Your monthly staff meeting doesn’t have to be a chaotic event that always runs long, yet never gets everything discussed. Here are some thoughts to plan your meetings:
PRE-PLANNING FOR THE MEETING
• Set and post the date of the meeting well in advance-be clear the entire team needs to attend.
• Designate a staff member to order lunch (if meeting is at lunch time) and to take responsibility for prompt delivery. Staff meetings should not start late unless patient demands present. These should be minimized by scheduling appropriately for (and around) the meeting. Two hours should be the minimum time allowed for the meeting. Staff member errands do not supersede the meeting time.
• Designate a staff member (not the doctor) to prepare and post (the day before the meeting) a meeting agenda. This person shall have been chosen well prior to the meeting; preferably at the previous meeting. Individual offices may decide whether one person will maintain the agenda for all meetings or the duty shall rotate among staff members. During the period prior to the meeting, it is the responsibility of other staff members to present topics to this individual they would like to have discussed at the meeting. Prior to posting, the agenda should be reviewed by doctor to be sure there are no topics of an inflammatory nature that require private discussion.
THE BODY OF THE MEETING
• The staff meeting should be moderated by the individual who prepared the agenda (again, not the doctor) and as much as possible, the agenda should be followed. Time should be allowed at the end of the meeting to discuss any additional topics not on the agenda as well as any additional concerns doctor may have. See below for a format for leading discussion.
• Designate a staff member to take minutes of the meeting. This job may also rotate depending on the individual office.
• The agenda and minutes of all staff meetings should be filed in a binder (or computer folder for our A.P.A.P. offices) accessible to all staff members.
• There will sometimes be items on the agenda that need more research before a decision is made. There will also be items that have been decided, but need follow up actions. These should be listed on a separate plan of action by our minute’s taker. It should be noted who is in charge of the follow up, what the specific follow up entails and a date we have chosen to re-discuss an issue that needs more information or a date the project we have decided on should be completed. Any items requiring re-discussion at a future staff meeting must be transferred to the next agenda. At the appropriate staff meeting, we need to follow up on projects to be completed. Have a place to store our plans of action (possibly with the agenda and minutes) so these projects don’t get forgotten.
LEADERSHIP AT MEETINGS
Problem solving- An awful lot of time at meetings can be wasted complaining about a particular problem. What follows is a plan to come to a quick and effective solution to a specific problem.
• What specifically is the problem?
o Define the exact problem you would like to solve. Leave out corollary issues; they need to be worked on separately.
• What are the causes of the problem?
o Brainstorm all the causes but do not discuss the problem; just causes for now, we’ve already defined the problem.
• What are the possible solutions?
o Brainstorm all possible solutions. Don’t stop and evaluate the solutions at this time, that’s for the next step…just toss them out there.
• What is the best possible solution?
o Now evaluate all the proposed solutions and choose the best one.
