Whether our patients are content with our work greatly depends on their expectation prior to the treatment.
While we should always do our best to deliver high quality work, modulating -and many times lowering- their expectations can further maximize your patient’s satisfaction ratings. Here are 4 ways how you can do that.

The following questions indicate that your patient’s expectations were not met:

“Why was my surgery rescheduled?”

“Why can’t I be discharged today, as you promised?”

“Why didn’t my tumor decrease in size after your therapy?”

All these legitimate  questions we hear every day. But often they are difficult or impossible to answer. While to some extent disappointment about certain things is natural, we can take action to minimize the likelihood of hearing these questions.

Many of these questions are based on false assumptions of the patient. The good news is, that prior to the procedure/treatment/hospital stay, you can and should have a discussion with him, where you get a chance to correct the patients expectations.

On the short view it seems a lot easier to reinforce false assumptions of the patients, because generally it is easier to convince your patients to follow your plan, if they have too optimistic assumptions.

Many times we make promises we cannot keep because we

• are in a hurry
• are too lazy
• fear otherwise the patient won’t follow our plan.

But with this short-sighted method disappointments are programmed.

The doctor-patient relationship is built on trust. If your patient catches you lying or promising things that won’t happen, he will have a hard time trusting you again.

How can we avoid these situations where patients are disappointed of you as a doctor?

1. Acknowledge that you are not superman or wonderwoman.

   You are just one tiny puzzle piece in the patient’s world. A very important one, but still only one piece. Even if you are 100% sure of something turning out well: There is still a chance that you are wrong.

2. Ask the patient about her expectations.

   Take the time to have a discussion about what kind of outcome the patient expects of the planned procedure. This should include
   treatment time, duration of their hospital stay, pain level etc.
   It is a lot easier and faster to correct his false assumptions before something goes wrong, than explaining him afterwards that it wasn’t your fault.

3. Don’t make any promises that you are not 100% in control of.

   That’s why I make only ONE promise to patients. There are just too many circumstances we cannot control. Emergencies, transplants, nurses going on strike, hurricanes or burning buildings. The only promise I’ll give is that I’ll do everything in my power to achieve the desired outcome.

4. Honesty is more important than the patient giving consent to a procedure.

   This should be a no-brainer, but I want to say it one more time: It’s more important to be honest, than for your patient to agree on a certain treatment or procedure. If you give him all information and he just doesn’t want it: so be it!  It’s not your goal to persuade him no matter what. Otherwise your heading for some serious disappointment.

Question: What is your approach to “minimising drama” after your treatment? Please leave a comment!