It's Always Nice To Get a Thankyou

I got a nice letter in the mail the other day. A thank you card written by one of Happy's hospital staff. It said:

Dear Dr Happy,

When I rounded on Mr and Mrs Patient yesterday they shared with me just how impressed they were with you and the time you spent with them explaining everything to them. They were very pleased with their stay and they usually go to the Hospital on the Lake. So because of your excellent care they have a great respect for our hospital. Thank you.

It's amazing how much quality you can generate by spending time with the patient. The thing with many patients is they don't know Jack from Jill when it comes to appropriate health care decision making. My patient population is probably like every other population in this world. And most don't know a thing about disease management. Sure you can read a life time about diseases on the internet, but for many, it's impossible to tie it all together. It takes an incredible amount of personal sacrifice from patients to understand their illness. And most are not willing or able to do so. A lot will simply do what the doctor says.

I could have told them anything, including bad information, but If I spend time with them I get letters telling me thank you for being a great doc.

Unfortunately, in this payment model we all live in, the more time you spend talking, the less likely you are to survive financially. It is simply not the way things are done in the third party fee for service model.