Sacked by your patient!

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Hi All,

I'm sure that this thread will stir up a few tales, fresh or long forgotton.

I got sacked today. Not by an employer. By a patient! Happened like this......
A late cancellation via phone today - Patient did not want to reschedule. Seemed a little strange as this lady requires ongoing care for extreemly plicated nails. Cost is no issue - DVA. Thought about it for a while and phoned her for a chat to find out if something that I had done in the previous consultation had made her unhappy.
I must say doing so was quite confronting as the reply was likely to be something that I did not want to hear. To cut to the chase this woman deveveloped an IGTN >4 weeks after she had seen me. Went to her GP (who had made the initial referral) who prescribed AB's and advised she find an alternate podiatrist. Suggested cutting a 'v' in the distal nail margin. Gawd help us!!! OK I thought......fair enough you think I caused the problem. Maybe I did. I asked her wether she was still wearing her heels and narrow toe-box foot wear. Yes. Long walks in the shell grit sand. Yes Yes Yes but my GP said.......you get the picture.
Now I dont think for a moment that I have, or am going to be, seen by every patient as the worlds greatest foot fixer. I aknowledge my professional limitations. However, if you've ever wondered what ever happened to a patient that you would expect to return but didn't.....wonder no longer! Get on the phone and ask them. Some make excuses but some let you have it. It's really confronting to know why they were unhappy - justified or not. It's hard to swallow anothers scorn. Harder still knowing that a dissatisfied patient is likely to be actively telling all and sundry why they should avoid that bloke who buggered up my toe. However it's both professionally and personally rewarding to aknowledge both your victories and you failures A lesson learnt. I'm becomming much more diplomatic as I age.... I wished her well!

Cheers.

Chris

 

A very wise, experianced primate colleague of mine has a good line for this one.

He tells his patients that even after resits he failed the mind reader part of the course and thus if the patient has a problem he really would appreciate it if they told him!

An attitude which does you credit :drinks. We learn as much if not more from our failiures than our successes. They also serve to drive us out of our comfort zone to try new things.

The first time i used a kirby skive was on a patient who had had assorted variations on pre fabs, neutral orthotics / 1st met cutouts for a painful fnHL (most from other podiatrists, the 1st ray cutout from me). The axis was deviated. The skive worked. Had i not know that the other devices had failed or if i had written it off as incurable i would never have tried the skive.

Regards
Robert

 

Beating yourself up that a patient is not happy is a sure sign that you care. One of the signs of a good Pod if you ask me.
Don't worry- we all get em.

Agreed. When I have success when others have failed, I always point out to the patient that I have had the advantage of seeing what hasnt worked...
What we do may have scientific principles, but a fair portion is also art.

 

Hi Chris,

I think we must all get the ''odd'' patient who doesn't return.

I always tell my patients ''If your'e happy tell everyone.''

However, ''If you are dissatisfied for any reason tell me.''

I still have one now & then that will return with a problem but if I can solve it I will do my utmost to ensure their treatment is satisfactory. (As I'm sure we all do).

You will never please everyone but as one of my patients tells me each time she visits (every 4 weeks) 'That your'e not as good,' as her previous chiropodist (she walked on water & could wish corns away without the use of a blade, Nor did she ever tell my lovely patient not to wear pointy toed shoes. Which by the way are like slippers to wear!) but your'e improving..... She has been seeing me since 1998!

Knocked my confidence initially but now I nod, smile & bank the cash.

I think it becomes really frustrating when the GP advises them to go elsewhere before you have had a chance to sort a potential problem yourself. I wonder if cutting the magical 'V' in helped.

Bless em eh.

 

Perhaps you should advise her to try a different GP next time?!!

 

It's good to hear that others experience this from time to time!

Saw a new Pt at a retirement village (where I am the only pod that visits) a while back. When I asked her for the DVA referral she said that she was paying privately for this visit as she was 'trialling' my services.................well, ok??!!

I have come to the conclusion that most people come back because they are happy, those who aren't (or want their feet 'soaked') do not and there are certainly more than enough Pts to go around the podiatry world - so you win some, you lose some!

 

I always remember whilst working for Boots, a patient complained, not about myself, but the sevice Boots Footcare provided.......her complaint......it was too medical, not what she expected from a Chiropodist

 

I suggested this to a patient 6 months ago with regards obtaining Loceryl on prescription, patient requested a different G.P, Loceryl prescribed, 3 months later...O/M cleared. Apparently the first G.P didn't think O/M was a concern in a diabetic prone to secondary infection

 

Hi all,

Had an interesting case where I saw a patient in a similar situation. Now bear in mind that I'm the only male podiatrist in the clinic where I work, and have been for the last 4 years. Well I saw a lady, once, then again about 6 months later. I suggested that it had been a while since I'd seen her personally. She said no, and said that the last fellow she saw wasn't very good at all, but she had never met me and I was doing a wonderful job. Patients are curious beings...

-Adrian

 

always remember,

it is impossible to satisfy everyone, all of the time...

there are always patients whom, with every health / medical practitioner, and in fact every other service on the planet, will not be happy with what they receive, for whatever reason...

it's the way the world works, and just the way some people are :wacko:

Consider your input, review your protocols and modify as required .... but be prepared to be perfectly happy to say "thanks for your feedback, and good-day", resting assured that is what being "professional" is all about.

Also, at some point you'll sack a patient as well... :boxing:

Cheers,

Paul D

 

Thanks for your feedback one and all. Hi Adrian Misseri - we were at uni together!

Cheers.

Chris

 

Hi Chris

I remember a colleague telling me that, many years ago, he carried out a little research that showed that many GPs thought pods caused ingrowing nails. On cross checking, it seemed that on consultation, the pods diagnosed o/c and instructed the patients to go to the GP to obtain antibiosis (not available to pods in the UK then) prior to treating the problem. All the GPs saw was a patient presenting with infected o/c after consultation with a pod. The patients generally did not elucidate with the result that the GP got the wrong end of the stick. The moral is that correspondence works.

There will always be the odd situation such as this one where the communication was good, but you really don't know precisely what the patient said to the GP. However, good on you for risking the rebuff. How about writing to the GP saying that the patient left you before you had completed the course of treatment following advice from 'elsewhere'?

All the best

Bill

 

Chris

Certainly in the early days of running a practice I think we tend to focus on the patients we lose through dissatisfaction rather than the patients we cure, discharge or maintain. It is hard to keep a focus on that practice growth when someone, for whatever reason, is unhappy with you.

I know that we've been sacked by patients probably a hundred times over by now; the best one by far being a patient feeling rushed because another patient turned up 20 minutes too soon and was sat in the waiting room! We never saw the rushed patient again and feedback came in via the cleaner who was always rushed and forgot rooms had corners!

There will come a time when there are so many patients, so many staff that it is impossible to focus on moaners and time wasters and you have to focus on priorities - maintaining good PR with the people who matter, maintaining your own practice and professional standards. Those that genuinely have a problem post treatment, in the main, come back because they recognise good practice and know that whatever has happened will be put right.

We also advocate this as good practice that a patient must return within 2 weeks if they are unhappy with treatment or a problem worsens/doesn't resolve. Sometimes we charge, sometimes we don't - that is our discretion dependent upon what has caused the continuation of the problem. Accurate record keeping is a must if you are to stand your ground on advice and treatment you have provided to a patient.

On the occasions a patient advises us they are leaving the practice, we thank them for their custom and they know where we are if ever they need us again. It is amazing how many return or continue to recommend us.

Sometimes it comes as an almighty relief when a patient does move on. I am thinking particularly of a patient with an imaginary soft corn between the 4th and 5th toes who has seen 4 Podiatrists in our practice and none have yet cured "it". None of us have worked the psychology out that is behind this but all are longing for patient to go away..... For those of us in the UK will the HPC allow us to sack patients?

GB

 

A while ago I had a blind patient that was so happy to hear my voice, thinking that I was someone else, saying: "I'm glad it's someone different this time- the last person didn't do them properly". When I said that it was actually me the last time she said: "No, it was a man". In fact, she hadn't been seen by a man for the last 6 appointments...

Pts are curious things indeed with very curious memories!

Mifiros

 

problem i have with checking on patients that havent showed in a while is i often find they have died!! RIP my friends.........

 

From a business perspective one of the old sayings is that 5% of your people cause you 80% of your stress.....at the risk of sounding callous but not meaning to be......maybe it's a blessing to lose some at times. My old business partner and I used to fantisize about having a refferral card to someone we did not like much to refer certain people to. It also helps to remember that while entitled to an opinion, the patient often is often poorly informed and very biased......so don't worry too much if they don't like you.....
regards Phill

 

Without naming names - I used to work for a retail outlet previously mentioned in this thread and as there are no longer any Pods at the head office - a member of said company's legal dept contacted me to ask me a question regarding a complaint they'd had. The pt was "horrified" and "seeking legal advice" because the pod had used a scalpel - yes a scalpel on her foot - and wanted my advice on whether this was acceptable practice!!

Don't know how I kept a straight face - apparently the patient thought we should only ever use a file. Maybe lack of communication on the pods behalf!