When you walk into a clinic of any sort
that you have never been to before what do you expect, what do you wish for, what
matters most? In those first five minutes of your appointment what can make the
most difference to you relative to your reasons for being in that clinic. When
you walk in do you want to be given reading materials about the clinic, a video
to watch about the process or procedure you are there for etc. Would you like
to have your first five minutes be information based?
I would like to share my approach to the
first five minutes That I spend with my patient and why.
When ever I walk into a new Doctors office
I wonder what they are like, will they be friendly, approachable and
interactive, or will they be clinical and detached. My first five mins. as a
patient is often spent sizing up who I am with and I tend to make that decision
fairly quickly. Because of my own awareness of how I view my first five mins. in
a clinical space I have come up with a purposeful approach to the first five
mins. in my office.
The first few moments in my office are
typically affected by my four second rule. The four second rule states that:
“no one can enter the premises of The Ear
Company and spend more than 4 seconds without being greeted in a friendly
manner and given direction as to their next steps” as an addendum to this
ruling the patient is to be treated in a “hospitable” manner offered tea or
coffee or water or some of our ever existent snacks. Understand that I am being
a bit silly in stating this reality in this manner but this is an important
element of patient engagement. Once the patient has filled out their paperwork
and are waiting for their appointment I would typically find a moment to step
into the waiting room area and have a short introductory conversation and
inform them that there may be a short wait if we are not yet ready for them.
Sometimes this turns into a longer conversation about topics we share in
common.
When I bring the patient into my testing
and assessment area I consider those first few minutes to be the most important
time I spend with them. The first few minutes we spend in becoming comfortable
with one another getting to know each other. The confidence my patient develops
in me has so much to do with that time of dialogue. In these few minutes we are
in the “get to know each other phase” where we find commonalities and begin to
develop a relationship. It is in this time that the patient begins to tell me
their story. One of the key discussion points at this time is why they have
come as revealed through their own words. This casual time of taking a case
history tells the clinician much about the motivating factors of the patient and
how much self realization is inherent. It is through this interactive process
that the patient identifies the challenges they face. I always tell my patients that I can really
only help help them with the problems they themselves are aware of but
sometimes they need help in talking through their own understandings.
There are all kinds of programs that are
provided to offices like mine to have a third party standardized use of the first five minutes where the
patient watches a video or is given material to read while waiting for their
appointment etc. . While this approach many be useful to some in communicating
their intended message my thinking on this is very different. I believe that
those first five minutes are an opportunity to make an impression with intent.
I compare this to meeting someone socially or going on a first date. The first
five minutes should be spent in getting to know each other and getting a sense
of each other. It is our need to have some kind of commonality with each other
that often drive those initial conversations. We are far more comfortable with
each other when we find something that we have in common. The saying that we have only one chance to
make a first impression is ultimately true and needs to be something that we
think about and keep at the top of mind.
