The Five Ws for Better Staff Meetings

Meetings are increasingly important in primary care practices, given the complex and seemingly endless changes to technology, billing, and care delivery that we have to communicate to our teams. But we're also busy, so we need to make sure our meetings are efficient and useful. Thinking critically about the “five Ws” can help maximize everyone's time.

Understanding why you are meeting is key to determining whether a meeting is truly necessary. For example, if the intent is to have bidirectional communication, a meeting can be useful; however, if the intent is to have one-way communication, an email could be more appropriate. If the intent is for staff to share accomplishments or give kudos to colleagues, that's nice to do in person, but in some cases using a message board (physical or electronic) can be more efficient and longer lasting.

Similarly, you can use meetings to share patient safety stories, patient satisfaction scores, or process improvement data if the intent is to have a group discussion about them. But if you're just looking to make that information available to staff, sharing it electronically saves time and allows staff to look at it whenever is convenient for them.

Soliciting feedback from staff after meetings can reveal whether they think the meeting was truly necessary and what topics they think require the kind of vibrant group discussion that a meeting allows. Consider allowing staff to submit this feedback anonymously so they can be fully candid.

Meetings should have a clear agenda (see “Sample agenda”). Consider assigning someone to plan the agenda and send it out beforehand (potentially with slides attached), and keep a calendar of speakers and topics to help track what you've used meeting time for.

If the meeting includes general announcements (e.g., new staff or changes to the worksite), you might leave a bit of time at the end for each group (clinical, administrative, etc.) to give a brief update, but make sure this is limited to new items that truly need to be communicated to all staff.

Regular staff meetings are an efficient time for guest speakers or mandatory training, to avoid having to dedicate clinical time to them. (Remember that you may need to take and document attendance for trainings mandated by regulations.) If you're hosting a speaker, give them a set amount of time to talk, so you can keep the meeting on schedule. Ask the presenter to focus on one or two key takeaways, and consider asking to review slides before the presentation to ensure the content is relevant to all or at least the majority of participants. It's also wise to assign someone to confirm the speaker is still coming a day or two ahead of time.