Good Patients and Bad Patients

Does your office have it’s share of good patients and bad patients?

At SIDECAR one of the things you will routinely hear is we believe that the words we choose to use are powerful. We believe that the words we use have a creative nature in them. If I say something’s ugly, it turns ugly.

The Iconic Moment

I was giving a talk at a seminar a while back to a group of doctors and their staff. I asked the audience to define to me what constitutes a “good” patient. Many of the responses that were given included: good patients keep their schedule, they pay their bill, they get better, they follow through with care… there was a long list!

I followed that question up by then asking the audience to define a bad patient. This time the answers included: they whine a lot, they are never on time, they are always complaining, they don’t pay their bill, they never refer, they don’t get better… and so on.

Then something truly iconic happened. A staff member in attendance sheepishly raised her hand. She said, “You know, the reality is that a bad patient really becomes a dead patient because after being labelled they can never come back in https://salud-hombres.com/.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

The Truth

Then everyone came to realize the truth – there is no such thing as a good patient or a bad patient. That’s the point of the message today, stop referring and regarding patients as being “good” or “bad”.

Patients are people, they are human beings. They are not perfect just like you and I are not perfect. As doctors, we don’t fully understand what every patient is going through and classifying a patient in terms of how we see them is truly an act of prejudice.

Monitor the gossip in your office that goes on between techs regarding patients. Watch the language used when talking about patients; you will be amazed at how many times you use the phrase “good” or “bad” patient. This terminology is embedded into our chiropractic lexicon.

Again, be careful on judging patients. Open your heart, meet them where they are, and be amazed at what transpires.

Dr. Douglas Sea