We Must Do Better

Recently, I had disappointing patient experiences at 3 separate practices, and the fact that the staff and providers seem to be oblivious really disappoints me.

At the first practice, I had an appointment that I had waited weeks for abruptly cancelled just 24 hours ahead by a staff member. She said it was because I had scheduled the “wrong appointment type”, even though their online scheduling allowed me to schedule it. Then I was advised via a portal message to schedule the “right” type of appointment, even though it is not available in the online scheduling interface. I was not offered a new appointment time, and had to call their scheduling line, instead. After waiting 15 minutes, I was offered a new appointment now several months away. I left a voicemail for the practice manager to discuss my experience and have not heard back. I am not surprised.  

At the second practice I found multiple errors in an online check-in platform that prevented me from properly reporting my health status and medications. This means a much longer process for everyone when I arrive at my appointment and made the online check-in a waste of my time.

At the third practice I was unable to reschedule an appointment that I had scheduled online. I had to make a new appointment instead and leave a scheduling note for the staff – hoping that they will see it as the reschedule, I am intending it to be.

I am ALL FOR utilizing technology to support office workflows, but we MUST walk in our patients’ shoes and see if it is really working.  If we don’t, we simply create more work for ourselves and a lot of dissatisfied patients.

Just because patients don’t have a lot of choices about where to receive care, doesn’t mean they should tolerate bad processes, systems, and experiences.

Patient experience matters.