iDentistry The Journal identistry_jan_april2019 | Page 11

The Journal
We can use our staff in a better way by involving
them in changes we make as it opens up a third
eye perspective (bird’s eye view) for most of us.
3. Start Early, Plan well, Finish Early and
well: As they say, plan your work and work out
your plan. I prefer following the 60/25/10/5 rule
in my practice for the above. The 60% part
consists of DDWp (Determination, dedication
and will power), the 25% is in the planning part
which includes going to bed early and orienting
my mind for the challenges lying ahead for the
next day, the next 10% lies in the execution of
the preparation (planning) already done and the
remaining 5% is the luck part which I always
leave to GOD Almighty. The 60% DDWp takes
care of the reasoning to do a particular task
because our selfish human mind always needs
a ‘reason’, it’s all about your dreams, how badly
you want the thing, the obsession to yearn to
achieve is almost mandatory. The 25% planning
part will include going to bed early with a clear
focus in mind for the next day’s things, having a
light dinner and having almost no stress to catch
up on the required sleep. The next 10% is about
getting up on the desired time and start going
about the task (already planned out) in a
phased manner since the major work (85%) has
already been done on the paper and is just
about training the mind in the right direction to
do the same actually ‘on ground’ and for that, I
shall also need the 5% luck part which is almost
mandatory to stay further motivated for
successful completion of any task.
Start Early, Plan well, Finish Early and well
~ Bhavdeep Singh Ahuja
4. Respecting the patient’s time: Dental clinic
is always an appalling experience for most of
the patients or potential patients. It isn’t exactly
something, anyone happily looks forward to.
The dislike has underlying disparate reasons
for most of the patients, viz. fear of unknown,
non-chalant staff, nauseating environment
(synonymous with hospital ‘odour’ usually),
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uncomfortable waiting areas, no priority
selection, poor layout etc. and this list can be
endless varying from clinic to clinic (or hospital)
since the dislikes are sometimes transcending
on illogical boundaries as well. However, a
universally common link in all healthcare
settings is a long waiting time which is usually
the bane of any healthcare experience. Studies
have shown that 97% of patients are frustrated
by waiting in clinics / hospitals and this number,
although, staggering sometimes is
understandable and acceptable (albeit with
some difficulty and a pinch of salt, sometimes).
Long waiting times can sour any experience
and when it is your own turn (patient) to be
under the scanner; every minute counts.
Dentist visits are synonymous with long waiting
times since every procedure takes some time to
finish and primarily, dentists don’t realize their
ability to calculate a particular task to be
finished in how much time which leads to chock-
a-block of waiting area in clinics. Although,
waiting time being the intrinsic characteristic of
healthcare, spending so much of time in the
queue doesn’t help relieve the anxiety
associated with it either, which in-turn does
affect patient satisfaction. The solutions lie in a
few means like first knowing your abilities and
harnessing them properly to overcome any time
calculation errors, secondly, the frustration
associated with waiting needs to be minimized
drastically and that can be even via a simple
apology from the dentist (studies say, it works in
70% of the patients) or communicating the
actual waiting time to the patient (again
statistical data confirms that it works for 80% of
the patients as it helps keep the perceived wait
time in check) and thirdly, we need to address
the cause (of waiting) and design an effective
queue management system. Proper and timely
appointments (zero waiting) are finding its way
largely in clinics / hospitals in Metros and Semi-
metro settings and when the rest of India is
embracing this technicality, there is no reason
why other urban settings and small centers
shouldn’t do the same. Properly managed
system also keeps the staff efficient and
working
Vol. 15
No. 1
Jan-April 2019