Customer Service and Communication: Part 2

Last week I wrote about  the doctor that regularly has the two-hour wait and how she’d told me to call for test results, only for me to do so and have her staff tell me I had to come in to have the results read to me. After I made the appointment to come in for my lab results I decided that I’d pick up a copy of my lab-work and possibly save myself a trip. I picked it up at the hospital and read through it to find that my Vit D levels were high and my thyroid numbers had changed. I wasn’t sure if the Thyroid numbers changing might mean my meds may need to be adjusted or not, so I decided I’d keep the appointment and see what the doctor had to say.

I went in fully expecting a two-hour wait. I was armed with a book to read and just shrugged off the comments from other patients who weren’t “in the know”. No big deal. I did feel really bad for one older guy who kept saying “I should have called to see how your schedule was running…”. Really, should we have to call? Then again I’d considered doing the same thing, but figured they wouldn’t tell me on the phone anyway. At exactly two-hours past my appointment time the nurse came to get me.

“Didn’t I just see you?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“So, why are you here?”

“Well. The doctor sent me for lab work ….”

“Oh, does she need to adjust your meds?”

“I don’t know. I called to get my lab results and I was told that I had to come in, so here I am.”

“Oh, well we can’t get lab results on the phone.”

“Well, that’s fine but the doctor told me to call. So, there’s some miscommunication somewhere.”

She attempts to find my lab work and fails. So, I hand her my copy that I brought with me. She points out that my Vit D levels were high, to which I replied that I’d seen that and have since adjusted my supplementation accordingly, as I had been taking a Vit D and Fish Oil and evidently I didn’t need that much. And, this is where things went horribly wrong.

“well, everything else is in normal ranges. Do you still need to see the doctor?”

“Well. Yeah. Since I’ve just spent two hours waiting to see the doctor and I’ve already paid my co-pay I would like to see the doctor.” (Really? Really really?)

“Oh. OK.”

At this point she finally gets around to taking my blood pressure, which she finally does. I’m kinda going off the entire time about the fact that there’s a two-hour wait every time I come in and that there’s evidently communication issues that need to be worked out in the office if the doctor is telling me to call for my test results and the front office can’t give me any results over the phone. I’m actually surprised my blood pressure was as low as it was. (136/99).

“Do you have a history of hyper-tension?” (Really!? Are you that dumb woman? – Ok, so I kinda do but I know that has nothing to do with my current blood pressure).

“NO. I’m just really annoyed right now, and I’m fairly sure that likely affected my blood pressure.”

“Oh. Well it’s about the same it was the first time you came in.”

“Yeah. And the first time I came in I waited two hours to see the doctor which made me late for a different appointment, and when you finally called me back here we were in a hurry to get me in and out, so yeah it was likely high that day, too.” (Note. I’ve been there one other time in between, and my BP was fine.)

I can tell she’s ready to be done with me so she puts me in a room to wait for the doctor and I hear her in the hallway talking to the doctor about me before the doctor came in.

When the doctor came in she asked how I was.

“Annoyed. But, I’m sure they already filled you in.”

“Well not really….”

So, I filled her in.

The amazing part. She apologized. She said that they were making some changes, both in staff and in how things were done and there was still a lot of confusion. They legally can’t give out lab results over the phone but if it’s just something like  a med adjustment she will put a note on the chart that we may call so that said adjustment can get started before the next appointment. There was miscommunication and she took the blame. She went so far as to say “In the end, it all comes back to me because my name is on the door and I don’t want to see my patients unhappy.” WOW! She even offered to have them refund my co-pay. However, as I pointed out my time was worth more than the co-pay. Her response did so much to defuse the situation and made me feel comfortable again to actually discuss my health concerns with her. She even made a comment about trust and how the patients needed to be able to trust the office and how I’d not been there enough yet to even know if I trusted her as a doctor. My response to that was that I actually really liked my interactions with her, and her for that matter – which was why I was sitting there.

The difference in how two different service providers handled similar inter-office miscommunication issues  was staggering. This doctor handled things exactly as she should. Actually, she went beyond what I would say she should do or what I would expect to do by offering to refund my co-pay (and still take the same amount of time to see me).

To service providers: This is how you earn a customer. Now, if they can do something about that two-hour wait time.