MD & DO Patient relations pro-tips

[EthylMethylMan]

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Hey. I’m a clinic-based doc and I wanna share some easy habits to massively improve your relationships with your patients. If your patients like you, you will get better reviews (I.e. more bonus $$$), and your patients are probably going to follow your advice more. I’ve been in practice for a few years and most of my patients love me. This isn’t to brag but is to attempt to convince you that I know what I’m talking about. I swear these tips are super easy to implement.

1. Use your patient’s name in conversation and documentation. Default to last name, but if they ask you to call them by their first name, do so while talking to them. For one thing, there’s a good chance you’ll work in a system where patients can and will read your notes. It makes your notes look less generic when you write their name at least once or twice. Additionally, this makes your talks more personal, and your patient will get some amount of confirmation that you listen to them. FYI, listening will be a recurring theme here.

2. Acknowledge how crummy their situation is. Outside of well visits, your patient probably feels bad. Is it justified? Maybe. But either way they probably feel bad. Acknowledging that bad feeling makes them feel (wait for it) listened to. People love that. And more importantly, it’s a way to practice empathy, even if the complaint seems like nonsense.

3. Remember one non-medical detail about each patient. This is super easy in EMRs like Epic that have sticky-note systems that let you jot down a note to yourself in the patient’s chart that they can’t see. Parents and grandparents generally love talking about their kids and grandkids.

Bonus: If the visit isn’t extremely grave/otherwise upsetting for the patient (and if you have a decent sense of humor), crack a joke. Making someone laugh does so many great things. They’ll feel better and they’ll like you more. Honestly a mediocre but funny doctor is going to get better patient compliance than the world’s smartest buzz-kill doctor.

Those are my go-to tricks. Thanks for reading.

 

[Angler]

Very nice post. As a retired primary care doc who was never sued, let me give a couple of additional thoughts.

A doc is going to be busy. Very busy. It's one thing to look harried among your peers or staff. But don't let your patients see that. I taught my residents that a key talent to develop is to interact with patients to look like you are not busy and appear as though they are your only patient of the day. Slow down. It's hard. It will likely mean stealing time from other non patient facing tasks.

Take ownership of the partnership. Too often I hear of doctors listing the various options available, without rendering an opinion. Patients pay you for your opinion. They can get a list of options from a generic chatbot. Say, "well, there's options A, B, and C. B would be ok, but ... C could do this to your kidney... If I were in your situation, I think that option A would be my choice. What do you think?"

 

[Dral]

I use the Epic sticky notes all the time. Also, if you're supervising residents, if it's an easy check in visit, actually still go in the room - like don't just walk in a few steps. Walk to the other side of the room and either sit down or lean on something. I typically go in and lean on the sink on the other side of the room. That alone makes the patient feel you are there and engaged instead of just doing an in and out (even though that's essentially what you're doing). Plus, you are usually actually facing the patient if you do that.

Also, and this may not be a popular one due to our already crazy in boxes - but at the end of virtually every appointment I'll stop and stand there (or sit there) and tell the patient "If anything pops up that worries you, anything at all, either call me or contact me through the EMR/patient portal system". Some patients may feel apprehensive and that they are a 'bother' for doing that sort of thing. Saying that to them makes them feel it's ok to do it. Even if they never do, they like to know it's ok.