Fantasy Ortho?

Do you play fantasy football? How about your spouse or kids? Fantasy sports has been estimated to be the fastest growing entertainment market in the world with over 15 million participants in the United States.

For those of you still in the dark, here's how it works. Each "owner" gets to pick their own team of real football players. Usually the team managers are given an imaginary bundle of cash and they "buy" players during a fantasy draft. Of course, the best players cost the most. Each week, the team gains or loses points based on the actual performance of the players that they've chosen. The managers can trade or change their teams as long as they don't overspend.

Why am I telling you this? You can play your own version of a game that we call Fantasy Ortho. Instead of using football players, we use orthodontic team members. The goal of the game in Orthodontics is to provide winning customer service, gentle care, patient accountability and on time service in a fun and nurturing environment. Players are awarded points based on certain criteria. Individuals (patient managers), you may choose teams or the entire staff could qualify together for points - whatever works in your office. Examples:

• Unsolicited Praise = (6 points)
• New Patient Conversion Rate Percentage = (1 point for each %)
• Phase One to Phase Two Start Conversion = (6 points)
• Referring a patient =(6 points)
• Having Your Patient Participate in Contests = (1 point)
• Sending Patient Notes = (1 point)
• Patient Care Calls = (1 point)
• Clipping Patient Newspaper Article = (1 point)
• Finishing a Patient Within Expected Treatment Months = (6 points)
• Suggesting a topic for meeting agenda = (1 point)
• Not wearing a name tag, penalty = (-1point)
• Emergency visit, penalty = (-1 point)
• Patients kept 10 minutes past their scheduled time, penalty = (-1 point)

The best practices are those that enjoy what they do, make working fun and make the patient experience exceptional! Points for teams could convert to dollars for equipment a team feels would improve customer service, continuing education courses/trips or other team decided bennies. Players of the week might be voted on for each team. Have fun with the concept, the potential is limitless.

Setting Up Teams

Teams can be set up in both OneTouch and in ViewPoint. To initially set up your system into equal teams use the outstanding subgrouping features to create reports that allow you to sort by family names and then status and then start date. Each team should have family members on the same team. Each team should have approximately the same number of Full Treatment starts, Phase I starts, Limited Starts, Phase II starts assigning the most current start date first and alternating to allow for equal teams.

Subgrouping for Reports

In OneTouch use the user-definable patient field #2 Enter T1 or T2, etc. Use the first 3 spaces on the line for Team 1 or Team 2. Use the insert key to enter the team number if you already have information on this line. This field may be sub grouped by using #5 Sub-Group reports/Word Pro.Merge. Sub-Group selection is on the second page of sub-group categories #25. The subgroup will sort by only the first three characters in your line entry. Example: if the line reads T1 Kathy and Sam Z=A-, all patients who begin with T1 will be included in the report. The schedule may be templated to allow for search capabilities by team.

In ViewPoint use the Assistant and/or the Patient tag in the Milestones tab. Using the Patient tab will display the team on all patient screens. You may include the patient tag or assistant as part of the subgroup capabilities of ViewPoint to get report statistics for just the team. Set up Assistants in your Schedule templates to allow for using the explore feature to schedule by teams or assistants.