Staff Accountability: Three Steps That Get Things Done

Staff Accountability Starts With Us

Setting Personal Accountability Goals

“Getting staff to do the tasks they are supposed to do is one of the biggest challenges that many ODs face,” says Bridgitte Shen Lee, OD, co-owner of Vision Optique in Houston, Texas. “I tell colleagues that accountability really begins with us, the doctor.”

Dr. Shen Lee outlines a three-part process that she applies in her own practice.

STAFF ACCOUNTABILITY: THREE STEPS TO SUCCESS

Share the goal. Explain what you want to achieve, and show why a change is being made.

Assign tasks. In a meeting, outline each person’s task and set a time frame. Back that up in writing so everyone is clear on the what and when.

Follow through. Assess the process at set intervals. Collect and analyze data, modify your process and then implement it fully.

“My personal goal now is metrics,” says Dr. Shen Lee. “You give me a brand name, and I can tell you exactly what our profit is.”
She describes an ongoing project to analyze frames sales and optimize the profits they provide to the practice. She works side-by-side with her optical manager, in this case, to measure revenues and margins for 10 frame boards, broken down board-by-board and then line-by-line.

This follows a contact lens analysis that tracked sales of different categories of contact lenses dispensed by the practice’s four ODs, an area that staff had been hard-pressed to keep track of. Many of the lenses perform equally well but provide varying levels of profit to the practice, and their cost to patients also varies, Dr. Shen Lee notes.
“That was a great process,” says Dr. Shen Lee. “We were able to streamline our contact lenses usage by selecting the top two in each category.”

The findings were incorporated into two Excel spreadsheets. One is internal, showing the profits to the practice for each contact lens brand. The other is for patients, who are shown their annual CL supply cost with an annual discount factored in.