How to change your mindset to improve patient care.

In my previous practice, I had the pleasure of working for a few years with our founder, the late Dr. Jerald B. Turner. He was an especially kind man, had a great sense of humor, and always found a way to place patients and staff first. Even in our business meetings, he would review a financial question or a clinic issue and study it from the patient’s perspective. How will this policy impact patient care? How would this protocol affect the patient experience? He would always say, “If we put patients first, everything else will take care of itself.” If our leadership team could not correlate a new policy with a positive impact on our patients, we did not do it. It was a simple philosophy that brought stability to our organization.

Putting patients first can be challenging if we are constantly asking: “What’s in it for me?” As staff members, we want our lives in clinic to be easier. However, Dr. Turner found that focusing everything on one point —the patient—did make our lives easier. Here are some of the benefits and lessons we learned through this approach.

1. Trust

We may not understand every decision made by management or the doctor, but we knew that the decision had been made with the patient in mind. And because our physicians led by example, our staff was always willing to put the patients first. If we had a patient call with a retinal detachment or sudden loss vision after 4 p.m., we would stay to take care of the patient. If I needed to stay late to help the technicians answer patient questions, I would pick up the phone to coordinate care. Over time, the trust we had in each other transferred to trust and loyalty from our patients.

2. Friendliness

When the team could see everyone going the extra mile for our patients, we enjoyed coming to work with each other. The friendliness toward each other translated into friendliness with our patients, and we enjoyed a warm working environment.

3. External service

Our team adopted several service projects throughout the year, one of which was participation in a run/walk every October to benefit breast cancer research. Many of our patients and staff were affected by it; this was a way we could highlight our commitment to patients inside and outside the clinic.

4. Positive responses

In our practice, we tried to make experiences a positive one. Instead of telling a patient what we could not do for them, we tried to tell them what we could do. For example: “I am not sure that I can schedule you with Dr. Turner on Tuesday, but I can offer you a few other options. Would any of those other times work for you?” Patients appreciated having a choice and a voice in their healthcare.

5. Buy time

Within our fast-paced environments, we sometimes feel the need to take care of something right away, to move it off our agenda. While I applaud getting things done, there are times when it is much better to “buy time,” to get the right answer for the patient. “Let me see what I can do and get back to you,” can be a powerful statement. Patients benefit when we stop to confirm information.

6. Like your grandma

In ophthalmology, many of our patients are elderly and often need special care and treatment. In our practice, one of our administrators hung a picture of her grandmother in the call center, to remind everyone on the team that each patient we talked with was someone’s grandma. This was a fun way to highlight Dr. Turner’s view, and every call and phone policy was designed to provide a great patient experience.

If your practice has gotten away from focusing on the patient, consider looking at the business through Dr. Turner’s eyes. If you put patients first, everything—truly everything—will take care of itself. OP