No Lines, No Waiting
Bringing service to the fore while conserving your cash
2009
Customer Service in healthcare: Patience Stretched in Waiting Rooms
Thanks to Twitter friend @SeerGenius, a passionate advocate for the patient perspective, for this piece, which showed up in Dear Abby of all places.
A physician writes about Abby’s ongoing discussion with patients about their frustration with endless waiting. He explains what life is like in a doctor’s office and concludes:
It does help to focus on good manners and empathy, and to alert patients at the time of check-in if there’s a problem, which allows them to return or reschedule. Of course, the physician conveying personally to his patients that their time is as important as his also goes a long way. — MARC SCHNEIDERMAN, M.D., PENNSYLVANIA
This resonates with my recent post about an x-ray appointment. To my great pleasure, that clinic contacted me and let me know about some changes they’d already made in response to my post.
How great is it that people are waking up to customer service – and the customer’s experience – in healthcare?
More on the clinic’s response later this week. It was exemplary.
One Comment
Housedoc
Posted September 2, 2009 at 9:37 pm | Permalink
Doctors offices would be less congested if more doctors and patients used email to communicate about minor matters instead of having to have an office visit, or even use the phone. Its much more convenient and efficient, and would cost less. There are free online service such as http://www.housedoc, that are also HIPAA compliant. It would go a long way towards alleviating the problem.