Communication is the key to happy patients
Stop, look, and listen for better rapport
Traditional physicians can learn from their alternative medicine counterparts, and it has nothing to do with St. John’s Wort or acupuncture. Alternative practitioners may be taking away your patients by capitalizing on the fact that patients want better communication with their health care providers.
"Alternative health providers recognize that the are treating the whole person and not just the diseased organ or broken bone," points out Tom Aug, a partner with Development Partners, a Cincinnati firm specializing in patient satisfaction consulting.
Patients often can’t assess the technical quality of care they receive unless they have a medical background. That’s why it’s so important for physicians and their staff to develop good communication techniques, he adds.
"The thing that people can assess very clearly is the interpersonal aspects of care. They can tell if you listen, if you return phone calls, and if the time you give is quality time," Aug says.
Don’t rush that patient
Aug suggests that physicians begin the office visit with a brief amount of small talk about a matter not related to the visit so that the patient feels like they’re getting the doctor’s full attention. "When a patient comes in, the physician shouldn’t appear rushed or hurried. Stopping to chat is not so much to find out more about the patient but to establish a trusting relationship." Patients have to trust you to tell you everything you need to know. Feeling that you are really concerned about them motivates them to cooperate with you, he adds.
One study of 10,000 internists determined that they arrived at their diagnosis in an average of 30 seconds and started interrupting patients after 18 seconds, says Diane Peterson, president of D. Peterson & Associates, a Houston-based health care consulting firm.
"Doctors think in 15-minute segments, but 18 seconds is not sufficient. People don’t trust you to unload their serious matters until three to five minutes," Peterson says.
Even if the doctor has seen a dozen patients with the same symptoms that day, patients need to feel as though they’ve gotten a thorough examination before the prescription is issued. "As soon as patients start feeling more comfortable during their visit and start to get into their symptoms, there’s a major disconnect from the doctor. That probably helps create the declining trust in doctors and hospitals," she says.
Communication should start long before the physician comes into the room, Aug asserts. "If the physician is running behind, he or she should communicate with the staff who can in turn communicate with patients and give them a reasonable estimate of the amount of time they’ll have to wait." People don’t mind waiting as much if they feel like somebody cares they’re waiting, he says.
The telephone call someone makes to your office for an appointment is often your patient’s first contact with your practice and his or her first — and sometimes only — chance to form an impression, Peterson says. "From a patient standpoint, a telephone call is a quick visit to your office."
Patients complain that when they call a doctor’s office, they can’t get through, that they have to talk to machines, or use automated services, and that they are put on hold for long periods of time. "But the worst part is returning telephone calls," Peterson says.
The office nurse can probably take care of most of the calls, but patients should be given the option to talk to the doctor, she adds. "They should be advised that the nurse can call back in an hour but it will be after 5 p.m. before the doctor can call," she says.
Many physicians are afraid that they’ll have 30 calls to return, but Peterson asserts that most patients don’t want to impose on the doctor for refills and other issues and will opt for the nurse. "We act so controlling in practices that it’s no wonder the consumer gets a little turned off."
Peterson suggests that physicians occasionally call their office to see how the phone is answered and monitor oral communications between the staff and customers. Make sure whoever takes the call asks patients when they’ll be available to take the return call, she adds.
"It’s the same as with the washer repairman. People don’t want to wait the whole day. Most patients will be satisfied with a call-back four hours later if they’re told in advance," Peterson says.
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