Dentist Arrested??

It’s all over the news. Impossible to miss, unfortunately. Dr. Kuba and Bethany grab their vomit bags and discuss this news story. This is every practice owner/team’s nightmare…..this kind of national story that brings scathing comments, negative reviews, and a dark cloud of despair, no doubt. Dr. Kuba asks the plaguing question – can dentists truly ever take a break? This is the fear that every practice owner has – you leave town and something catastrophic occurs. Listen to today’s episode as Dr. Kuba and Bethany process this situation. 

Want to watch the episode instead?! Check it out here! 

📣This is the last week of the February content, so don’t miss it!! We even have abbreviated tips for those of you who are running behind in February. If you want to turn up the love in February, then you need to subscribe TODAY! 

Free subscribers will have the ability to access our FREE WEBINAR “CUSTOMER SERVICE ON STEROIDS”. It is meant to be free training for the whole team, so become a free OR PAID subscriber today! 

Free Webinar Link

Patreon Subscriber Link

Don't forget to check out our social media for more
Managing Dental Drama FB
Managing Dental Drama IG

Connect with the Managing Dental Drama Community!
Managing Dental Drama Membership Club Sign Up

Wait! There's More!
We want to hear YOUR voice!
Text a 2-minute voice memo to 214.326.4605 with your questions, comments, real-life examples, or tips for a chance to have YOUR voice on the air!

Transcript

 Hello everybody. So before I kick off
0:03
today's episode, I do want to let you
0:05
know that Dr. Kuba and I were convinced
0:08
to record ourselves in this podcast. And
0:12
so check the show notes if you want to
0:14
watch this instead of just listen to it.
0:17
Then you'll be able to access that video
0:19
of our lovely faces. Also, I want to
0:23
mention to you guys that we've got a lot
0:25
of stuff that is being rolled out. a
0:29
free webinar, a leadership conference
0:31
coming up, just so many announcements
0:35
that you are missing out on if you're
0:37
not even just a free subscriber. So,
0:41
we've got several different subscriber
0:43
options. One of those is just a free
0:45
subscriber option, which gets you a lot
0:48
of benefits, including firsthand
0:50
information and then also the ability to
0:52
access a free webinar that we're going
0:54
to be dropping this week, actually. So,
0:58
pause, go and become a free subscriber
1:01
today. If you're really smart, you be
1:04
become a paying subscriber, but at least
1:06
become a free subscriber. And then the
1:08
last thing I'll mention is this is a
1:10
very sensitive subject that we're
1:11
discussing today. It's very fresh. This
1:14
just occurred last week. I know it's
1:16
been all over the news. I want to make
1:19
sure that you guys hear the tone of
1:22
respect and appreciation that Dr. Kuba
1:25
and I have for the office that went
1:27
through this scenario.
1:30
And we hope that there's much that we
1:33
can learn and think about from this
1:35
scenario, but we also hope that you hear
1:38
the utmost respect that we have for all
1:40
the people involved in it. All right,
1:43
without further ado, here's today's
1:45
episode.
1:47
Uh, all right. Hey, lady.
1:49
Hey. Um
1:52
I we need some barf buckets here for
1:54
sure.
1:56
Big there's a big big one over there.
1:58
Should we pull it in?
1:59
We're going to need that.
2:00
Yes. Um because today I want to uh talk
2:03
about something that's trending in the
2:06
news right now.
2:08
Okay. So I feel like everybody in their
2:11
dog has sent me this. So, I would
2:15
imagine that every listener right now
2:18
has heard about this,
2:19
seen it, heard it, something. I'm sure.
2:21
So, I think you know what I'm talking
2:22
about now that I've said that.
2:23
Oh, yeah.
2:24
So, I'm going to just read you the
2:26
article that was sent to me.
2:27
Okay.
2:29
North Texas dentist arrested for
2:32
allegedly performing surgery while
2:34
intoxicated.
2:37
Yeah. Wow. There's a reason that it's
2:40
trending on news, huh?
2:41
Yes. Yeah. So I think there's a lot I
2:45
have a lot of questions on this from a
2:47
perspective of um you know what do you
2:50
call it u innocent until proven guilty
2:53
and you know now her attorney has said
2:56
um you know we're waiting on the results
2:58
of the blood work she's not intoxicated
3:00
she was fine and then
3:02
to me like things like even the
3:03
inflammatory while performing surgery
3:07
you know so I think there's so many
3:09
things to talk about here and I want to
3:11
approach it from the angle of I'm a
3:14
practice owner and I can imagine this
3:16
practice owner.
3:19
Oh my god,
3:20
WTF. Like what what am I going to do?
3:23
Yeah.
3:23
Um and so I want to take it from that
3:25
angle if we can. Agreed.
3:27
Because I want to make this a productive
3:28
conversation. I don't want this to be a
3:29
gossip mongering type, you know,
3:32
whatever. But just as a practice owner,
3:35
first of all, my first um thought is
3:39
when you read the stories, it's talking
3:41
about how there it's a temp dock,
3:43
an owner dock. So this is a small
3:45
private practice. It's not a chain or
3:48
anything like that.
3:49
Yeah.
3:49
Um so small private practice owner and
3:52
um was apparently out of town, out of
3:55
the country.
3:55
Yeah.
3:57
And my first thought when I heard that
3:59
was, "Oh my god, can I never I can never
4:02
leave the office." Like, we already feel
4:04
that way. Owners already feel that way.
4:05
Like, you know, we're listening to calls
4:07
or we listen to a conversation with the
4:09
parent or we see something that our so
4:11
team posts on social media and it's
4:12
always like,
4:13
"Do I have to do everything? Can I trust
4:15
anybody with anything?" That's a lot of
4:17
the burnout of being an owner is you
4:20
can't get away.
4:20
Well, and we're type A. And so for us,
4:23
like I was just even meeting with Dr.
4:24
Mar the other day. She she's been a
4:26
guest on our uh podcast before and we
4:28
had breakfast the other day and she was
4:30
like, "Yeah, it won't you know like we
4:32
are all so such type A like we can find
4:34
fault in everything."
4:35
Yeah.
4:35
And it's like when is enough enough?
4:37
Like when is this good enough? When is
4:40
it like do we need to back off because
4:42
we're going to burn ourselves out over a
4:44
phone call that wasn't answered right or
4:46
a
4:47
Yeah.
4:48
posttop instructions that we didn't like
4:49
the way our team said it. Right. So at
4:51
some point, so my my question is this
4:54
was another one where I'm just like, can
4:56
I just never leave the walls of my
4:58
office?
4:58
Yeah.
4:59
Um and so when you dive into kind of
5:01
what's been available, it's apparently
5:04
this doc was sent by a temp agency and
5:07
had met all the, you know, background
5:10
checks and all of that. And that this
5:12
office, the office manager also checks
5:14
and vets. And apparently this doctor had
5:15
been in the practice one or two times
5:18
and nothing weird was noted. Yeah.
5:20
So, it's like you can't fault the temp
5:21
agency. They did their part. You can't
5:23
fault the office. They did their part.
5:25
And frankly, for this doctor, I don't
5:26
know her, but my heart goes out to her.
5:29
Like,
5:30
you know, somebody somebody I know made
5:32
the comment like, "Who's drunk at 9:00
5:34
a.m.?" And so,
5:36
we're all judging her without having
5:38
full knowledge of
5:40
her situation. Her situation. Um,
5:43
so I just kind of I guess can we tackle
5:45
that first? Can I never leave my office?
5:47
Because I'm sure that's how we're all
5:48
feeling. can I just never leave because
5:50
I don't know what's going to transpire
5:52
when I'm not there.
5:53
Right? And that was the feeling that I
5:56
got when I read this article is that I'm
6:00
the one always encouraging my clients
6:02
because mental health is such an
6:04
important thing with dentists in
6:06
particular that I'm telling them take a
6:08
break. It's okay. Shut the practice down
6:11
if you have to, but but leave. And I
6:13
know the bills are always there and
6:15
we've got to, you know, feed our team
6:16
and feed our family. So, I get the
6:18
pressure of that, but I'm a number one
6:21
advocate for take time off. Um, even if
6:24
that's a day or two here and there,
6:26
please go do that. And my concern when
6:29
this article came across, especially
6:31
with it being a temp dentist that was
6:34
covering, you know, for one of the
6:36
absent doctors, I thought, "Oh gosh,
6:39
here we go. Every dentist reading this
6:42
article is going to think I can't ever
6:44
leave." and that we can't let that be
6:47
the default. We can't come and read an
6:50
article like this and go, "Okay, so that
6:52
proves that I can never leave." If it
6:54
means that you now feel uncomfortable
6:57
with ever bringing a temp in, okay,
6:59
that's fine, but you still need to take
7:02
time away from the practice. And I know
7:04
that may open up a whole new can of
7:06
worms where it's like, okay, well, now
7:08
that I've been scared enough into never
7:10
hiring a temp, then what do I do with my
7:13
team when I take this one week off in
7:16
the spring and in the fall? Okay, that's
7:18
a whole different scenario that you're
7:19
going to have to solve on your own if
7:21
you're choosing not to bring a temp into
7:23
the office. But I think we've got to
7:25
realize that this is a very rare
7:28
occurrence. The reason that this news
7:30
article is going everywhere and you keep
7:32
getting contacted about it is because
7:35
it's rare. This does not happen.
7:37
So, I'm going to argue that in a minute,
7:39
but I think it's getting all this
7:41
attention cuz it's a kid involved. Yeah.
7:43
So, that's number one. And I think the
7:44
same thing, too. Like, it just chops my
7:46
hide that they're like performing
7:49
surgery. I'm like, you know what? Like,
7:51
yes, that is what we do. We are every
7:54
day we remove disease from a body's
7:59
tissue.
8:00
Yeah.
8:00
And otherwise we're just the dentist and
8:03
I don't want to pay for that filling and
8:05
insurance with all of their nonsense and
8:07
the you know O is not going to be
8:10
covered for our patients and it's like
8:11
okay every other medical specialty has
8:14
access to what they need because they
8:18
are treating disease. For some reason
8:20
dental has always fallen outside of
8:21
that. But that is, make no mistake, that
8:23
is exactly what we're doing when we are
8:25
scaling and root planning. We are
8:26
removing disease from tissues to get
8:29
them healthier. And yet somehow now you
8:33
give us credit for it being surgery.
8:35
Yeah. When it's in a negative light,
8:37
we're willing to make it inflammatory.
8:39
So I think between the verbiage and the
8:42
fact that it was a child,
8:44
but I don't it's not We even had the
8:47
podcast a couple of months ago that you
8:49
had about was it a hygienist or an
8:51
assistant or somebody who kept going to
8:53
the bathroom. Yeah.
8:54
And y'all discovered she was smoking
8:56
weed in the bathroom.
8:57
Yeah. So I
8:59
and with through some of my consulting
9:01
work that I do, I know there this is not
9:04
an unusual occurrence for doctors and
9:06
and dentists and team members to
9:10
have to be um
9:14
professional professional recovery
9:15
network and and uh substance abuse and
9:18
things like that. I don't think this is
9:21
a unique or a one-off by any stretch in
9:23
dental or medical anywhere quite
9:26
honestly. anywhere. Quite honestly, it's
9:27
just people get away with it and that's
9:29
what's scary and that's why we always
9:30
have to keep our guard up to be watching
9:32
each other and looking for signs of
9:36
mental health and if we sense our
9:38
colleagues are are you know going weward
9:41
or whatever but this is not unique. I
9:43
think the reason it is catching
9:45
attention is there's a child involved
9:47
and the verbiage we're using is highly
9:49
inflammatory.
9:50
Yeah.
9:51
Surgery while intoxicated.
9:53
Yeah. Um, that's my opinion anyway. So,
9:56
I think you're probably right. And I
9:58
agree with you. I don't know that I when
10:00
I say this is rare. If you look at the
10:03
amount of dentists showing up to work on
10:06
a daily basis across the world, if we
10:08
look, there may be a tiny fraction that
10:11
have a substance abuse issue that is c
10:14
impairing them in the moment. Um, are
10:18
they showing up to work sober and as
10:21
soon as work's done, they're getting
10:23
drunk and
10:24
or they're hiding the signs well of
10:26
their gummies or their
10:28
whatever it is they're doing. I think
10:30
the other thing is the photo that was
10:33
released of the doctor
10:35
makes it look bad.
10:36
Makes it look bad. Like it's not a
10:38
flattering photo and it does look like
10:41
something's not right. But again, it's
10:43
it's your mug shot. Like how are we
10:45
allowed to be like
10:46
do you smile in the next shot? I mean
10:48
yeah like she looks like she's upset and
10:51
or whatever. Like but what what would I
10:53
what would my mind be going through if I
10:54
just got arrested and now I'm
10:56
So but that photo is one that does not
11:00
also makes it worse. Yeah. That does not
11:02
um Yeah. That makes it look like
11:05
something.
11:06
Yeah. You know. Anyway.
11:07
Yeah.
11:08
That's my opinion on that. But I just
11:10
I forgot what we were talking We were
11:12
talking about can you take a break and I
11:15
just I'm nervous that this article is
11:17
going to make a lot of dentists think
11:19
that they can't take a break and I
11:21
really don't want that to be the outcome
11:25
because we have to have it to your
11:28
point. You are doing dental surgeries on
11:32
a daily basis. You are having to manage
11:34
team members. You are having to manage
11:37
patient expectations. You're having to
11:39
deal with insurance. This is a highly
11:41
stressful field, medical or dental, but
11:44
I think especially in dental, because we
11:46
don't until something bad happens, we
11:48
don't get the proper respect that the
11:50
field deserves. And so you add that to
11:54
the equation and you're having to
11:55
convince patients on what they need to
11:57
do for their health. And um so it's it's
12:00
highly stressful and you've got to not
12:03
sink to the idea that you can't get
12:05
away. And I don't think, at least as far
12:08
as what I've read, I don't think there's
12:10
anything this office could have done
12:12
different.
12:12
Yeah.
12:13
And I think when the original story came
12:16
out, it was why didn't anybody
12:20
Yeah.
12:20
Um, you know, catch this dentist? Why
12:22
did they let her practice for half a
12:24
day, whatever. But then you read
12:26
subsequent stories and you find that it
12:28
was that's not what happened.
12:29
Yeah.
12:30
Um, so it's hard to know what to believe
12:32
and not to believe. And at the end of
12:34
the day, it's I just put myself in that
12:37
in those shoes going, "Okay, I'm going
12:39
to be out. My options are either not to
12:41
go and to beh,
12:43
you know, a prisoner in my own jail cell
12:47
here that I've created for myself, which
12:49
is not healthy and will lead me to
12:51
retiring, shutting down, selling a lot
12:53
sooner."
12:54
Yeah.
12:55
Um or I shut down those days and take a
12:58
big hit.
12:59
Yeah. And what do I and potentially lose
13:01
team members or I get coverage from a
13:06
reliable staffing agency
13:09
that has a good record that does. So
13:12
from my side I'm like what would I do
13:14
different if I was this practice?
13:16
I know
13:17
and I don't have an answer to that. Like
13:18
I don't think they they I don't think
13:20
they could have done anything different.
13:21
I know. Which is sad when you think
13:23
about it because first of all we've got
13:25
kind of two things going here. You've
13:27
got, of course, the doctor in question
13:30
here, the one that was arrested, and
13:32
you're like thinking about it from her
13:34
perspective as a dentist. You're like,
13:35
"Okay,
13:38
bless." I mean, like, that's a big deal
13:40
that we're talking about for her. If
13:42
this turns out to be true that she was,
13:45
you know, under the influence of
13:46
something, you know, my heart goes out
13:48
to her. But also, you know, some of the
13:51
comments that I've read as I've been
13:53
following this story is that um which is
13:57
infuriating to think about, but that
14:00
other people had commented that they she
14:03
tempted in their office and um one
14:06
comment in particular said, "Oh yeah, we
14:09
ended up sending her home, you know,
14:11
partway in." And I'm thinking, well,
14:14
that's really unfair because then how
14:17
long have people been concerned about
14:19
her? And and again, this is a doctor
14:21
saying this about her practice. And so
14:24
I'm thinking, okay, well, other people
14:26
might have noticed signs before, but
14:28
they didn't make a call or make a report
14:31
or
14:31
try to help her or talk to her.
14:33
Yeah. And and again, I know every
14:36
decision that we make is challenging in
14:38
a dental office, but then if you do have
14:41
the situation where a temp doc shows up
14:43
and they're not seeming to be capable
14:46
for whatever reason of um performing it
14:49
performing the role that you have for
14:50
them that day. But I'm thinking, okay,
14:52
now you've got apparently in the in the
14:55
light of the story coming out, people
14:56
are saying, okay, yes, we've witnessed
14:58
this behavior before. But then you've
15:01
got an office here that actually made a
15:03
very difficult call to do something
15:06
about it. And I I my heart goes out for
15:10
them because I know the publicity on
15:12
this is not helpful to their business at
15:15
all. Um there was a patient that
15:18
commented on on Facebook and was like,
15:20
"Oh, my autistic grandson goes there."
15:24
Yeah.
15:24
And they've always taken great care of
15:25
him, but I don't know if I can go back
15:27
there again. And I'm just like that my
15:29
heart breaks for for everybody involved
15:32
to be honestly.
15:34
Yeah, absolutely. It's a bad situation
15:36
across the board.
15:37
But then knowing as a practice owner to
15:39
be hit with something like this when
15:41
like you said to go back and think about
15:43
it, what could they have done
15:44
differently? Shut the practice down. And
15:48
you know, the doctor has to take a
15:49
break. Cuz if we go off of that premise,
15:52
doctors, you have to have a break. you
15:55
have to then it's like okay the options
15:58
are never hire a temp and shut it down
16:01
and that's fine if that's what people
16:03
decide to do but then that's highly
16:05
financially impactful to not only the
16:07
practice but the team members and so it
16:10
does lead to this ripple effect of I I
16:13
don't know what else could have been
16:15
done differently in this case it's just
16:18
how do you deal with the aftermath now
16:21
and hopefully this never hits any other
16:23
practice but I think it begs the
16:25
question like looking at this story it's
16:27
really hard to poke holes in what the
16:30
practice did it it seems like based
16:32
especially I know a people article also
16:35
came out recently on it and you know it
16:38
made it clear it was one patient that
16:40
the assistant stepped up and you know
16:42
called it off and like let's pause this
16:44
because she noticed and so it's like she
16:47
didn't even make it far into the day and
16:50
they're the the practice is so watchful
16:52
of their patients that they're taking
16:54
action
16:55
And so it's like it's really hard to
16:57
pick apart anything other than okay,
17:00
what do we do? Just not use ts.
17:02
Well, and then the other part of it too
17:03
is like again with the the stories, the
17:06
initial story I read about it that came
17:08
out was um they didn't state that.
17:12
Yeah.
17:13
So now the public perception so if that
17:15
was say on I think I read that on
17:18
Tuesday and now coming to what day is it
17:21
today? Friday and the people people
17:23
magazine people magazine picked up this
17:26
story like my sister sent it to me from
17:28
people magazine
17:29
um and on that one it clarifies
17:33
but so now patients have had this whole
17:35
week people in that community have had a
17:38
whole week to make their judgments on
17:40
this practice without all the facts.
17:42
Yeah. So, um, okay. So, that was the one
17:45
thing I wanted to talk about like as a
17:46
private practice owner, I, you know, my
17:49
fears are like, okay, I guess I can't
17:52
ever be gone. And
17:54
the answer to that is no. We need to we
17:56
need to think about
17:58
um the next question I have is what what
18:02
what would you do like so obviously
18:04
you're a consultant and so here
18:07
what would you advise that team to have
18:10
done or
18:13
What
18:14
I I guess I don't know like if this
18:16
happened on my part or or what would I
18:18
have done in that situation? Should I
18:19
have done something different? Like
18:22
what what if it had gone half the day
18:24
and the team didn't catch the silence?
18:26
Yeah.
18:27
Like what what are we looking for? or
18:29
what are we I guess I just don't even
18:30
know like at thinking about it in my own
18:32
mind going okay say I am there or say
18:37
I'm not there and an associate comes in
18:39
like it's not even a temp what if it's
18:40
my associate that comes in
18:42
or flip flip that what if it's associate
18:45
and now I come in and the associate's
18:48
like Koopa's acting weird
18:49
yeah she did have a party last night or
18:52
she was stressed about something or her
18:54
whatever it is she's not acting right
18:56
like what what should we be doing What
18:59
should we be we be watching for?
19:01
Yeah, I think that's the exact right
19:03
question here because to me, we can't
19:06
just because we've worked alongside
19:08
somebody for a long period of time
19:10
doesn't mean that we can't call them out
19:12
and actually address a situation that we
19:14
think is off. And maybe it's not under
19:18
the influence of something. Maybe it's
19:19
just like they seem off today. And this
19:22
has happened quite a bit. This happened
19:24
in a conversation that I was having with
19:25
a team member yesterday that something
19:28
felt wrong in the way that she was
19:30
reacting to me. Um, she would wasn't
19:33
making eye contact with me, was only
19:35
giving me one word answers. This she was
19:37
not being her normal self. And before I
19:39
continued in the training that I was
19:41
doing with her, I just stopped. I was
19:42
like, "Hey, are you okay? You you seem
19:46
off to me today. Everything okay?"
19:48
and some something had to be on her mind
19:51
because she looked at me and she was
19:53
like, "Oh, I'm I'm fine. I'm fine." And
19:56
then she returned back to her normal
19:57
self. And I was like, "Okay, nothing
20:00
going on. No big deal." But it was
20:02
enough. I was paying attention to her
20:03
enough that I was like, "Something's
20:05
wrong and I need to pause and check on
20:07
her." And so I would say whatever it is,
20:09
whether you're assuming that they've got
20:11
a big hangover, whether you're assuming
20:13
they're mad about something, it doesn't
20:14
matter if the makes me think of the
20:17
airport. If you see something, say
20:18
something. You know, it's like if you
20:20
see something that's bothering you.
20:23
Don't just chalk it up to no big deal.
20:25
Actually say something, which thankfully
20:27
it sounds like this office did that they
20:29
caught it. The assistant in the in the
20:32
op room is like, "Something seems off.
20:35
I'm going to stop this and figure this
20:37
out." And so we can't I think whether
20:41
it's a temp doc, whether it's a temp
20:43
assistant or hygienist or whether it's
20:45
somebody that you work alongside, we
20:48
need to be checking on each other. And
20:49
if something seems off, if if my
20:52
hygienist is in between patients and
20:55
she's laying her head on the desk taking
20:57
a nap, and that's not her norm,
21:00
hopefully it's not her norm.
21:02
It's not.
21:04
Then we should be checking in on her
21:06
like, "Hey, you seem really tired today.
21:08
What's going on?" And as she's talking,
21:10
we're watching physical signs. Does she
21:13
is when I woke her up from that nap to
21:15
see if she's okay? Do her eyes lock in
21:19
on me? Is she seeming like she's
21:21
actually alert? She just was really
21:23
tired cuz her baby kept her up all
21:24
night. Okay. Watch and evaluate how your
21:28
team member responds to you checking in
21:31
on them. I also think this points back
21:33
out to you got to know your team
21:35
members. Yeah. And so a lot of times we
21:38
as doctors tend to be a little handsoff.
21:40
I know I'm stereotyping here, maybe
21:42
getting myself into some trouble, but I
21:43
feel like men are probably a little bit
21:45
more like I don't know. And females,
21:47
we're scared. At least for me, let me
21:49
speak for myself. A lot of times I'm
21:50
like, I need to make sure I'm not
21:51
crossing a boundary. Yeah.
21:53
Um because if I seem like I'm checking
21:55
in too much now, I'm their friend. And
21:58
anyway, so what system do you have in
22:00
place to go though? Do I know my team
22:02
member or do I not? Or do I have an
22:04
environment that one assistant could
22:07
come to me and say, "Hey, Susie's not
22:09
acting right or something's wrong." Or
22:11
is my team just oblivious about each
22:13
other? Are they always picking on each
22:16
other? So now I can't make heads or
22:18
tails of if something is up, then it's
22:19
like, "Well, you guys squawk about
22:21
everything." So I don't even know
22:23
what's truly a concern,
22:25
truly a concern or not. Um, so I think
22:28
that it just brings back into
22:30
communication, paying attention to
22:33
Yes.
22:33
your team and
22:34
being willing to say something.
22:36
Yeah. And I think also like just as as
22:38
owner doc, we do tend to have our own,
22:41
you know, we're stressed about the
22:43
veneer case. We're stressed about this
22:44
mom coming in who wasn't happy with how
22:46
the sedation went. We're concerned
22:48
about, you know, meeting payroll this
22:50
month because we had a snowstorm and we
22:52
didn't produce, right? Like so we've got
22:53
a lot of things on our mind and it may
22:54
be easier to just go okay everybody's
22:56
here and carry on. It does take a minute
22:59
to pause and to like be able to one
23:03
notice when something is off or two do
23:06
we have an environment and a culture
23:08
where somebody could come to me
23:10
and I could take that seriously and be
23:14
like okay this person
23:16
is pointing this out for a reason.
23:18
Yeah. But if you're always pointing out
23:20
and complaining about people or you know
23:24
Mary's crying today, well Mary cries
23:26
every day. So like what you know?
23:28
Yeah. Yes. Exactly. And I would say even
23:31
to your point on that, one of the things
23:33
that I thought about in relationship to
23:36
this, it was um a similar experience
23:39
that one of my clients experienced with
23:41
her assistant. And she had just and
23:46
again she she knows her team well, but
23:49
she's not she you don't have to be buddy
23:51
buddy with your team to know them well.
23:53
You just have to know what is their
23:54
typical pattern. And she's this type of
23:57
of dentist where she knows her team on
24:00
good terms with her team, but buddy
24:02
buddy or let me ask how your weekend was
24:04
or anything like that. She just doesn't
24:05
do it. But she was aware enough to know
24:08
that as this procedure started that
24:11
there was something different with the
24:13
way that her assistant was passing
24:14
instruments to her. She was like,
24:16
"What's going on today?" And so at one
24:19
point when the assistant passed the
24:21
instrument, it even like flicked like
24:23
the instrument kind of flicked and
24:24
dropped on the patient's chest.
24:29
And it was enough of these subtle signs
24:33
that afterwards she had the conversation
24:35
like, "Are you okay? You seem really
24:37
jumpy today and I you weren't your
24:40
normal self in that procedure." And as
24:43
the assistant was talking to her, the
24:45
doctor did not feel confident that she
24:48
was okay. And but this assistant was
24:50
like, "I'm totally fine." Blah blah
24:52
blah. So what my client did, which is
24:54
hard to do. Thankfully, she's got two
24:57
assistants, but she once she finished
24:59
that procedure, she subbed out the
25:01
assistant. She's like, "This assistant
25:03
B, you're going to be my assistant the
25:05
rest of the day. assistant A, I need you
25:07
to do these organizational tasks or if
25:10
you're not feeling up to it, you can go
25:12
home. Right? So, it was the the uh
25:14
employees choice. So, the employee
25:16
stayed got the organizational task done
25:18
and then that employee came and talked
25:19
to my client at the end of the day and
25:21
said, "Hey, I wanted to address what you
25:24
saw earlier." And for her, it was a
25:26
legitimate reason. She had some
25:28
medication changes. She had been on some
25:31
anti-depressants. She had been on some
25:33
she had some attention like cognitive
25:35
type things that her doctor was changing
25:40
some medications around and she had
25:44
realized it made her like extra jumpy
25:46
that day and so she didn't offer that up
25:49
in the moment but by the end of the day
25:51
she was like hey I just wanted to let
25:52
you know what was going on. So, it
25:55
doesn't even have to be like
25:56
intoxication. It can be there are
25:58
medication changes that are happening
26:00
that changes your clinical team member
26:02
enough that you're like, "Uh, I I'm
26:05
going to notice it. I'm going to address
26:07
it." And then addressing it. I would be
26:10
fearful of if this person's going to be
26:12
like, "How dare you sub me out?"
26:14
Yeah.
26:15
I told you I'm fine. You're just picking
26:17
on me. I'm leaving. Like, I guess to me,
26:19
I just think of that worst case
26:21
scenario. And then I'm like, "What do I
26:22
do? What do I do here?" Yeah. Yeah.
26:25
Well, again, none of it's easy. None of
26:28
this is easy. But I think we'd be remiss
26:30
if we didn't say something, which is
26:33
again, I think back to what's even
26:34
prompting this conversation. And for
26:36
that assistant to stop a procedure with
26:40
a doctor, that takes, excuse me, but
26:43
that takes some balls to be like, "Oh
26:45
gosh, something's off enough that I need
26:47
to stop this procedure and figure it
26:49
out." But that we're the patient care
26:52
comes first. And so we have to make
26:55
those difficult calls. And maybe it's
26:56
not something super obvious, but it's
26:58
just enough that we're like, I don't
27:01
know, this doesn't feel right. Trust
27:03
that gut, follow it, and do the right
27:05
thing. Because at the end of the day,
27:06
patient care comes first. Our
27:07
relationship with that person doesn't
27:09
come first.
27:10
Yeah. Um, okay. So my next question to
27:12
you is, so like this happened, this
27:15
story hits the news.
27:18
Let's say it doesn't hit the news, cuz
27:20
it doesn't happen that often, right? But
27:22
let's say a patient's mad, like
27:24
something that would be more equivalent
27:25
that would happen is a patient is really
27:26
mad and then they're blasting us on
27:28
Facebook and all of that.
27:31
What What do we do?
27:32
Or I guess you could answer that like
27:34
what would you advise this office to do
27:36
that if this happened on I think it was
27:38
a Monday and then by Tuesday it's
27:41
hitting the news. Um, what would you
27:44
advise this client to do from I guess a
27:47
PR perspective and or an actual like
27:51
what would you advise this dentist to
27:53
do?
27:53
Well, to me, and this is our theme, so
27:56
we're getting a little bit ahead of our
27:57
theme for the month of March uh in for
28:00
our subscriber uh content that's coming
28:03
out in March. But the whole theme is
28:05
what can we learn from the storms that
28:07
hit us? And
28:10
to me,
28:12
again, thinking about this situation,
28:14
we've got several things we need to
28:15
address. You had to know it was coming.
28:18
This is such a good topic and we have so
28:20
much more to say about it that we're
28:22
going to cut you off here. If you want
28:24
to hear the rest of this, you have got
28:26
to go become a subscriber. So, check out
28:29
the show notes to figure out how to do
28:30
that. Now, I do want to let you know one
28:33
quick announcement before I completely
28:36
cut things off today and that is that we
28:38
have dropped the information for our
28:41
webinar. It is going live very soon. It
28:45
is a free webinar broken into two
28:49
different 1hour segments. It's meant for
28:51
the whole team and it is content that
28:54
you do not want to miss. You're going to
28:56
be able to access this webinar for free
29:00
by going to become a subscriber, a free
29:03
subscriber on Patreon. And once you log
29:07
in to be a free subscriber, then you'll
29:09
be able to access that webinar. So don't
29:11
miss it. It's excellent content. And
29:14
have a great rest of the week.