Jensen said interviewees are asked how they've shown care for those around them, how they've put others first. "Care and concern for others is a tenant," Mr. Jensen said. "It's a value at our organization that we hire by and we fire by." "We love to hire people who are nice people. We can train everything else, but you can't train nice, so we're looking for people with that service heart," Dr. Thompson said. Training the team "You can't be the best every day when it comes to clinical care and creating customer experiences unless you train like a champion, unless you train each other every single day," Mr. Jensen said. This could be happening in the daily meetings ("huddles") the Vance Thompson Vision team has or the team-building opportunities that range from organized events, such as building a house with Habitat for Humanity or an after-hours happy hour, to sharing fun bits of news on the employee-only website. "Fun is a guiding value in our center … we think about that as a glue to our work family, the idea of having fun," Dr. Thompson said. Each member of Dr. Thompson's team is empowered with $100 that how they were treated by the staff, how the doctor treated them, how they loved it when the doctor called them that night to see how they were doing, and how they enjoyed the thank you notes and caring communications … the motivators are the same things your parents taught you when you were growing up, with a smile and eye contact, but the true motivators are how you make people feel." To make a striking impact on a patient, Mr. Jensen said, "we should try to find signature moments of the customer interaction." Some companies that have done this well, Mr. Jensen continued, are Ritz-Carlton hotels and Walt Disney World. On a personal note, Mr. Jensen recalled how a hotel he and his wife were staying at in Hawaii re- membered that she cut the crusts off her room service sandwich, leaving them uneaten on her plate. The next time she ordered that sandwich, without prompting on her part, the crusts were cut off. The hotel service staff had noticed. This small act is not only some- thing that had the Jensens wanting to go back to that hotel, but it had them telling their friends about it, spreading the word, which in business terms would be like making referrals. Creating a patient experience starts with leadership making a com- mitment. It means hiring employees who are on board with leadership's vision for the patient experience and training them to bring that to frui- tion. And it means taking a look at the whole process from the moment patients pull up to your practice to the moment they're ready to leave to find ways to "make each interac- tion a masterpiece," as Dr. Thomp- son put it. Building a work family Vance Thompson Vision was ranked No. 19 for workplace culture on a list of medium-sized companies out of 153 total companies by Entrepre- neur magazine—and there's a reason. When Vance Thompson Vision is looking for someone to join their team, whether it's an ophthalmolo- gist, technician, or receptionist, the practice looks for "people who have a heart to serve." Webinar looks at how one practice put a focus on team culture and the patient experience H ow to set your practice apart and keep patients coming back, spreading word of your care to their friends and family, might not be dependent on a new technol- ogy or even your surgical skill, ac- cording to Vance Thompson, MD, Vance Thompson Vision, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, though it certainly doesn't hurt. During a webinar hosted by ASCRS, "The Key to Thriving in Modern Day Medicine: Team Cul- ture and Patient Experience," Dr. Thompson and Matt Jensen, CEO of Vance Thompson Vision, shared their thoughts on what has made their practice, which also has loca- tions in Fargo, North Dakota, and Bozeman, Montana, so successful. What it comes down to is that Vance Thompson Vision is creating a team culture that's like a work family and providing a patient expe- rience—key word: experience—that is like no other. Creating a unique patient expe- rience starts with putting the team first and the patient second, Dr. Thompson said. Thriving in modern day medicine is 'really about the people' Vance Thompson Vision has put an emphasis on building a positive work culture and has made strategic decisions to create a unique patient experience in the practice. Source: Vance Thompson Vision Webinar reporter

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