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Today's topic is office managers and coordination and why it's important for office managers to be able to coordinate and have coordination skills.

 

Working in the front office area of a dentist's office or clinic isn't easy. You have to manage different people and serve different functions while dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants take care of patients.

Coordination is required to maintain:

• Scheduling
• New appointments
• Patient data
• Billing
• Record keeping
• Filing
• General office upkeep

Coordination in the dental office allows office procedures to run smoothly. Holding to the schedule while managing emergency appointments is just one of the challenges office staff face.

In addition, despite pressure, dental office staff must maintain a warm, friendly composure, ready to great patients and take care of their needs and concerns.

What is coordination?

Let's start by talking about what coordinating means.

I did get a definition of coordination from dictionary.com. I think we all know what took coordination skills and what coordinating means but I actually really liked this definition so I'm going to share with you.

Coordinate as to bring the different elements of a complex activity or organization into a relationship that will ensure efficiency and harmony.

Dictionary.com

I love that definition! It definitely founded on the definition that I was going to give you and I think it just really incorporates all the elements of being able to coordinate different activities.

So basically what coordinating is is organizing different elements to ensure efficiency and harmony.

Why coordination is important

Why is it important for office managers to be able to coordinate well?

Office managers, including front office managers and dental offices you know when they come into work well I think when anybody comes into work how many people come into work and only have one thing to get done that day you know you only have one thing on your to-do list and that's it, you're done for the day!

I'm a freelancer and that very rarely even happens for me! So it's really important to be able to coordinate all of those different items on your to-do list to make sure they all get done and that nothing slips through the cracks.

That also implies a little bit of multitasking as well because you have a lot of different things on your to-do list and a lot of those different items on your to-do list have multiple steps in order to achieve what it is that you want to achieve.

It's important to be able to coordinate not only the different steps in all of those tasks but all of those tasks yet together so I have I've said in previous videos that I am a huge fan of project management and online systems to help coordinate all of those different tasks that you need to get done.

But you can also you know you don't have to use an online system you can use can go old-school and kind of use an Excel spreadsheet or even just write stuff down on you know pen and paper. Whatever works for you in order to be able to coordinate all of those projects and all of those tasks.

Do what works for you.

Multitasking

When it comes to multitasking like I said coordinating and multitask we make trying to go hand-in-hand because very rarely are you ever coordinating just one item. So multitasking is basically the ability to juggle all of those different items all at the same time and sometimes that can be a little bit difficult to do.

According to the American Management Association, one way that you can classes multitasking is to pick a few items on your to-do list and coordinate those different items on a day-to-day basis and then kind of work your way up from one item to three items to five items.

Take breaks

Another suggestion by the American Management Association is that you take breaks and I cannot stress enough that taking breaks throughout the day.

I think this makes you more productive. I really do.

Most employers will give you at least a lunch break and maybe a couple of breaks throughout the day. Maybe like two 15-minute breaks throughout the day. So make sure you're taking them and make sure you have time to wind down and really unplug for a few minutes and reset your brain.

Like I said, for me it definitely, definitely makes me more productive if I get to take breaks throughout the day.

Eat

And make sure that you're keeping your nutrition up make sure that you're taking that lunch break and make sure that you are eating well. Nutrition is always an important part of your overall health and well-being.

So that's a little bit about office managers and coordination and multitasking as well. I hope you've enjoyed this and if you have any other tips or insights about front office managers and coordination, be sure to comment.

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