When the doctor won't see you now

Medical manners: The cure is killing you

With Ann Humphries, ETICON

(CNN) -- It's not like you're feeling all that hot to begin with. It's a doctor's office.

But to add insult to whatever injury you're in for, you've been sitting there for an hour in a bus-station atmosphere, looking at a magazine the cover story of which was dated when published. Some 38 months ago.

And that's about how long it seems it's been since that receptionist -- who's either too harried or unobservant to notice you -- shoved over a clipboard with a faint Xerox of a form to fill in with a pencil that had no point.

You have no idea as to when you'll see the doctor. It could be two minutes or two weeks. In fact, for all you can tell, there may be no doctor back there at all.

QUICK VOTE
	Which of these choices best describes your most frequent experience in business etiquette at a medical practice? Pretty good. I don't know what all the fuss is about, I'm treated well and cordially for the most part at doctors' offices. Up and down. As soon as I think I've found a responsive, attentive staff, the quality seems evaporate. More often lousy than good. Maybe I just can't pick a doctor. Almost always awful. I think the whole industry needs re-educating on this. View Results

CNN: The wait turns critical. How many times can you count the colds you're picking up from those other patients? So, as part of our plan to start looking at business-etiquette issues in specific industries, we've asked Ann Humphries of ETICON to diagnose this all-too-familiar mess. What about this seemingly pervasive problem of bad service at medical practices?

Ann Humphries: As one example of the problem we're talking about, let's consider continuity of service, something you have a right to expect but rarely get. Why do you have to re-introduce yourself every time you visit a medical practice you regularly go to? -- Why have to fill out those forms? Why not print the information and let returning patients simply confirm its accuracy?

I was lucky enough recently to be in one practice's waiting room to have my eyes checked. They greeted me by name. That's how a sharp practice works. And there are some very fine doctors and very fine staffs out there working very hard, let's say that clearly.

But I have to say, the best experience we've had in our family with this kind of thing came once when my son broke his ankle. We went to an emergency room in the suburbs, got great service -- but the crowd was almost nothing. Unlike the usual situation, there was adequate staff and a low patient load.

Most of the time, your experience is very different.

And yet most of the time, it's as simple a matter as using a patient's name and introducing yourself -- precisely the behavior that employees in most other businesses expect to perform with clients.

I once was seen by a physician attendant who introduced herself with her back to me. "Well, it's nice to meet your back, too."

At ETICON, we're hearing people complain about the kind of care they're getting and often it's as much or more about service issues as anything else. The complaints are about being ignored by doctors' office staffers, being frozen out. It starts to make monetary sense to look into this.

In fact, it's an odd inversion. These are people who are in the business of care -- and yet the complaints you get are about people feeling the staffers they saw didn't care.

The big problem is often managing waits. Some staffers shrug their shoulders and say there's nothing they can do about it. I say there is. While some doctors work hard, that doesn't make them immune from responsibly managing their own time as the rest of us must do. They need to help their staffs know where they are and when they can be available to patients. It's nice for a doctor to drop the kids at school in the morning, for example, but not if the staff is told to start her patient load before she gets to the practice.

What's perfectly possible is to give the patient information. Just like an airline can tell you what's going on while you wait on a runway to take off, a doctor's staff can tell you, regretfully but honestly, that it looks like an hour-long wait. You can get an errand done, make some calls, whatever you need. As it is, they usually leave you and don't say another word.

When you came in, how hard would it have been for them to give you a short, friendly greeting? How hard is it to provide sharp, well-reproduced sign-in materials? And what about all those stickers you always see on the sign-in windows? Don't hand-write "we will not take walk-ins" on a piece of pink paper and tape it up on the glass.

For that matter, at the check-in, cut out the party behind that window. You tap on the glass and what do you hear? Laughter, dumb jokes, anything but attention to the patients -- who are your customers. Keep celebrations out of the patients' way.

Another bad area is medical records. It seems like a flash of the obvious, but some practices have yet to figure out that you pull a patient's chart the day before that patient comes in -- to see if a report or results of a test are going to be in on time. If that check isn't made in advance, the patient is left in the waiting room for an hour while phone calls go back and forth about "where are those test results?"

WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS?
	Let us know what issues of business etiquette you'd like to see addressed in Corporate Class. Kindly click here.

Return phone calls. Promptly. When patients call, they need to hear back. And when dealing with patients on the phone, give them last names as well as first names. How many Angies, Heathers and Megs are in these offices?

I'll accept an automated phone attendant these days, but patients have to be able to get through somehow, even if just to leave voice mail. Most patients aren't calling a doctor unless they have a good reason to. And yet I've found myself on hold for as long as 90 minutes -- then waiting six hours for a callback.

It's time somebody clued medical practices in on what so many other businesses have had to learn: These gaffes in service come off as haughtiness. Somehow, there are a lot of nice people educated in health care who don't understand these basics -- these things are part of health care today.

Handle the greetings better, the charts in advance, the waits more efficiently and thoughtfully -- and the health of your practice will improve with your patients.

Ann Humphries and ETICON have a special health care seminar planned, "Through the Patients' Eyes: Creating a Culture of Service for Health Care Providers." it's set for March 28 in Columbia, South Carolina, and sponsored by Palmetto Health Alliance/Physician Services in Palmetto Baptist Auditorium. Two sessions will be offered, one from 8:30 a.m. to noon and the second from 1 p.m. to 4:30. Tuition is $59 per person. Topics to be covered: what rudeness costs health care; how to manage all the impressions you make; "a way with words;" and "one moment, please" telephone skills. for registration information, call Linda Silver at 803-296-5769.

Ann Humphries, founder and president of ETICON, Inc. and a Certified Professional Consultant to Management, includes several Fortune 500 companies among her clients. She's been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Money, and on CNN, CBS and Lifetime TV. You can contact her at www.eticon.com.

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ETICON

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