It’s every dentist’s worst nightmare to receive a board complaint, and in this episode Dr Olesya Salathe chats to DSD Senior Executive Manager of Clinic Development, Maria Cabanellas about the process she went through and her key takeaways from the situation. Aside from this, their fascinating discussion also covered topics such as:
Her childhood and immigration from Soviet Union to the United States
Taking on a key leadership role in dentistry
How to improve communication with your staff
Keep reading for some of the highlights from their conversation or listen to the whole episode now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.
A leadership role in dentistry
Dr Salathe plays an active part in the community and earned the Gerald E. Bruce Award for her leadership and service. Her volunteer work within the dental community has also been recognized with her dental professional peers nominating her for prestigious membership of the American College of Dentists which is given to only 3.5% of dentists nationwide in the United States and is by invitation only.
Maria asked her about the skill set and experience she gained to be eligible for this type of role in dentistry:
“I think I always try to do my best and I try to have integrity. But I do know that whatever leadership role you're in, whether it's professional or personal, I'm a leader for my kids and integrity is huge. We all like to espouse that we just have this high level of integrity but we all have gaps. Our past experiences shape us. I learned this from my communication coaching that I've had for a really long time.”
Communicating with your team
Improving communication skills is something that Dr Salathe says has become part of every part of her life – from family life to work and professional organizations. She talked about her own experience of improving team communication – and Maria asked her for recommendations for a dentist who is struggling with that right now - whether that’s an established team when you buy out an office, or new hires that are resisting change.
“I think the first seven, eight years, until we had the new space, it was a lot of me just talking and I assumed that everybody got that information and understood it and retained it, but they didn't.” she recalls of her own situation.
“It's seven eight years into it. I stumbled upon a process called Traction with Gino Wickman. One of my friends had implemented it in the company that he worked with. We were really fortunate in that, in our area in Oregon, we had one of the, Eric was anywhere between one and two in the world, of the top implementers for Traction at the time. And so, he came on board and we started our quarterly meetings, we got organized, we identified our core values. I didn't know what my core values were. I thought it was just dentistry and communication. So, that was big. You have to have to identify those. And then, of course, there's processes. I don’t think there was clarity in processes.”
Dealing with a board complaint
“I think if you do your best effort and you try to do what's right and make it right with the patient, they are understanding, so I think if you just keep your processes, don't be too stressed - that’s the message I want to bring to dentists.”
The thought of getting a board complaint is something that would understandably make most of us nervous – Dr Salathe recounted her experience of the 8-month long process, as well as what her key takeaways were and the types of products and processes that really helped her.
“I learned some things, like gosh for my associates, even some things like, I need to keep track of their CE. You know, we might want to take all the DSD courses, but we also need cultural diversity and we need medical emergency, and things like that that really matter. So processes: it really helped shape and improve some of our processes. The one thing I will say, I was stressed and I had extra stress because I am a part owner of a medical practice and that scared me, like – am I doing that right?”
“I never lost sleep on the case, I would say, because there was so much documentation. And then they came back and just said: ‘’Everything looks good’. And now on the back end, having gone through one session of reviewing these complaints and making decisions on it for other cases - on a hygienist and dentist - the boards, they see that. They see the communication.”
“I think on the liability side, if you are a DSD Clinic, if you're a Kois-trained clinic, if you're a Traction clinic, business, you should be okay. Because you are always evolving, always learning, and that is seen if something happens like that.”
Choosing systems
Speaking of evolving and adopting new approaches, it can be hard to overcome our hesitations about putting new technologies or systems in place in our practice. What is Dr Salathe’s approach to incorporating new technologies?
“When I see all the solutions then I'll kind of pick and choose – what will work best for the team, what will work best for the patient, what will work best for my workflow, and then I'll kind of jump on it. And I've learned that when I do that, I'll implement it, I'll start it, I'll onboard it, and then I'm like off to the next one – or at least I have in the past. (...)
“I've learned to marinate longer on it, so I say I've slowed down my adoption of new things so I can allow the space for the teams to fully experience that and fully test drive it before moving on to the next."
Listen to Dr Salathe’s story
Catch up on the full conversation between Maria Cabanellas and Dr Olesya Salathe and stay up to date with all upcoming episodes by subscribing now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
About the episode guest
