Chiropractic Economics Blog

In my last entry, I shared with you my husband’s experience with our family doctor and her failure to grasp the concept of good patient relations. I have epilogue to that story: The doctor fired my husband as a patient!

A few days after his conversation with the doctor, he received a certified letter in the mail from her office informing him he would no longer be welcome as a patient in her office.

It’s important for doctors and patients to have a good rapport and respect for one another. Rapport, respect, and trust result in patient compliance and satisfaction. So, if these things are missing, the patient-doctor relationship shouldn’t exist.

However, I also feel that a patient-doctor relationship is somewhat like a marriage: Sometimes the two of you disagree. The important thing is to have good, open, and honest communication. That was the point my husband was trying to make to the doctor when he complained about getting a run-around from her staff concerning a medication that was supposedly on back order.

I fully understand why a doctor would fire a patient for noncompliance in a medical situation. I can understand why a doctor would fire a patient who consistently missed appointments or was late or didn’t pay his bills. But firing a patient for expecting good customer service? Somehow I think that was a drastic move.

What are your thoughts? Have you fired patients for pointing out a problem in your office? When would you fire a patient? I’m curious. I hope you’ll let us know.

Late last summer, on her 95th birthday, my mother-in-law came down with a severe case of shingles. Because of her advanced age and lowered immune system, medications that otherwise would alleviate symptoms and pain in younger individuals did nothing for her except give her pronounced and undesireable side effects.

Six months later, she is just now recovering from this painful malady.

When my husband initially took her to the doctor for medical treatment, our family physician told him about a new medication that could prevent the outbreak of shingles in individuals who have had chicken pox and who may be susceptible to it. He asked her to order the medication for both him and me.

Months later, we are still waiting for it. We called the doctor’s office several times to inquire about the medication.  Each time we were told it was “on back-order.” The first time we were told that, we believed it. After several months, we found it hard to believel

Finally, my husband called the pharmaceutical company to find out if the medication was, indeed, in such great demand that it was on back-order for such a long time. The company told him “no.” It had no back-orders of the product.

He then called the doctor’s office and asked to speak with the doctor herself, rather than her assistant.

The doctor finally called him back (three days after his call).  Her explanation for the delay was a misunderstanding about billing between her office and the pharmaceutical company and her staff had not been at liberty to discuss this with us.

We didn’t really care anything about the doctor’s billing problems. All we cared about, as he explained to her, was that we should have been kept informed — and not lied to.

The doctor didn’t seem to grasp the concept of customer service. She kept saying that we should keep calling her office for updates … that “her staff was so busy” it couldn’t call us.

This incident has caused us to rethink who we want to be our primary-care physician. Do we really want someone who does not understand that the success of her practice depends upon good patient relations?

To me, honesty is the single most contributing factor in keeping patients happy — whether it is honesty in admitting limitations of skill and knowledge or honesty in telling a patient the status of a promised remedy.

Unfortunately, my experiences with my medical doctor(s) seem to provide lessons that all healthcare professionals (including chiropractors) can benefit from and that I have shared in editorials and now this blog.

If truth be known, I’d rather not have the opportunity to share those lessons. I’d rather be treated as a valued patient.

Until next time,