385: How I Stay on Task - Dr. Marty Williams - a podcast by ACT Dental

How I Stay on Task

Episode #385 with Dr. Marty Williams

Do you want to be more efficient, more productive, and a lot less stressed out? Then you need systems and checklists for your practice! And to help you build your ideal system, Kirk Behrendt brings in Dr. Marty Williams to share his checklist that gives him predictability and peace of mind. A checklist is one of the easiest ways to get things done! To learn the best practices for staying on task, listen to Episode 385 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Checklists will give you high levels of predictability.

Distractions are inevitable. But checklists will keep you on task.

By using checklists, you can ensure that nothing gets left undone.

Having checklists and systems will improve workflow.  

Review your system and checklists often for improvements.

Quotes:

“[Staying on task] is extremely important because there are certain things that we do and want to have done with each procedure, and with each system that we have, or the patient that we see. I want to follow certain steps so that I assess, diagnose, and treatment plan all the different areas of their mouths and make sure that I get all the documentation in at the end of the week.” (4:29—4:59)

“I practice the Pankey/Dawson philosophy where we get [patients] in, I do a separate new patient exam. I spend at least a good hour with them. And then, all the data that we gather, at the end of the week, my team will give me a purple folder that will have all the information in there, and it'll have a copy of the checklist in there. So, I sit down, and I'll go through that step by step. I'll start by looking at all the notes that were taken that day. I have it right here, and it’s listed down here, the sequence of steps, and looking at the X-rays, looking at their periodontal information, looking at the information about the tooth, the aesthetics, the smile, function. And then, I take a set of clinical photographs for each new patient. I want to make sure I edit those and read those and put them into the Dentrix system. So, we take all their information. I put it right into their Dentrix chart.” (5:05—6:03)

“Sometimes, when I'm going through this, there are distractions. I come in on a Friday and typically go through all my new patients from the week. And sometimes, there are emails; I would get distracted and look at it. Or my phone will go off and I'll look at that, or UPS comes and rings the doorbell, and I come and let them in, or I have my therapy dog here, he wants to go out to the bathroom, or I just want to take a power nap and then come back, and I've got everything here when I get done with all these distractions. And I think I have all my i’s dotted and t’s crossed. I go through the checklist at the very end, and I literally check everything off to make sure that I checked all the areas of that case that I wanted to, and I made a nice diagnosis and a thorough treatment plan for each patient.” (6:06—6:56)

“You'd think that I'd have it down and I wouldn't need the checklist. You’d think, every time, my memory would have that checklist right in my head. But I'm amazed at the times I go through and it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh! I didn't do that part,’ and I go back and open the chart back up, and I redo that step and check it off the checklist, and I know that I've got it done. And so, nothing gets left undone.” (8:35—9:02)

“[Checklists] are the strategic things that I do when I need to get things done. There are so many other piles of things and emails that can be done, but I want to make sure I get the important stuff done. And then the rest of it, it'll be there when I get back on Monday.” (9:49—10:05)

“[My current system] has been pretty standard and set for a number of years. But all of our systems and things we do...

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