We find ourselves living in a world of e-mail and texts and tweets filled with contracted words, symbols, and abbreviations. Whether you are on the subway, or out for dinner, or at a ballgame, all you see are people glued to their smart phones. It seems that we have forgotten the art of interpersonal communication. One of my favorite journalists recently wrote “Did you ever think you’d see the day when handwriting seems like an endangered species?”

One of the major keys to success in life and in business is making people feel special. And in my opinion, nothing does that better than sending a handwritten note. I advise all of my clients to write two handwritten notes at the end of every single workday before they leave to go home. Here are the logistics of how to make this happen.

Your dental practice is a huge gossip center where happy occurrences or tragic events and everything in between are discussed every day. The people who answer the telephone at your office often have to reschedule appointments based on these events: births, deaths, business situations, etc. Life as we all know it is complicated and ever-changing. Unless the change occurs on the doctor’s schedule that day, he or she may not be privy to or informed of that information. There are also many patients who are processed through Hygiene that the doctor may not be scheduled to examine. So again, important social information will not be heard by the doctor.

The goal is to channel all this information to the doctor so that he/she can respond. I suggest the creation of a position in the office called the “PR person”. This is the name for the designated staff person in charge of public relations to whom everyone who works in the practice reports all significant information that they might hear during the course of the day. The PR person’s job is to accumulate the information, along with the name and address of the patient, and leave it on the doctor’s desk.

From the list that has been prepared, the doctor chooses who will receive notes. Using personalized stationary, the note is written in your “prescription” handwriting. This is not a term paper–just two or three lines at the most.

“Dear Mary–I was so sorry to learn that your Mom had passed away. Please accept my deepest sympathies at this difficult time. Sincerely”

“Dear Robert–I was so excited to learn that you were accepted to the University of Pennsylvania. Congratulations on all of your hard work. Please send my best to your proud parents. Sincerely”

A number of wonderful things happen with this note writing program.

1. People are very surprised to get a personal note from their busy dentist. It is so totally not expected that it gets talked about–to many many people – all over town.
2. It shows great inter-office communication. The information that might have been discussed with someone at the front desk or a hygienist or an assistant somehow was made available to the doctor.
3. It makes people feel special. You took the time to write a note. How often does that happen? Usually, the only correspondence one gets from a dental practice is a bill!

So please try this strategy of writing notes to your patients. You might be skeptical about the time this will take. But so many clients have told me the joy they experience by staying in close touch with their patients. And they certainly get a lot of positive feedback. Two notes per day soon becomes thirty-five per month. If you commit to this effort, it doesn’t take long for a huge buzz to spread around your community recognizing you as a caring and compassionate professional.

The dental profession was dealt a major black eye two weeks ago with the astonishing revelation that Dr. Wayne Harrington, a Tulsa, Oklahoma oral surgeon, had potentially placed 7000 of his patients at risk by exposing them to Hepatitis B and HIV from poor sterilization procedures. In a complaint filed by the Tulsa Health Department, Harrington allegedly reused needles and was working with instruments that were rusty and porous and could not be properly sterilized.

I received many calls from clients wondering about a proper response. Some were considering sending an e-mail blast to their patient base reassuring them. Others were thinking about a newsletter piece. I discouraged this approach feeling it was going to just add fuel to the fire. My advice was to meet immediately as a team and write out “the script” for the proper response when any patient inquired. Something like “Thank you for calling Mrs. Smith. Your concerns are certainly justified. We want you to know that our practice is 100% compliant with the highest standards of recommended patient protection, and that you and your family are totally safe.” It is an absolute necessity for the message to be consistent and perfect when delivered by any member of the team.

This deplorable situation triggered unpleasant memories of another outlier event that occurred in the late 1980s, when Dr. David Acer–a Florida dentist who himself was HIV positive–infected three of his patients with the deadly AIDS virus. This was the first recorded case of patients becoming infected during dental care. The Acer event entirely changed the way that modern dentistry is practiced. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1988 recommended the OSHA standard for occupational exposure to blood borne pathogens which included the use of gloves in a dental setting where there is contact with saliva or blood. I sure wish I had bought stock in latex gloves!

The take away message from this unfortunate incident in Tulsa is that our patients are VERY concerned with their safety. I have always been a big advocate for an impressive well designed Stericenter. It should be hospital quality – nothing less. And it must always be immaculately clean. The major dental supply companies all have their own version, and I think this is a wonderful and worthwhile investment. Be sure to point out the sterilization area in your practice–especially to new patients–as they are being escorted to a treatment room. Let’s go out of our way to make every single patient feel safe and secure.