Anesthesia Management:  4 simple rules for productive practice meetings

Meetings are a critical way to keep communication flowing throughout your organization, but such sessions run a high risk of feeling like a chore or waste of time to attendees. But by sticking to some time-tested guidelines, meetings can be a productive and pleasant experience.

Adherence to the following rules vastly increases practices’ odds of meeting success:

1. Stay on schedule. Set up meetings for the entire practice in advance to occur once a month, Mooney said. And make sure meetings begin and end on time. If an unexpected or overly time-consuming topic comes up, schedule a follow-up meeting or conference call with just the people who need to be involved for the following day.

2. Set an agenda. Plan discussion topics in advance. In general, your agenda template should include five categories, such as accounts receivable, revenue, expenses, customer service and quality initiatives. Put physician-related matters at the top of the agenda in case doctors need to leave the meeting early to see patients.

3. Assign roles. For every action item you decide in your meeting (e.g., conduct a patient satisfaction survey), assign a point person to be in charge of leading and reporting back to the group on the status of the project. This step not only holds individuals accountable for progress but also allows people to get excited about their particular contributions.

Conduct follow up. Assign an employee to take minutes of every meeting and distribute those notes to attendees. At the next month’s meeting, review the goals set at the last meeting, the changes implemented to reach them, and the practice’s current progress and/or challenges in attaining those goals.