Tell me about it

We cannot afford upset patients, demotivated and uninvolved team members and anyone else who is unable to contribute fully to the effective operation of the practice.

Although each of these people is demonstrating that something is not going well at the practice, there is no single solution to fix the problem, except for communication. Our challenge is to recognise the type of communication that is required to help bring the undesirable state to a welcome state that is beneficial for both or all parties. Before we deal with each in turn to see how we might help, there are some important basic principles (occasionally clichés) to remember:

Patients

The upset patient may be in that state for many reasons: you may have been running late, the treatment may have been more complex, expensive and time-consuming than he thought, you may have caused him pain instead of taking it away; he could be just having a bad day. So when he leaves the surgery and returns to reception feeling less than charitable towards the practice, what can your receptionist do? Here are a few suggestions: