Build Rapport with New Patients

Here is a short article by a consultant that is worth remembering. The tip that caught my attention is: Ask or pay attention to how patients spend their extra time and money. That is where their interests are. Make note of it, write it down, come back to it regularly. How easy, how true!

Here is the quote:

The successful office practice understands "anxiety of the uninitiated." Physicians and staff members are keenly aware that all patients are anxious and that new patients have additional anxiety because they don’t know what to expect.

Lou Holtz, the former Notre Dame coach, said that at the start of any relationship, a person has three questions:

1)Can I trust you?

2)Are you good at what you say you will do?" and

3)Will you care about me?

The successful office practice answers these questions in part by being fanatical about patient confidentiality; by being credible, reliable and responsive to patients; and by developing the kind of rapport that assures a patient that he is not just a sick sack of enzymes.

The successful office practice seeks to build rapport with every patient. Strategies for building rapport include finding something in common with a patient and finding out what’s important to a patient. To discover what’s important to someone, watch how he or she spends discretionary time and income. What people spend their extra time and money on – grandchildren, gardening, gambling, etc. – is a topic that you can introduce quickly and effectively. It’s of little use to talk about last night’s sporting event if your patient doesn’t follow sports.

Keeping a note on your patients’ important interests helps you recall them later. A Pennsylvania physician told me that he always made a note of the last thing a patient said as he or she was leaving the office. Commenting on that topic at the next visit helped develop rapport and a sense of continuity in his physician-patient relationships.

Even simple statements that take little time or effort can build rapport. When a patient calls to cancel an appointment because her child is ill, it takes little time to say: "I hope Bobby is feeling better."

A nurse told me that when she was pregnant with her first child, she called several ob/gyn practices to make "get acquainted" appointments. At the end of the first call, the receptionist said "Be sure to bring your insurance card with you." At the end of the call to the second practice, the receptionist said, "Be sure to bring your insurance card with you, and congratulations." The nurse said that her decision was made on the basis of those two words "and congratulations" and that she has referred at least a dozen other women to the practice

Copied with permission of the author, Susan Keane Baker.
Source: www.susanbaker.com.