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Ophthalmic Professional

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Ophthalmic Professional January 1, 2022 Vol 11, Issue January/February 2022 Page(s): 6

Dealing with workplace drama

By James D. Dawes, MHA, COE, CMPE

As a consultant for vision care practices around the country, I have found one of the most common themes that negatively impacts a business’ performance is “workplace drama.” Complaining, judging, creating stories, gossiping, blaming, jumping to conclusions, meddling in others’ business, and even resisting change are all examples of this negative behavior.

How does workplace drama impact the practice?

  1. Decreased productivity and quality of care. Time spent on drama leaves less time for patient care, our primary responsibility, and other work-related tasks. In addition, drama reduces the focus on the patient and creates opportunities for mistakes, which can negatively impact the quality of care.
  2. Increased employee turnover. A workplace full of drama is not a place where most professionals want to be. In other words, drama can lower morale and lead to a loss of top talent.
  3. Increased absenteeism and potential long-term health care cost. Drama creates stress, stress contributes to health problems, and increased health problems can result in absenteeism and possibly impact the cost of health care insurance for the business. It’s that simple.
  4. Difficulty in implementing new technology. Drama associated with lack of buy-in on practice changes and improvements often delays new technology adoption, which deprives our patients of improved outcomes.

How do we reduce workplace drama?

  1. Manage drama: Keep it out of the workplace, and do not participate in other’s drama. Set a positive example.
  2. When a conflict occurs, deal with it immediately.
  3. Focus on accountability with objective performance measurements (ie, measure key performance indicators, or KPIs), and judge individual team members based on these rather than popularity or personality.
  4. Remember, providing quality patient care and outcomes is our first and most important job.

In today’s environment of staff shortages and increased patient volume, we must do everything we can to remove toxicity from our organizations. In the end, it is better for our personal well-being and our team members, management, and physicians. OP

A SUPERVISOR’S VIEW

Jessica Hanley-Burnell, COA, clinical supervisor, Bowden Eye & Associates, Jacksonville, FL, answers four questions about drama:

  1. What is the most frequent cause of “drama” among your team members? A lot comes from people feeling that others are not pulling their weight. People become resentful when they feel they are constantly cleaning up after others or having to work harder than their teammate.
  2. What is the typical result of this kind of drama? Unless the person comes to me about the issue, it turns into a schoolyard situation with each person getting others on their side. One side complaining about how little work the other person does, and the other complaining that they are being “told on.”
  3. Is drama among the team members disruptive? So disruptive! Focusing on these perceived personal attacks and drama within the team takes the staff’s time and attention away from the patients and everyone loses.
  4. How do you attempt to reduce drama? As a manager, I urge staff to come to me immediately with any issues they are having with other staff members that they have not been able to resolve on their own with reasonable discussion. I work with the individual to make sure that they have what they need to succeed and be a better functioning part of the team.

— James D. Dawes

Mr. Dawes is founder and president, J.Dawes Group, a consulting firm that delivers business solutions to medical practices.

In Brief

Allergan received FDA approval of VUITY (pilocarpine HCl ophthalmic solution) 1.25% for the treatment of presbyopia. VUITY is the first FDA-approved eyedrop to treat presbyopia. The daily, prescription eyedrop works in as little as 15 minutes and lasts up to 6 hours, as measured on day 30, to improve near and intermediate vision without impacting distance vision.

Alcon announced its intention to acquire Ivantis, a developer and manufacturer of the Hydrus Microstent, a minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) device designed to lower IOP for open-angle glaucoma patients in connection with cataract surgery. The transaction is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2022.

Sight Sciences announced that its OMNI Surgical System has been cleared by the FDA for canaloplasty followed by trabeculotomy to reduce IOP in adult patients with primary open-angle glaucoma and open-angle glaucoma.

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