How to Build Teamwork

Teamwork - one of those concepts that can be hard to implement, but if done effectively creates a level of productivity and efficiency that cannot be matched. The symptoms of this every-man-for-himself mentality include higher levels of turnover, chronic morale problems, higher patient complaints, and lower productivity; all which produce a drag on profit which medical practices today can ill afford.

Developing a staff that is effective, highly functional, and puts practice performance first, is easier said than done. To a large extent, this is due to the fact that a practice a comprised of many small groups of people who work together but perform very different roles. Here are a few tips to get you closer to building that teamwork environment you wished for.

Lead By Example

The first source of teamwork begins and starts from the top down. As practice administrator, you encourage teamwork by modeling good business behavior yourself. There is nothing worse than having someone talk the talk, but not walking it. Teamwork should be approached as a unified front, making it clear to all layers of staff that teamwork is a top priority. 

Positive Reinforcement

Sometimes as administrators we do not see all things happening on the ground. To keep employees accountable to their coworkers, asking each person to highlight or bring to attention things they've witnessed their peers doing in the positive is a great form to reciprocate positive feedback for the work they've done. 

If they receive their evaluation back and they notice they didn't have much positive feedback in one or two of the 10 categories, they might say "I think I do this well, but maybe I could do better." This is meant to be a positive feedback tool to help the employee develop professionally.

Jacks of All Trades

In the quest for better teamwork, the American Medical Association's guide to "Managing the Medical Practice" notes it's also important to cross train your staff to perform multiple jobs. Doing so makes them more valuable to the practice and also gives your employees the opportunity to walk in their coworker's shoes. Train your medical assistants to answer phones, use the computer, check in patients, make appointments, and file charts. The administrative staff should be shown how to take vital signs, chaperone patients to the exam room, schedule lab tests or surgery, and preparing an exam room for the next patient. 

Administrative employees may be a bit harder to cross train with the medical staff, but by doing so they can begin to understand each other's needs and develop an appreciation for the problems that exist on both sides of the invisible line which seems to separate both clinical and administrative personnel. "For fully functioning teams to operate smoothly, employees must understand their own roles and how their roles interact with and affect others." the AMA writes.