Last week a friend of mine told me the following story: On Friday I went for my annual Echo Cardiogram. I was called on Monday to see if I had insurance. A recording called the house on Wednesday to remind me of my appointment saying, “This time has been set aside for you.” And then a live person called on Thursday and asked me to call. Or course they call during the day while I’m at work and they’re not in office when I get home. On Friday morning at 8.30 am I called to find out what they wanted and after 15 minutes on hold, someone just wanted to make sure I was coming at 10:00 am. I assured them I was.
Okay, I show up at 9:45 am – I’m always early for doctor appointments in case there is paperwork to fill out. As you many know, I’m not a patient person.
At 10:30 am I went to the window and told the receptionist that I was not going to wait any longer and said I’d call later to make another appointment. As I was walking to the door the woman got anxious and snapped to attention trying to get things done.
She managed to stop me and I returned to the window while she frantically looked up my appointment and who was to have done my Echo Cardiogram. She called around and started paging people go get some answers. Two minutes later, the woman who was supposed to do my Echo walked by. The receptionist called to her. “Judy, your appointment is here.” As Judy walked out of site she said, “I’m about to get him.” and continued to walk out of site.
At that point, I told the receptionist, “I’m sorry, ‘about to get him,’ won’t cut it.”
As I turned and walk out of the office the counter lady went running after the Echo lady. I haven’t felt that good in weeks. I also thinking of billing them for the parking.”
Now, isn’t it a shame that patients, who pay cash for their service – an $800 service – are treated like this? What has been the outcome of this event?
- The practice lost $800 in revenue for a service not performed.
- The practice spent valuable time on this patient that did not get paid at the end: making the appointment, confirming the appointment, registering the patient at the point of arrival
- The patient lost 2 hours of his time away from work.
- The patient feels so dissatisfied about this experience that he will not return to this medical practice.
- The patient told many of his friends and colleagues about this negative experience at this medical practice – I guarantee you that none of them will ever make a visit to them.
- This was a lose – lose situation; the patient lost and the practice lost.
And how many physicians or practice managers will ever hear about incidents happen in their practice and address them to the staff? Probably not many because many times patients wasted already too much of their time that they don’t want to spend more time by filing a complaint.
Being on time has something to do with respect.
Give the patient an option
- While on the telephone at 8.30 am they could have said, “we are running behind on schedule.”
- Talk with the patient and inform them upon the arrival.
- Ask them if they would like to reschedule or give them a price break
So many times I hear practice manager complaining that a person would never negotiate the cell phone bill or the bill but patients always want to negotiate a doctors’ bill or don’t even want to pay a doctors’ bill.
If a doctor doesn’t respect my time or doesn’t treat me with a service that is worth the amount he / she bills me, then I must admit I have a hard time justifying paying the bill.
If a physician wants to be treated like all the other service providers – they also have to treat their patients like a valuable customer that they respect, care and honor.
So what is your opinion on this incident? I’d love to read your comment.
Iris Grimm
www.BalancedPhysician.com