Communication Skills in Patient Education

You, as an orthodontist, may very well maintain the best clinical skills and offer the most technologically advanced treatment techniques in the business, but if your staff doesn’t extend that message, how will your patients know? You have an expectation from your patients at each visit and beyond. If your staff can’t effectively communicate those expectations, you can’t expect your patients to comply. Often times, we take for granted the seemingly little things and assume too much. A busy office needs to be on time and patients need to be punctual in order for you to maintain an efficient practice…a practice that is perceived as providing a pleasant patient experience. Patients will not understand the importance of punctuality if the message is not conveyed. Treatment compliance will never be achieved if your patients do not understand the importance of complying with your treatment plan. Elastics are indeed small and seemingly insignificant, and most patients will not understand that however insignificant they appear, they may be pivotal in achieving the intended treatment results. 

Scripting the message and training staff to deliver a consistent message patient to patient can very well be achieved. It requires training and systems. Andrea can guide your staff on all areas of communication to establish protocols for communication.