Dr. Rich Post-Covid Week In Review
Week of August 3rd
Rehearsing The Schedule

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Dr. Rich: Are you tired of things going crazy with the schedule? Are you tired of delays or challenges, or even patients walking out or things that pop up that really should have been preventable, but it didn't happen and then it just kind of created a problem later, right? I'm Dr. Rich, Castellano, double board certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. We're gonna talk about the schedule today and specifically rehearsing the schedule.

Now, this is critically important because when you rehearse the schedule and I'm gonna show you how we, how I rehearse the schedule, how it's gonna make your life so much better, your patients' lives so much better. It's gonna increase your customer service, increase the quality of your interactions with your team and your patients, increase the quality of your reviews, prevent patient walkouts, prevent frustrations, prevent avoidable challenges.

We've all had patients that have a great treatment, but maybe not a good customer service experience. Is that what happened to you? Rehearsing the schedule will help prevent those things and puts you on your right foot for your best results and to build and grow your practice. So let's dive right in. Now, this is a schedule that we had just the other day. So we're in our, COVID time where we're scheduling 30, 45 minute appointments.

Normally we're gonna start shrinking these down, but here's just an example. Now, my very first patient that's coming in at 9:30 in the morning. This is a followup, right? So what I do is I take this schedule, right? And I blocked out their names for just for privacy. I'll sit with my clinical team and it doesn't take long to do this. This literally can take a few minutes, but I'll take a little more time with you and show you how we do it.

So I'm saying, okay guys, here we go. We got to schedule you ready? All right here. So our first patient coming in Mary Smith and she's a followup. And there's a note there says has concerns, okay? Have you guys ever had a patient that has had a concern? So what I'm preparing for is she's a one week follow up. Whether she's had a lift or a filler, what could it be?

I need to have pictures ready, because if they say, you know, I've got a bump over here, I need to make sure I've got pictures to say, did she have that bump before? So we're gonna prepare and have pictures ready because sometimes pictures may not be as easily accessible or we'll do that when they're in the room. That takes more time. If you can have it done ahead of time, it makes the flow go much more easily, but we're gonna be prepared.

And what is the intention? As I rehearsed the schedule, I am gonna set an intention. How do I want a patient to feel when they come in and have concerns? I want them to feel when they're leaving, it's gonna be normal or this isn't gonna be a problem where if it is a challenge, you know what? We're gonna handle that for you. We're gonna take care of you. So I'm rehearsing in my mind. I can picture the patient. Here's what I'm gonna say. Here's what I'm gonna do and that way my team is on board too.

So let's say the patient comes in with negative energy. My team can be prepared. Just say, if you're feeling upset, don't worry you got such a great doctor. He's a the genius. He's gonna take care of you. He's a good man. And they can be prepared on how they're gonna handle this. Or they can just room the patient and just say, okay, let's get you in. Let's move along. And they don't handle any of those thoughts or feelings patients may be having, rehearsing the schedule helps to set that intention.

So that's a patient that had concerns. And this is then after that one, we got to when we follow up guys, okay. So when we follow up with that suture removal kit, we got everything ready for that. Okay but what, how do we want that a patient to feel it's one week. How are you feeling? Are you okay? Oh, I'm sorry if you had challenges, this is a little sore at the beginning, but you're doing good. What did your family and friends say? Oh, that's so good.

So we're preparing how we're gonna create this experience. Another one week follow up. That was from Lyft, full face laser. And usually when they're doing lifting and laser together, that's a big result. So we're gonna bring in the, the bass drum and the symbols and just big celebration. Oh my gosh, you look so good. I mean, we really want to ramp things up because patient needs to feel that needs to see that right. We want to celebrate these great results.

So this is our preparation, the warmup, because professionals warmup, every professional warms up another one. We follow up. Now this is a virtual followup, which means they're gonna be expecting me to call it a certain time. Now it is very difficult to call exactly at the right time. We do our best to do it, but something we prepare them, say, it may be within this 60 minute window.

We're gonna be calling you to do a virtual followup. They're at home. They can be doing things. They get the call. They take the call. Now we need to prepare, are we gonna set them up? We use a system right now called Clara is the video system set up? Do they have FaceTime available? We can have those notes ready and just be, have the chart ready that way. Say, Oh, it's time for my virtual followup. Where's the chart.

We want to prepare all these things. So that way, when it's time to connect, we can just make that happen. And then the next one, they're gonna be an injection. This patient's doing Restylane Sculptra and a radius. And so make sure we've got all those things in stock every now and then you may say, Oh, wait a minute. Well, we ran out of radius. Do we need to call the patient? Do we need to switch that?

Just, but at least know your inventory is in place and that the team's gonna be ready, okay. I'm gonna do an injection for this and when the patient comes in and they can say, aren't you excited about your treatment today? Yeah, this is the preparation that's gonna give the patient the right experience 'cause the patient's gonna say, I am pretty excited. I'm a little nervous. I'm kind of scared too. Is it gonna hurt? And we can just allay their fears.

And the next one is another injection. This is a Bella fill. And the patient said they would like earlier if possible. So we get them in as early as we can. So again, preparation, what is the mindset? The intention we want to set for this patient on the experience that they're gonna have. So as I'm, then next I'm talking to my team about this one is a Sculptra Belotero for Bellafill and there also a one month followup from a procedure.

So we're gonna follow up on the procedure, look at them before and after pictures. And then we're gonna say, okay, well now you're ready for the treatment. Great and we will be asking these patients to when they're doing treatments. Hey, we're doing a teaching video. Is it okay if we do a T we do a lot of teaching busy videos. Is it okay if we do a teaching video where we have doctors, students, and patients who are watching, and if they want to keep it private, we keep it private.

But if they're like, yeah, sure, that's fine. So we want to prepare for this ahead of time are our two target patients. And also these patients up front that are one week followup. If they're really looking good and feeling good and they want to be on camera, this is our rehearsal moment to say, wow, can we just do a brief little video and share with other patients how your experience was now? So Sculptra treatment.

And then this is a, another little, this is a meet the doctor consult. So this is gonna be a patient who's meeting us for the first time. So we want to make sure we have our paperwork set up and everything ready, and the excitement and feeling the emotion. Oh my God, they've done the research. They're physically taking their time to be here. This is an exciting moment for them.

And when my team greets them that you want to have that energy say, isn't it. Aren't you excited? You're gonna meet the doctor. You're gonna love him. He's got, that'd be so great. So we're prepping this energy, this emotion with the team, for each of these patients, and then a procedure. This one just has some skin tags, more removals. So they're coming in for that. That's something that's been bothering them for awhile and you can easily ask them.

Well, aren't you glad to be getting this taken care of today? Well, yes I am. I've been wanting this handled for awhile. This is the pre-frame. We want our staff to be asking the patients and then our procedure. Now we usually get the procedure here a little bit earlier, about an hour ahead of time, where they can take the relaxing medicine. And again, today's the day big day. Are you excited? Never asking are you nervous? And well, how long have you been thinking about having this done?

These are the questions I want to tell my team to ask them the patients, just to remind them so that they can really enhance the patient's experience. By the time I walk in the room, I just walk in and I just. Stand there, this is gonna be, you're gonna do great. We're gonna take great care of you. So it takes me just a few minutes to go through this with my team. Now they may already know what to say, but we're rehearsing it. We are are amplifying it? We're saying, is there anything else we need to do?

So this is the experience. And it's also in their mind. It's not them just saying, well, who's next. Oh, and their senior for the first time, this way they've seen it. And when they see it again, they're like, Oh yeah, that's right. It was the radius and the sculpture. And I already had that premixed and I've got that ready. So the more times they rehearse the schedule, the better your schedule will be professionals, rehearse.

We're professionals, you're professional. You got to rehearse in some way. Now some people will do it and their energy is or rushed or strained we don't have, or they don't make any time you show up and you start seeing patients right away. We've all been there. But if you, you want your schedule to go, well, give yourself five minutes, two minutes, say, let's look at the schedule and we've got this.

Oh, I'm so excited to see Mary Smith and you run down, okay, we've got that. We have the supplies. That's really great. Now, remember, she's coming in for one week. So we're gonna really cheer her on. That's gonna be great. And you can just run through each one of these. It doesn't take that long, but each patient is an experience. Each patient is a person. Each patient is an opportunity to build and grow your practice.

And even if they just have a dynamite experience and they don't buy anything and they send family, or friends this is your internal market. And it makes the day fun. When I'm sitting there celebrating patients, this makes it easy for me, time flies. When I'm done with the end of the day, I don't have a stress or tension headache. I've been laughing and having a good time of day. Why that is such a great joke. And I love it. The patients tell me I'm an artist and that makes me feel good.

And so celebrate the energy, prepare the energy, rehearse the energy. This is what we do. It works wonderfully for us. And even when you get those patients that they're not happy, or they have a negative energy, When you're at Disney, when you're have that positivity already and stored up and pent up for them, it's harder for them to get down low. And even if they are down low, it bumps them up a little bit, every bit counts.

You know how in football, when they tackle someone, how do they normally tackle? It's just one person who grabs person? No, you get the whole team trying to get in there. And from this side and that side, the front, the back of this, the whole Dogpile and you want to tackle these patients with positivity. Someone gets their leg and someone gets them here like this and that they're Dogpile of positivity.

They're just like, I just feel good. Even if I'm not happy with this, I'm just, I know it could have been worse. I know we've got options we can treat that if I'm not happy with something that you'll make it right. And I really appreciate that relationship. And you kept me out of trouble. Thank goodness I don't look unnatural. I don't want the lips out here that the lips walk in the room before I do. You know, so there's always plenty of positivity, but you've got to rehearse it, rehearse it with your team.

And when you're done doing all of this, then you tell them I'm so happy. I got this amazing team to do this with. I mean, this just gonna be such a great day. I'm so excited and get in the spirit, get in the mood, celebrate your team in what they are doing well, set the intention for your team. Cause how do you want your team members to feel? You want them to feel energized, charged up that they're gonna be doing great things, taking care of great patients, supporting a great doctor - you - and that is the rehearsal that we have.

And at the end of the day, no matter if you finish early, finish on time, finish late, you say, didn't we do a great job today? I mean, that was, it was a little curve ball that came through, but we did it and we celebrated and you did the best you could, but rehearsal matters, rehearsal counts. That's what we do helps us build and grow our business. Have fun rehearsing your, your business, rehearse your schedule because if nothing else, you start out saying, I want to have fun doing this.

Oh my gosh, it's gonna be crazy. You know what? This is a patient is my least favorite patient to see I'm gonna make it good. It was like, Oh I'm just so happy to see that. At least favorite patient rehearse it. And when they come in and say, hello, we're gonna take good care of you. How are you doing? Let's make this right. We want you to be happy. We're on the same team. It all starts with rehearsal. So have fun with that.

Thank you for watching. I'm Dr. Rich. Castellano, we'll see you in the next video. Have fun rehearsing.