Hi, it's Tina, and I'm here with your one-minute management tip. Today, I want to discuss a crucial aspect of our practice that often goes overlooked and not discussed, and that's the potential impact of losing a key team member, particularly our office managers, because we know they're there to ensure a smooth running practice and so that our practices function well every single day. And a sudden departure of them could result in some amazing challenges. I feel that this topic is so important that I wrote about it in the first chapter of my book, truths from the Trenches. Poor Dr. Johnson, he thought everything was running well in his practice until his office manager of 10 years gave a two-week notice because her husband got transferred.

He figured everything would be okay. He'd just promote the next person in line. He found out really quick things were not okay. So let's take a moment and consider how you can be better prepared for such a situation in your practice. It's by preparing emergency succession plans. As physicians, what you need to do is to review your office's operational procedures and systems on a regular basis. 

You do have them. Right? Written protocols, procedures, job descriptions, job tasks, how to do them, when to do them. And then what you need to do is identify potential successors and invest in cross-training. If you're part of the Virtual Practice Management Institute, we've got a whole module on cross-training.

And then you want to encourage a culture of preparedness amongst your team. Consider incorporating this change in cross-training into their job descriptions and continuing training in the practice. It's about creating a resilient practice that can adapt to unexpected change, which many of us have gone through in the last couple of years.

So, in conclusion, by being proactive and having an emergency succession plan in place, you not just are safeguarding your practice from potential disruptions, and chaos, but you're fostering a culture of collaboration and preparedness. And that's a good thing. If you have any questions or need some help, all you have to do is email me at [email protected] or Dr. Peter Wishnie at [email protected]. All right, let's get prepared. Talk to you soon. Bye.