I am going to tell you the truth....hopefully this will change things for the future.
A little background. I have a degree in Business Management, and I am a former dental assistant. I have been a Practice Manager for about 15 years, the last few with Park Dental.
I was an acquisition practice. Over time a new doctor came on board. This doctor was an HR nightmare. From the start there were issues with behavior. The doctor was abusive to staff. This was reported immediately. HR stepped in, and the staff was shamed for reporting the behavior, and the doctor denied everything. My team was subjected to violent outbursts, lies, tantrums, and projectile dental instruments. One particular event when trying to defend my team ended with the doctor 2 inches from my face screaming and spitting in my face in front of patients. Always reported, the feedback received from my ROM was, “If they can’t handle it, they should look elsewhere.” It made for a challenging work environment. It was very frustrating as a practice manager, not to be able to protect my team. To make matters worse, the doctor would be on a tirade, and the patient would end up on the receiving end. In my 20 years in the dental field, I had never had a patient get up and leave the dental chair. In 3 years, I saw this happen at 8 times. My office became familiar with EMS, as we frequently had to call them for patients. This again was reported but not addressed. I have so many more stories I could share, I could write a book.
Bottom line, when issues were brought to the attention of upper management and HR, they were disregarded. At Park Dental, what the doctor says happens, whether it is right or wrong.
You will work on special projects and not be compensated for your time. The group is so large and understaffed that upper management/mentors have no idea what really happens at clinic level. Overworked and understaffed is normal. The mentors are phenomenal, but spread too thin. There are meetings about meetings, about meetings, as someone else had stated. (Could have been sent in an email)
It bothered me that they would hire other Practice Managers with no dental background or experience, when I know, there were people with experience that had applied for positions, and didn’t as much get a return call. (Dental world is small, we all know each other) This makes it hard for a team, when they know more than their manager does. How do you manage if you don’t know your dental codes, or if your team is appropriately doing their job? You don’t know, what you don’t know. This is a way of cost cutting that is not good for a company or a clinic.
I was not impressed by HR. They at one point asked us, to write positive reviews to boost their image as an employer.
HR and upper management is like politics. You can’t have people in power, year after year without change, they get comfortable and take the easy way out.
