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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.
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.
