What Drives Patients Crazy?

Customer satisfaction is important if you want repeat sales. Many hotels are so interested in guest responses that they monitor social media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs. If someone is dissatisfied, some hotels instantly apologize and upgrade the customer to a nicer room.
Car dealers frequently poll their customers about their experience. If service is lacking, the management tries to respond so the scores will improve.
Secret shoppers test service in many different retail outlets. Management is willing to spend good money to find out how well their customers are being served.
We wish that doctors were equally concerned about their patients’ experience. We recently polled visitors to our Web site (www.peoplespharmacy.com) about their pet peeves. The computer played a role in a number of complaints such as this one: “I don’t like it when my doctor spends the whole visit looking at his laptop screen while asking questions, and doesn’t make eye contact.”
Others complained that many physicians don’t bother to review their history carefully before seeing them: “Someone comes into the exam room before the doctor and I have to tell them the personal details of why I am there. They write it down, but when the doctor finally comes in he doesn’t even look at their notes. He just asks me all the same questions over again.”
Another reader offered this: “Major irritant-1: Having to access the physician through too many other people (receptionist, nurse, physician assistant, etc.) This is like playing ‘party line’ at a child’s birthday party: there’s too much information lost or miscommunicated.
“Major irritant-2: Medical practices that do not provide the patient with copies of lab and test reports. Again, there are too many opportunities for mix-ups in communications.”
Communication can be a sore point: “I hate it if the doctor doesn’t listen when I tell him that statins make me sick.”
Condescension is a pet peeve for many patients. Some find the front office staff is condescending; others pin it to the doctor herself. As one friend of ours put it, “I don’t like being spoken to as if I were 12.”
Wait times are a frequent source of irritation. One patient complained, “My biggest beef with the orthopedic office I go to is the l-o-n-g wait to be seen. Only after I voice my concern for the time is action taken.”
Another added, “Something that really irks me is the way drug reps get top priority. They waltz in at any time and tie up office staff and the doctor giving their spiel and passing out samples and goodies. I’ve often been kept waiting while everyone socialized.”
Sitting in a waiting room is one thing. At least there are magazines. Others dislike waiting in the exam room, “freezing in a flimsy gown because it’s so cold.”
Of course, running a medical office is complex. But one other repeated comment makes us think it could be done better: “My vet’s office is more welcoming than my doctor’s. At the vet, they know my name, my pets’ names, recent problems, etc., because they actually are caring people!”
Doctors care, too. But if more of them thought about their practices from the customers’ point of view, patients would have fewer complaints.
One reader reminds us all: “WE are the customers; we choose our doctors.”