In today’s digital world, connectivity is at its peak. Even though most of the work we do as orthodontists is in direct contact with patients, there is the opportunity to significantly do remote and virtual work. For doctors integrating digital orthodontics into their practices, there is already an opportunity for doctors to do remote work. From my perspective, it is important to delineate that remote work as assigned time away from the office for this work and not leftover additional work performed as homework.
Once you begin integrating remote work, it is not difficult to consider remote work for delegated tasks and roles within an orthodontic practice. You will feel an in-person assistant is appropriate for some functions, while a virtual assistant can benefit an orthodontist for many other tasks.
So when should we consider a virtual orthodontic assistant? This decision depends on the types of tasks you are assigning, your practice’s communication infrastructure, and your team and community’s accessibility to talent.
Tasks
A team member directly involved in patient care cannot be virtual. Still, we have new workflows such as virtual appointments, digital appliance design, and ClinChecks® that become a larger part of the practice. Once you start integrating these tasks, a virtual assistant could be a consideration. A virtual appointment coordinator, digital design lab technician, and ClinCheck® coordinator are roles where remote work is possible.
Communication
Communication systems are key to success when we manage a remote team. When we do virtual work, we must be comfortable moving away from traditional, face-to-face interactions. If you are prepared and comfortable communicating via text message, email, Slack, and Zoom meeting, you can integrate a remote virtual assistant into your team.
Talent
Depending on where you live, the local talent pool may lack the skillset you require. Alternatively, you might not be able to afford a local assistant with the skillset you need. Our experience has had several team members who were well trained and moved away from our state. A remote virtual assistant can be anywhere in the world, and with the proper experience and work ethic, they can continue to add value to the team from a distance.
