Intentionality is Hard but Necessary in Healthcare

Lately, things have felt very rushed. Maybe it’s the after-effects of the pandemic. Maybe I have too many things on my plate. Whatever the reason, I don’t feel as though I have time for genuine, real interactions outside of work. When it comes to healthcare, though, those genuine, real interactions are what build the culture of our practices. Making the patient feel welcome and engaged, regardless of how our day has been, is critical to strengthening the doctor-patient relationship.

Jessie Wilson, Vice President of client management and senior trainer at Dale Carnegie, has talked with several leadership groups about the importance of tone, positivity, and genuineness in the workplace. She shared her strategies for interacting with patients in an engaging and meaningful way as healthcare models continue to shift to value-based care.

What does it mean to be intentional with patients?

“Being intentional with your patients is doing what others sometimes aren’t willing to do: take time to interact on a personal level with your patients,” Mrs. Wilson said. Try answering the following questions before you walk into the room:

• Who is the patient, both internally and externally?
• What culture am I creating in every interaction with my patients?
• What do I truly want patients to see and hear when they enter and leave my practice?

Whether you’re able to answer the questions or not, the point is to put yourself in a customer-focused mindset before you walk into the room. “Set an agenda for yourself and the patient,” Mrs. Wilson said. “Everyone needs to know the reason for the visit, the current game plan, and the next steps after the visit. Coming in with an agenda keeps things on track and lets the patient know the exact reason they’re there.”

I know what some of you may be thinking: I barely have time to plan my lunch for the day, much less create an agenda for every patient I see. Mrs. Wilson said that, despite that valid concern, you can still take time to level-set with your patients. “Let’s say I’m the doctor, and my patient is walking in for their annual physical. The interaction could go something like this:

• “Hi there! It’s so good to see you. Today our focus is your annual visit. As you know, we’ve already taken your blood work and checked your blood pressure. The next three things we will do is talk about your daily routine and health-related habits, and then we’ll leave room for questions. How does that sound?”

It doesn’t have to be a long conversation, but in a few seconds, you’ve let the patient know what to expect while also giving them an allotted amount of time to ask questions.

Your tone sets the culture of your practice.

Mrs. Wilson said that, as providers, we need to be assertively soft with our patients. “You have to demonstrate confidence with your patients but also demonstrate softness and sensitivity to their needs.”

That idea goes back to thinking about who your patient is internally and externally. It can be easy for providers to focus on getting the patient in and out as quickly as possible, but being genuine is taking time to think about the patient before entering the room. “Every time the door shuts, and you see another patient, it’s a new interaction. It’s like hitting the reset button. That means our tone, our attitude, and our agenda are reset,” she said.

This is true for any corporate setting. Perhaps you just got out of a meeting with people who were rude and unkind. It left you feeling frustrated. Then, you hop onto your next meeting with a new person. It’s important not to let your mood from the first meeting bleed over into your interactions with this new person. Otherwise, you’re telling the attendees in the new meeting that you don’t care about them and that they’re not appreciated.

“Healthcare professionals have it tough because, when they open the door, they don’t know what type of tone the patient will have,” Mrs. Wilson says. “Nonetheless, if you open up the door and interact with a positive, genuine tone, it, in turn, causes positive interactions with the patient.”

Doctor’s offices and hospitals can get busy, though. Things run behind. In those cases, patients may be frustrated by having to wait longer than expected. As their doctor, if you walk in the door with that same sense of anxiousness and a hurried attitude, that may cause the patient to feel the same way. Instead, walk in and thank the patient for waiting. Quickly run through the agenda and cut right to the chase. Regardless of how busy your practice is or how many patients you see, taking a few seconds to acknowledge each patient and focus on your tone will go a long way to creating more positive experiences in your practice.

Even in tough conversations, supportive language is key.

There will be times when you have to let a patient know about a life-threatening diagnosis or other serious condition they have. In these situations, it’s important for providers to give patients time to pause and think about any questions or concerns that they have. “Your tone should still be assertively soft, but understand that, even if you have made this diagnosis before, the patient may not have experienced anything like this in their lifetime,” Mrs. Wilson said.

“Just because it’s a hard conversation to have doesn’t mean you can’t still be genuine and intentional,” she said. “Acknowledging the patient’s feelings and shifting to what to do next is still being genuine.”

One thing that may make it easier to communicate bad news to a patient while still maintaining a genuine tone would be to talk to them like you would a family member or friend. “There is a need for the medical terminology from an educational standpoint, but then, there needs to be a shift to explain the diagnosis or illness to the patient like you would someone you know very well,” Mrs. Wilson said.

Sometimes, the patient may need time to process. Make that part of your agenda. Adding time to the agenda to let the patient express their thoughts, feelings, concerns, and questions reinforces the customer-focused mindset and acknowledges to the patient that your office is a safe space. After the conversation, get the person connected with someone who has experienced a similar diagnosis.

It may be even more beneficial if the person to whom you refer the patient is another specialist, provider, or staff member within your office. “That signals to the patient that your practice is walking with them through this challenging journey,” Mrs. Wilson explained. “You said your portion. Now, pass the baton to someone else. That could also make that employee or team member feel valued, too. Referring a patient to them could show the team member that you value their experience and expertise.”

In your practice, you cannot be all things to all patients. It takes an entire team to ensure your clinic is operating on all cylinders. Often, that requires putting aside your own experiences and allowing someone else to pick up the torch and walk with the patient.

A team-based approach goes a long way.

“Rely on the team around you to learn more about your patients before their appointments,” Mrs. Wilson said. “Develop a system with your team for documenting small bits of information about your patients. Staff greeting patients at the front desk or nurses who place patients in a room can jot down notes in the patient’s chart or on a sticky note that they learned about the patient.”

These notes can be medical-related, such as “sprained ankle from hiking,” or non-medical-related, such as “just married.” The notes and small bits of info will give you a great place to break the ice with the patient and start the interaction off with a customer-focused attitude:

• “I heard that you hurt your ankle hiking. Sounds like you’ve been pretty active lately!”
• “I heard you just got married! Congratulations! This must be an exciting time for you!”

Then, move right along into the agenda and action steps. Even though you may not know what you’re walking into with every patient, having these notes recorded from your staff will help you learn more about the patient and adjust accordingly, all while being assertively soft.

“It’s like track and field,” Mrs. Wilson explained. “How are you passing the baton to each part of your office that interacts with the patient? What can the last person add to the chart or the sticky note that prepares the next person? This information stresses awareness among your entire team and allows you to open up a new avenue for genuine interaction with your patient.”

Figure out what method works best for your care team and implement it. Do something small that makes the patient feel more at home and welcomed as an important part of their healthcare journey, not just a person following orders.

Fall back on your experience, but be open to change.

Experience is invaluable in the medical field. If it works, it works. It is also important, however, to re-evaluate practice techniques and try new things that could benefit your patients. “There is tremendous value in long-term experience in the healthcare field,” Mrs. Wilson added. “But, it’s okay to consider something different from time to time. I often use the analogy of a Blackberry phone to help get the point across — many of us used Blackberrys for years and thought they were the best way to communicate until the iPhone came along and opened our eyes to the possibilities of technology.”

In every field, sometimes, the only thing that remains constant is change. Choose to stand by your practice’s core values but be open to change.

Intentionality and genuineness may seem like abstract terms that are often thrown around without any true idea of what they mean. However, if you take time to understand what these terms mean and learn to incorporate them into your practice, you will see tremendous opportunities to improve the patient experience.

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