Ep. 1 - Tips For Dealing With Difficult Patients

Welcome to our first episode of Practice Talk, featuring Lacie Ellis as the host. Today Lacie sits down with Kaitlynn Kopa, the scheduling coordinator at King Orthodontics in Dayton, Ohio. She offers valuable insights on managing appointments for school-age children during and after school hours. She also dives into her strategies for handling disgruntled patients. Additionally, Kaitlynn will address questions from our listeners. Get ready for an engaging episode of Practice Talk!

Click here to download this episode's printable tip sheet, "Dealing With Difficult Patients."

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for watching the video.

(00:00:00) Intro: Welcome to Practice. Talk a deep dive into the world of healthcare practices where we invite team members to share strategies to make your work life easier. Now, your host, Lacie Ellis.

(00:00:17) Lacie Ellis: Welcome to our very first episode of Practice Talk. My name is Lacie Ellis. I'm from the People and Practice Team, and I am a tiny bit nervous, but I'm mostly really excited to dive into the topic of dealing with difficult patients with my guest today, Kaitlynn. Kaitlynn is an amazing team member from King Orthodontics in Dayton, Ohio, and I thought she would be perfect for our conversation today because the very first time I spoke with her on the phone, I could literally hear her smile.

(00:00:46) Lacie Ellis: I think she has mastered the art of customer service, and we're just really lucky to have her with us today. So welcome, Kaitlynn. 

(00:00:53) Kaitlynn Kopa: Thank you for welcoming me, Lacie. It's nice to see you. 

(00:00:56) Lacie Ellis: Nice to see you too. Before we dig in too deep, I do wanna say, don't worry about taking any notes For anybody that's listening today, we are going to put together a printable that we'll have all of the information that we talk about today and you'll be able to download it for free from our website.

(00:01:12) Lacie Ellis: So we'll get you all that information. So just sit back and relax and enjoy our. Little conversation today. So to start, I actually have a customer experience question because I think that customer service and customer experience are so closely tied together, and so I, and I'm always curious about this, how do you check in your patients and is it different for a new patient versus your existing patient?

(00:01:40) Kaitlynn Kopa: Yeah, so when we check in patients, I like to treat every patient the same. When they check in, we greet them with a smile. We say, hello, how are you doing? We recognize the patients, we check them in. It's a simple process for us when we check  them in. And then eventually what we do is we have kind of a, depending on what they're needing that day, whether they need to.

(00:02:03) Kaitlynn Kopa: Fill out new paperwork or they need to, have a question answered for them. We have that pop up as well and we go forward with that and they kind of hang out with us in the lobby. We chat with them a little bit, but we do the same thing with our new patients too. So we greet them with a smile, we welcome them to our office, that we're happy to see them and we.

(00:02:21) Kaitlynn Kopa: Give them their new paperwork to get started with us. So we kind of treat the same excitement of seeing a new patient as we do our current patients, because each patient is just as important as the last. And so we like to make sure we treat everybody is great, every single time. 

(00:02:37) Lacie Ellis: That's awesome. And it, you know, I actually love that, , And I think it's valuable because I think sometimes we welcome a new patient maybe a little bit differently, and then they start coming in as a existing patient and they're like, oh, they're not as excited to see me as they once were, or something like that.

(00:02:53) Lacie Ellis: I do know something that I did when I worked front desk that kind of. Maybe differentiated a little bit, hopefully not too much, but was, I tried to think of that new patient as if my sister was sending her very best friend in. Mm-hmm. , I would know their name. I would know their child's name, you know, if my sister was sending somebody in, I'd know when they're coming, what time.

(00:03:16) Lacie Ellis: Right. And I would really be anticipating their arrival and that way I could be like, you know, Hey Sam, we're so excited that you're here. We've been looking forward to this. So there was just a little bit of that. , Extra anticipation, but I know you guys do a great job of knowing your patients and knowing their names and mm-hmm.

(00:03:33) Lacie Ellis: Who they are. So it's, I love, I love that you treat everybody the same. Yeah. Energy.

(00:03:41) Lacie Ellis: Abso Well, and you, like I said, you're just sunshine all over the place. So, , so I'm also curious, what systems do you have in place to actually help you, , deal, you know, your dealings with your patients a little bit easier. 

(00:03:56) Kaitlynn Kopa: Absolutely. So when we're working with patients, depending on what the situation is, we run a lot of reports, you know, make sure to stay on track with things we, you know, keep things together, kind of share with everything.

(00:04:07) Kaitlynn Kopa: And that kind of leads into just teamwork. Relying on everybody as a team. I know I rely on the other scheduling coordinator a lot. I rely on the financial coordinators, on the treatment coordinators, on the back supervisor room, we each, we. Really work with everyone together. And I think that's the biggest support that you can have because no matter what situation you run into, everyone's gonna be able to help you with any question, any answer that they might have, and just work as a team.

(00:04:33) Kaitlynn Kopa: I think that's such a great support and I know some people might not have the same I. Teamwork aspect that we do, but it's such a great support system that can help us with any sort of situation. Whether it's, Hey, can you help me with this paperwork, you know, that we need done. Hey, I have a question for this patient.

(00:04:50) Kaitlynn Kopa: This patient needs help. How can we help them? Whatever that case may be, there's always someone here that's willing to help out, whether it's to help the patient or help one of the team members. And I think that's a really cool support system and I didn't really have any other job before. 

(00:05:05) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, I think, , I.

(00:05:07) Lacie Ellis: I've worked in offices where I've had that experience of the team support, and I've worked in ones that I didn't, and I can tell you that the patients can feel that, right? Like they can feel that. There's some animosity or tension. They don't always know what that is, but it's, it's really frustrating when you're a front desk team and you don't have the support of your team.

(00:05:26) Lacie Ellis: And so I do think that is a huge differentiator between you, , and other offices and the experience your patients have with you guys. I know, , you know, the offices that I've worked in, really being clear on the policies mm-hmm. For. Anything for emergencies, for afterschool appointments. From the very beginning, we were always really clear, you know, especially in that new patient exam mm-hmm.

(00:05:49) Lacie Ellis: Setting out what those expectations are, and that really helped cut down on some of the drama. Doesn't mean that people didn't, you know, have emergencies and throw all of our, you know, hard thought of, You know, plans out the window. But, , having that really does help. So having those policies and plans in place, and then having the team know what they are and support you if you have to throw that out the window.

(00:06:13) Lacie Ellis: , I think that's, that's super helpful. That's a good 

(00:06:16) Kaitlynn Kopa: point. Having those policies are so good. 

(00:06:19) Lacie Ellis: Yeah. Do you guys, do you have. Do you have policies for? What is your policy for actual, you know, emergencies and things? Absolutely. So do you set those out at the very beginning? 

(00:06:31) Kaitlynn Kopa: So with those emergencies? So anytime, depending on the type of emergency, a lot of kiddos, you know, they'll have a pokey wire, they'll have a broken bracket, depending on what type of situation they're in with that emergency can depend then on what that next step is going to be with that policy.

(00:06:47) Kaitlynn Kopa: So typically in our schedule, We keep spots there to leave open for any emergency that we might have. Now, there's some days that may have more emergencies than others, and so especially on a Monday after the weekend where all the kids are playing, parents are going out and about in town. So we end up having quite a few emergencies usually on Mondays and then towards the end of the week before the weekend.

(00:07:09) Kaitlynn Kopa: And so depending on what type of emergency that is, then we can get them scheduled. If it's a super urgent, you know, hey, they're. Really in pain. They just got in an accident, you know, they really need some help. We will get them worked into the schedule. , but if it's just a broken bracket, you know, we can kind of finagle things in a different way to get them in at another time as we want to prioritize emergencies in a way so that way we can help the patients as much as we can, and we leave those emergency spots open and if it's a true emergency for that patient.

(00:07:40) Kaitlynn Kopa: Then they usually are able to make that work for their schedule themselves. And so I think that's a really big important part to have, is to make sure that they understand how important their care is so that they can come in when we can also take care of them too. 'cause we wanna make sure we take care of them.

(00:07:57) Kaitlynn Kopa: And so if we don't have enough assistance to help with them, we're not gonna be able to give them the care that they deserve. And so we wanna make sure that we can take the time to. Address the situation and make them comfortable and get them back on their 

(00:08:08) Lacie Ellis: way. Yeah. So I'm like we said, like pre-planning for that.

(00:08:13) Lacie Ellis: Mm-hmm. And having your policies in place, , are helpful. But I, like you said, like the team being supportive of those needs is probably the biggest part of that. You can have all the policies in the world, but if you don't have your team supporting you, , I think it makes it really tricky. So we reached out to some team members that we know and we asked them to submit some questions and stories about our topic today.

(00:08:35) Lacie Ellis: So here is a question we received. 

(00:08:38) Kaitlynn Kopa: I work in a very busy orthodontic office and we always look forward to summer because we get a little break from all of the patients that insist on afterschool appointments, but we wanna have a better plan when school starts again this year. Any advice on how we can have a better system for this?

(00:08:59) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, take this away. Caitlyn, what is your policy for afterschool appointments? Absolutely. 

(00:09:04) Kaitlynn Kopa: So that's probably the toughest thing as a scheduling coordinator we have to deal with is those afterschool appointments and before school appointments. So for our policy, we try to accommodate when we can. Of course, not everyone can be after school, you know, a majority of our patients are children, so having everyone after school, it would be a bundle of just.

(00:09:25) Kaitlynn Kopa: Big chunk of people coming in and then no one in during the day. So typically what we do is depending on the appointment as well, we have certain times that we see them in the schedule. So, for example, putting on new brackets, we only see those midday due to the length of the appointment, and we wanna make sure that our doctor can take as much time as he needs to take care of those patients and get everything done to continue on with their treatment.

(00:09:48) Kaitlynn Kopa: , so when scheduling after school appointments, kind of the little policy that we do is try to get them towards the end of the afternoon. And save those last appointments at the end of the day for those who might be a little bit more pushy than others. And so, 'cause we wanna make sure we can accommodate for everyone that we can.

(00:10:05) Kaitlynn Kopa: And sometimes everything that you do, you know, trying to make everyone happy, that's what matters most. So we wanna make sure that we can have. Space to accommodate for those patients that might need to change their appointment or really need after school because of testing, whatever the case may be. So not everyone can go after school, but we try to accommodate the best that we can.

(00:10:23) Kaitlynn Kopa: Another policy that we have is we kind of pay attention to how many appointments you've had after school. So if little Johnny has had. All of his appointments after school, we can let the parent know, Hey, you guys have gotten really great timing with the schedule after school for all of your appointments so far.

(00:10:40) Kaitlynn Kopa: Unfortunately, we can't always accommodate for those afterschool times, especially with our schedule and other patients that are scheduled as well. And so it's really important to kind of communicate with that the parent every single time that you schedule them. Even if you're scheduling an afterschool time or scheduling another appointment, it's good to be clear with the parents when you're scheduling in general, just any appointment that our spots are limited at certain times, and we wanna make sure we can take care of the patient as much as we can.

(00:11:08) Kaitlynn Kopa: We wanna make sure that the doctor has enough time with your child to take care of him or her and give them the best treatment possible. So, and usually, most of the time when parents hear that, that we wanna care for them as much as we can, they're. Super understanding. I love the patients we have at our office.

(00:11:25) Kaitlynn Kopa: They're so great. And so when we run into those situations, usually we're able to accommodate in some way and get them in the schedule where they need to go, but. Sometimes it might not be that time that they truly want, but other times we are absolutely willing to accommodate, and I always make that clear, especially when scheduling more appointments than one.

(00:11:45) Kaitlynn Kopa: We could say, unfortunately for this one, we might not be able to get you in but at at the time that you want. But this next one, I can certainly save that spot for you. And so it's always trying to make sure that you turn it into a positive conversation. You don't want to say, mm-hmm. No, we don't have that for you.

(00:12:00) Kaitlynn Kopa: Sorry. You know, nobody wants to hear that. And so turning it into a positive is what matters because that leaves that parent or themselves who are scheduling happy and satisfied with their care. 

(00:12:11) Lacie Ellis: I love that. I love that so much. , and I know, so one of the policies in the office that I worked in the longest was, and we told them this, right?

(00:12:19) Lacie Ellis: At the new patient exam, again, there are some appointments that we only do at certain times, you know, and explaining that. But for those, , you know, Faster monthly appointments that only take those 15, 20 minutes. Mm-hmm. , we have you. Not miss school on one and then the next one you do miss school. Yeah.

(00:12:37) Lacie Ellis: And so we rotate back and forth and we just always tell them, due to the fairness of all of our patients, we just, we have to rotate so that everybody gets an opportunity to miss and then not miss, , absolutely. So that's kind of how we handled it. Now did that always work out? No. You know, because there's always that one parent that's like, my kid is the only kid that cannot miss.

(00:12:59) Lacie Ellis: Yeah. 

(00:13:00) Kaitlynn Kopa: Ever. Yeah, we, we have Sometimes 

(00:13:03) Lacie Ellis: you said you just didn't have to miss around that, right? I mean, every 

(00:13:07) Kaitlynn Kopa: practice has, yeah. I know myself, I mean, when I was a kid with braces, my mom was like, Hey, I don't want her to miss school. But sometimes it just had to happen, you know? I turned out okay. 

(00:13:20) Lacie Ellis: Yes, you definitely did.

(00:13:22) Lacie Ellis: , okay, so we also received this story from another team member.

(00:13:29) Kaitlynn Kopa: Hi. I work in a general dentist's office that stays pretty busy. We only have one dentist currently. , hoping to bring on another here soon. I remember a time, , not too long ago where we had a patient who had an emergency situation and was in quite a bit of pain. They called and tried to get on the schedule and were told they could come in later that afternoon or the next day and we could look at what was going on.

(00:14:03) Kaitlynn Kopa: The patient must not have liked that answer and wanted to be seen sooner. So they did a walk-in and we did see them, took some x-rays, found out what was going on, and they still were pretty upset that we weren't able to fix the issue that was going on. Right there and then, and the dentist I work for is very calm and caring and did a really, really wonderful job explaining the situation, explaining that there was an infection that we had to get that cleared up before we could do any work and we may need to refer them on.

(00:14:40) Kaitlynn Kopa: And even though the patient was not overly happy that we couldn't alleviate any of that pain immediately, it was handled in a really. Calm and caring way.

(00:14:58) Lacie Ellis: Yeah. I mean, it's tough, right? But what I loved about that was that you deal with the circumstance and the situation that you're dealt with, and you do your best to just. Take care of people. And that's really the bottom line is we are caring for people. And I think sometimes we have to step back and, you know, even though we have all these office policies or , things, sometimes we have to break them just to make sure we're taking care of people.

(00:15:23) Lacie Ellis: So I know we kind of talked about emergencies, Caitlyn, but , how do you guys feel, like, do you feel like you have. So many emergencies, you know, all at once that they come in floods and then you deal with them and then you don't have emergencies for a while, or do you feel like they kind of trickle in throughout the week?

(00:15:40) Kaitlynn Kopa: I. It happens. So we have, , like I said, Mondays, you know, after a weekend, kids going and playing, maybe eating something they shouldn't, especially after Halloween. We, we run into situations like that. , and so anytime that we have an emergency, we always try to accommodate the best that we can. , sometimes, you know, like I said before, if it's a true emergency, you'll come in when.

(00:16:06) Kaitlynn Kopa: You need to. , I know, you know, healthcare is super important and sometimes I think people can forget that, you know, with braces we are moving the teeth in your mouth. , and so it's really important that that's taken care of. So even if they have to come out of school, I. To take care of that. I know as a patient, you know, I didn't like having a pokey wire broken bracket.

(00:16:26) Kaitlynn Kopa: I know I was upset. I'd want it to be fixed as soon as possible. , we always are trying to accommodate for that the best that we can. , so we have those spots open and ready for any emergency that comes in. We also have over the weekend, someone who's on call, an assistant that can take emergencies, , or the doctor himself that comes in and takes care of that patient.

(00:16:45) Kaitlynn Kopa: 'cause ultimately, like you said, what matters most is taking care of the patient. We want to, we wanna make sure that they're taken care of. Absolutely. We can. And we also wanna make sure that we take care of the patients that are already in the schedule as well. So we wanna make sure that we treat Yeah, all patients equally, , in whatever the situation may be.

(00:17:01) Kaitlynn Kopa: Every patient's unique. So even having policies set in standard, there's always gonna be something new. That's one. One thing that the treatment coordinator always tells me, she's been working here forever. I. And she tells me all the time, you know, every person's unique. You learn something new every day.

(00:17:17) Kaitlynn Kopa: And so working here, I always feel like problem solver, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna solve this problem. We're gonna get this person taken care of, and it's, we're gonna do great. And so that's, I, I love that aspect of it, of just trying to take care of people. 'cause seeing them, you know, in a point of time where they need help and us able to help them and get them to where they need to be, that is just, Awesome.

(00:17:38) Kaitlynn Kopa: So I think we handle emergency appointments, absolutely amazing. I know when I was a kid at the office I went to, it was not the same. , so I, I feel really grateful that we have such a great team that can help take care of those emergencies. And if there's ever a situation where someone's not happy with, The care that they're getting or the emergency times that we have.

(00:17:58) Kaitlynn Kopa: You know, we always wanna be clear that we treat every patient equally, that everyone is just as important. And so we wanna make sure that we can help everyone that we can. 

(00:18:09) Lacie Ellis: So I, you know, it makes me think about the fact that, , your amazing doctor, Dr. King, uh mm-hmm. He, I've heard him say this so many times that his philosophy is, you know, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

(00:18:23) Lacie Ellis: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. And I think, you know, that really trickles down from the top, you know? Mm-hmm. Of leadership of Dr. King in your office all the way through your team. And I think that shows, because you guys really embody that, like, we're gonna care for you first. And, , I. They, people really don't care what you know until they know that you really care about them.

(00:18:43) Lacie Ellis: And I think your patients feel very cared for. So I think, I mean, again, that's one of the reasons why I thought you'd be perfect to be here, because I think you guys do an excellent job at that. 

(00:18:53) Kaitlynn Kopa: We, we love it. We love it. Everyone at the office is just so happy to take care of people. I love watching the kids come in, they're smiling, they're happy.

(00:19:01) Kaitlynn Kopa: It's so of times they're excited to come in, you know, and it's something that can be scary, you know, as a kid. You, I, I had braces too. A lot of us have had braces in the office and some of us didn't have the greatest of experiences in orthodontics. And so now to try to turn that around and instead of having a scary person at the front desk, you know, answering the phone, it's someone who's excited to talk to you and excited to hear of what's going on and happy to help you.

(00:19:25) Kaitlynn Kopa: So I think it's really important, and Dr. King just does such a great job of. Just working with the team and everyone having that same happy energy. We have patients all the time come in and say, are you guys all related? 'cause you all are just as happy as he is. So, you know, we, we, we definitely are just an energetic and happy team and I think that kind of projects onto the patients.

(00:19:47) Kaitlynn Kopa: You know, if you're in a situation where, The office just doesn't, they're in a sour mood. They're not really willing to help you. That kind of reflects on what kind of treatment you're gonna be given, but if everyone's excited to be there and excited for you to be there, it really changes everyone. And so it's just so exciting to see the kids be excited to come in, see the adult patients come in and be excited to go through their next step of treatment.

(00:20:11) Kaitlynn Kopa: I just think that's so cool. And so trying to take care of the patients is what matters most, and we definitely do. We care a. 

(00:20:19) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, you absolutely care a lot. So last question is, what is your number one tip for dealing with difficult patients? 

(00:20:29) Kaitlynn Kopa: Yeah, so it all comes down. We keep passing this word around, but using care, care is such an important factor of taking care of a difficult patient.

(00:20:38) Kaitlynn Kopa: 'cause most of the time if someone is upset or they're unhappy, whether it's in the phone or on the phone, in the office, the number one top priority is taking care of those patients. And so we as a team, Absolutely wanna take care of the patients. You know, we wanna help. We wanna try to help the best that we can.

(00:20:55) Kaitlynn Kopa: They might be upset because of something going on in their life. They might be upset with the scheduling. They might be upset that their child is in pain. And so all those factors come in that we just wanna take care of the patient. And so reassurance and using language that is perfect for that situation is so important.

(00:21:13) Kaitlynn Kopa: Like I said before, using positive notes to end on or transfer to. You know, we may not be able to do this, but we can do this for you instead. We always wanna help the patient no matter what, and we truly care, and that's where that care comes in. That is how you'll always help. Deal with a difficult patient is that we want to show them that we care.

(00:21:35) Kaitlynn Kopa: A lot of the times, if they're upset, it might be that they don't think that we care as much, and so we wanna make sure that they know that we absolutely care about the patient. We wanna make sure that they're happy and excited. We wanna make sure that's shown in our actions that we do. We don't just wanna tell them those things.

(00:21:51) Kaitlynn Kopa: We wanna act upon it. So we're gonna say, Hey, I'm gonna do this for you. I'm gonna make sure it's done and we will get that problem solved for you because we want you to be satisfied with your care because we know we can do a good job and we wanna make sure you know that we can. And I think that's so imperative.

(00:22:07) Kaitlynn Kopa: Now to make sure, especially with how the world is right now, it might be, you know, things going on in life that can be difficult and it's just another factor to worry about. We wanna make sure that when they're here, they're cared for and they can be excited to be here. 

(00:22:22) Lacie Ellis: Yes, absolutely. And do you think, It.

(00:22:25) Lacie Ellis: I mean, I guess I've worked in offices where maybe the doctor wasn't as supportive to being a little bit more flexible when we need to be accommodating to patients. Like it was just, no, this is the policy. Mm-hmm. And if we bend for this patient, then we have to bend for that one and mm-hmm. It made it a little bit harder to.

(00:22:42) Lacie Ellis: Care for a patient when you're kind of hamstrung in a way that you can't Right. Do what you know is best for them, so, right. I mean, maybe you can speak to that and, and mm-hmm. How Dr. King kind of allows you the space to do that. 

(00:22:55) Kaitlynn Kopa: Absolutely. I mean, he's an amazing doctor and our team is absolutely amazing too.

(00:23:00) Kaitlynn Kopa: And I think if, you know, if a practice truly wants to shine, teamwork is number one in taking care of the patients. It's something that trickles down into effect. You know, everyone needs to work together. Everyone needs to know the policies so we can enact those policies. If something is unique in a unique situation, we can work with that.

(00:23:20) Kaitlynn Kopa: Also, I think it's just. So important to be able to communicate. Communication is such a big key. I'm surprised. I'm like, I've not said that the whole time. Communication is such a huge factor in just getting everything done in the office, making sure, you know, you're communicating to the patient, communicating to the doctor, communicating to your team members, and you know, we wanna make sure that they're taken care of and that communication is so important to work as a team.

(00:23:43) Kaitlynn Kopa: And so, like you said, it's. Nice to have a doctor that can, you know, be helpful and work with the team so well. It's so amazing. He's so great. But if, if you are in a situation where maybe your team member or your doctor might not be as flexible, I think one of the most important things is just being able to communicate with them and let them understand, you know, I understand you're frustrated.

(00:24:07) Kaitlynn Kopa: I want to be able to help you. I'll try to get you the help as best as I can. I wanna make sure that you're taken care of. I think language is such a great importance when communicating with someone. You wanna make sure that you use the right words that are more positive. You don't wanna use negative words, you wanna make sure that they're taken care of and we can make 'em smile.

(00:24:29) Lacie Ellis: Yes. So, and I think part of that is like actively listening. Yes, you're not already deciding how you're going to like, deal with the situation, like actively listening and with empathy, where you're really trying to figure out why does this patient feel this way or what is going on and how can I help them with that?

(00:24:47) Lacie Ellis: Just like I said, how, how would you treat if this was your sister or, or your sister's best friend or you know, a family member? How would you treat them in that situation? And, and I love that you said this, oftentimes. Probably more often than not, it has like, their frustration and anger really has nothing to do with you or even what's going on in the office.

(00:25:07) Lacie Ellis: Right? Yeah. Like oftentimes they are dealing with something. You know, I, I had, a lady once who was just furious that about something I don't even remember. She was mad and, you know, when we really got down through it and started communicating and talking, her father had gone into hospice that morning and mm-hmm.

(00:25:25) Lacie Ellis: She was just so stressed out and it really, you know, she was just, Expressing her frustration and anger for something totally different. And it was coming out on me. And once I understood that, like, man, my heart just broke for her and I just wanted to, mm-hmm. Well, I wanted to hug her, and I think I probably did because that's who I'm, but I did, I did feel like, you know, when you listen and you really try to solve the problem, The best that you can.

(00:25:53) Lacie Ellis: Like, that can never be a wrong path. You know, that that can't be, you can't go wrong when you're giving it your best with your whole heart. So, absolutely. And I, like I said, you guys exemplify that to the biggest degree I've ever seen. 

(00:26:08) Kaitlynn Kopa: We go little overboard there. No, I'm just kidding. 

(00:26:11) Lacie Ellis: No, I don't think there's too much.

(00:26:13) Lacie Ellis: I really don't. So is there anything else that you wanted to share or say today, about. The practice or about what you do or about teamwork or is there anything else that we didn't touch on that you wanted to say? I think 

(00:26:26) Kaitlynn Kopa: we touched on a lot. I mean, I am so grateful to work in such a happy, amazing environment.

(00:26:31) Kaitlynn Kopa: I've never got to work in such a place before, so I'm so excited. My, I've haven't been something that viewers might not know. I've. I had zero receptionary experience prior to working here, so this was a whole brand new ballpark for me. I, my two years is coming up this month, so I, you know, not having a lot of experience of being the jump up, you know, and just be, I.

(00:26:55) Kaitlynn Kopa: Excited to be here and do great with what I'm doing. Was super exciting. They kind of rescued me off from another job I was at and brought me in and showed me everything. I'm so thankful to be here, but I'm just so thankful about all the things that I've learned too. I mean, communication, learning how to communicate, learning to listen, like you said, listening is so important, especially listening to that patient, what their main concerns are.

(00:27:20) Kaitlynn Kopa: Mm-hmm. And truly getting to a solution that's most important for them. But just learning so much has been so exciting. And working with a patient's, always a joy to see so many patients excited to be there. I'm, like I said, Some people's experience at doctor's offices might not be that great. So I'm so happy that we can create an environment that's warm and friendly and just be excited to care for people, I think.

(00:27:43) Kaitlynn Kopa: I think it's a lot of fun, so I hope that a lot of other offices too can kind of feel that same joy also and work together to get to that point. 

(00:27:53) Lacie Ellis: Yeah, I agree. I I, I always used to feel like my goal when I worked chairside as an assistant was I want whoever sits in my chair today to have a better day because they sat in my chair, like, right, whatever I can do.

(00:28:07) Lacie Ellis: And, and most of that really comes down to just listening to what people have to say. Like, people have a story or. A situation and they want to be heard, like people wanna be seen and they wanna be heard. And if we can do that and take really good care of people in the process, like, like I said, I think you guys nailed it.

(00:28:25) Lacie Ellis: So, I really hope everybody enjoyed this conversation as much as I did today. You know, our goal with this podcast is to really give truly tangible, Topics and items and, you know, tactical things people can do in their day-to-day life at work. And we really wanna elevate the voices of people like Kaitlynn, who work inside a practice and sit in the same chair that you sit in every single day.

(00:28:49) Lacie Ellis: So on our next episode we're going to be talking to a talented treatment coordinator and discussing, the challenges inside of a TC room. And if the comment I need to go home and talk to my spouse is, Legitimate or an excuse. So send us your anonymous questions or stories to practice talk.com.

(00:29:09) Lacie Ellis: That'll be in our show notes as well. You'll also be able to find the notes from today's show that you can download if you would like to as well. And we would really love it if you would. Follow us and subscribe, share this episode with friends or family members that might find it interesting or, you know, helpful in any way.

(00:29:29) Lacie Ellis: Thank you again, Caitlyn. This was really fun. 

(00:29:31) Kaitlynn Kopa: Yeah, thank you for having me. It was fun. I'm, I'm excited. I hope a lot of people can kind of use what we've said today to help them out and just be excited to take care of more people. 

(00:29:43) Lacie Ellis: Excellent. Thank you so much everybody. Have a great 

(00:29:45) Lacie Ellis: day. Thank you.

(00:29:50) Close: Thank you for listening to The Practice Talk podcast. Head over to practice talk.com to ask us questions or tell us your stories. Until next time.