Letting go will enhance your work Whether we're talking about patient interactions, staff communication, or losing battles with our physician colleagues, we've all been there. You know what I mean. Patients who have high expectations, poor compliance, and negative attitudes. Staff who shirk their duties or do the bare minimum or fail to do the (to us) obvious. Physician colleagues who express resentment, distrust, or anger at something -- making us feel attacked, whether it's about our office schedule, our vacation request, or our accounts receivable. You likely have heard of the studies and sometimes comedians' jokes about the key to a happy relationship or successful marriage. Are you ready? Decide if you want to be "happy" or if you want to be "right." We can take this concept one giant step further by looking at business relationships with our patients, staff, or colleagues. As you'd expect, it's important to develop trust in our work relationships (and this includes patient interactions). A timely article by Jon Lokhorst describes the work conflict that can develop when two individuals have a different answer for similar goals. It leads to resentment, he said/she said, and stalemate. Not good for any environment, but this can especially be harmful in the medical arena. Just like in a marital relationship, admitting one's fault can be key. It's not always easy, as many times, we don't feel "at fault." When we're running an hour behind in the office, we all know that it's usually not "our fault." It likely is a domino effect that we see on a daily basis, where a late patient, followed by a patient who just needed a "quick visit" presents with a complex problem necessitating urgent calls to referrals and/or a hospital admission, leads to a big cluster that derails our schedule. Step back and picture the new patient waiting for you. The one who showed up on time, brought their insurance card, doesn't have a laundry list of 20 things that have been bothering them for the past 9 months, but maybe just has a rip-roaring sore throat and fever and is trying to patiently wait while your office staff says, "It'll be just a few more minutes before the doctor will be in." It's clearly not that patient's fault that you're late. A simple and sincere, "Thank you for your patience. I'm so sorry for the delay. It couldn't be helped, I'm afraid," can go a long way in tampering the patient's anger and frustration. It lets that person know that you are sorry; you do appreciate that it's not ideal; and, you establish a rapport. Or, picture when you realize that your staff did not get the report on the chest x-ray you ordered on Mrs. Smith, and now Mrs. Smith is in your office for said report and a treatment plan. It's likely you may erupt at your staff with a "WTH??" attitude, as you now have to stall for a few moments to access the records. It may be that that same staff member was busy putting out another fire that seemed more acute. Perhaps the elderly patient you saw a few moments before got light-headed as they were walking out, and your staff member had to drop everything, steady them, check their blood pressure, perhaps get them some juice, and make sure they were able to safely leave your office. So that when it came to getting a blistering comment from you about not getting the x-ray report, they feel it's a bit undeserved. Robert Enright, PhD, has made it his life's work to examine the science of forgiveness and his work defines forgiveness, in part, as releasing negative judgment and resentment. In our medical world, that means not only would we like our patient who was caught in the fray of a super-late clinic to not be upset with us. It also means that we should not get ourselves caught up in being mad at the late patient, or the one with the seemingly small medical problem that caused our clinic to fall an hour behind. Even harder to swallow, it calls for us to show compassion to our staff for doing what they thought was the right thing, even if that means we don't have that darn x-ray report for Mrs. Smith. And Enright takes this process a step further to say that, unless the culture of the business (or our medical practice) can work toward these goals and build trust and generosity, we are doomed to flounder. What's the take-home message? Give others the benefit of the doubt. Let it go, every chance you get. It will enhance your workplace. And, for sure, your home life. Source
