A look back at a year . . .

Laura and Kim ran in a scavenger hunt adventure the other day.

Renee just returned from Disneyland.

Kathleen, Lauren, and Jane have bought homes recently.

Lori’s hamster hates fireworks.

This is what I hear about from my wonderful coworkers at lunch. A year ago, I didn’t know most of these folks. Now, I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.

In July of last year, The Hello Foundation and Buckendorf & Associates became The Hello Clinic. Bob and Jolene Buckendorf decided that 40 years in the field were enough and that they were ready for retirement and adventure. They were gracious enough to entrust us with their private practice of almost a decade. More importantly, they let us provide service to the dozens of families with whom they had forged strong relationships.

Those early days and weeks were challenging. Those of us new to private practice were busy learning about scheduling, insurance billing, and payments.  We were jumping into a busy clinic that was already well-established. What could we offer to this tight-knit family of clinicians and families?

Those who joined our team right as the two companies came together needed to navigate two very different business cultures.  Fortunately, we all had the same goal: to continue to provide quality service to families.

We had some other lunchtime conversations about all of the challenges we had.

What codes do we use now that ICD-9 is now ICD-10?

How do we help families transition from years with Bob to a new clinician?

It’s snowing. Looks like we’ll need an inclement weather policy.

When is construction on our new space going to be done?

We’ll need to hire more staff to meet needs.

Why did Jenny dye her hair pink?

Fast forward to this July. We’ve been doing some self-reflection as part of annual reviews. It’s helped to me to see how far we’ve come in a year. We’ve been able to meet our goal to provide great service to great kids. Naturally, the process has been different for everyone with a variety of highs and lows, but without exception we all answered one question with the same answer (which for SLPs is impressive).

Do you enjoy coming to work?

Yes!

I can’t think of a better way to measure success.