Front desk people in healthcare should be knowledgable, friendly and helpful

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

My daughter broke her arm this weekend and was seen at a small, rinky dink urgent care, got an x-ray and splint, and received very kind and compassionate care. There was only a PAC and RN on duty.

The next day, when the dust had settled, I proceeded to try to navigate the uncharted territory of figuring out what orthopod to take her to. The urgent care, meanwhile, is closed during the day, they are only open after clinic hours. They had told me that they were sending the x-rays down to the hospital to be read by the hospital radiologist. Of course they refered me to the one orthopod employed by the hospital.

To make a long story shorter, I spent the day trying to get her in as soon as possible, dealing with three separate ortho doc offices, trying to track down where the x-rays were, etc. Even though I'm a nurse, I was still an anxious mother, and I didn't know exactly how the system worked and needed assistance.

I encountered some rather surly front desk people and some helpful ones. Some front desk people seemed highly inconvenienced by my questions and need of help and guidance. I was surprised, also, at how some of these people at the hospital run clinic didn't seem to know how their own place functioned. The clinic and the urgent care are run by the hospital and they don't seem to have any way of communicating or co-operating, even though they are right next to each other.

The nurse/phone person at one ortho doc's was, on the other hand, compassionate, helpful, informative, and pro-actively assisting me to get my hands on my daughter's x-rays, even if I was going to take them to an out of town doctor (If I could get in that day). What a difference!!!

My conclusion is, knowledgible customer service is vital in healthcare! Healthcare consumers are anxious and stressed out, and they don't know how to navigate the system! Any one who works in a capacity of answering their questions should not act inconvenienced but should be helpful!

[dilleweed]

I totally agree.... the receptionists at both my kids' pediatrician's office and my OB-GYN office are ALWAYS surly and rude. I can't fathom why. If you hate people so much, why work as a receptionist? When I worked in a vet clinic as a tech/receptionist, I loved talking with and dealing with people at the front desk. I don't think I realized as a young college student the impact that kind of customer service has, I just did it because I enjoyed it. Now I know that it's part of the overall experience of the visit and it is very important.

[oramar]

My husband can't understand why I drive 15 miles to go to a dentist when there is one two miles away. The truth is that I see no difference in the close one and the one that is far away except for the office staff. The one that is two miles away has the nasty staff, the one 15 miles away has courteous and helpful staff. So of course I drive to the one 15 miles away. By the way the our insurance covers both.

[core0]

My daughter broke her arm this weekend and was seen at a small, rinky dink urgent care, got an x-ray and splint, and received very kind and compassionate care. There was only a PAC and RN on duty.

The next day, when the dust had settled, I proceeded to try to navigate the uncharted territory of figuring out what orthopod to take her to. The urgent care, meanwhile, is closed during the day, they are only open after clinic hours. They had told me that they were sending the x-rays down to the hospital to be read by the hospital radiologist. Of course they refered me to the one orthopod employed by the hospital.

To make a long story shorter, I spent the day trying to get her in as soon as possible, dealing with three separate ortho doc offices, trying to track down where the x-rays were, etc. Even though I'm a nurse, I was still an anxious mother, and I didn't know exactly how the system worked and needed assistance.

I encountered some rather surly front desk people and some helpful ones. Some front desk people seemed highly inconvenienced by my questions and need of help and guidance. I was surprised, also, at how some of these people at the hospital run clinic didn't seem to know how their own place functioned. The clinic and the urgent care are run by the hospital and they don't seem to have any way of communicating or co-operating, even though they are right next to each other.

The nurse/phone person at one ortho doc's was, on the other hand, compassionate, helpful, informative, and pro-actively assisting me to get my hands on my daughter's x-rays, even if I was going to take them to an out of town doctor (If I could get in that day). What a difference!!!

My conclusion is, knowledgible customer service is vital in healthcare! Healthcare consumers are anxious and stressed out, and they don't know how to navigate the system! Any one who works in a capacity of answering their questions should not act inconvenienced but should be helpful!

The issue is that the office wants someone who is friendly, helpful, intelligent and resourceful. They also want to pay someone as little as possible. Well run offices pay and retain good front desk people. Poorly run offices don't. The other thing that plays into this is ideally you have someone that has a tremendous amount of judgment but in the end there is not a lot to keep someone as a receptionist tremendously engaged. Most of the really good ones either burn out or leave for something better.

As far as the hospital and clinic not knowing what each other do. welcome to my world.

David Carpenter, PA-C

[*TK8]

While I'm taking my last prerequisites to get into nursing school, my day just is healthcare customer service where I have to communicate with doctor's offices on a daily basis. When I speak with the office it's mainly because I have information they need to ask me. In my experience I have found that once I have provided the office with the information the want, they hurry to rush me off the phone. This is particularly annoying since there is a bunch of stuff I am required to say to them before I get off the phone with them. I also find in doctor's offices that they have staff dealing with medical billing (in most cases nurses), who have no experience in billing asking me questions to which when I give them the answers they will not understand what I'm telling them since it has nothing to do with their day to day work. I think the issue with doctor's offices is that they are doing a bunch of things and nothing the staff is doing is coordinated so they get nasty.

[Ms Kylee]

I changed my PCP because of his snotty receptionist. And I told him why I was changing also.

[Katie82, RN]

I too have refused to see specialists who have rude staff. But as a former Practice Administrator, I can tell you that good customer service is a great challenge. Poor customer service is inexcusable, but there are two sides to this story. When you work in an office where the phones start ringing off the hook beginning the minute the doors open, coupled with the demanding patients standing at the desk demanding your attention, it begins to wear you down. Most of my patients believed they were the only one we had and demanded immediate satisfaction. My staff and I have been called every name in the book only because we could not deliver what unreasonable patients demanded - immediatly. I actually had to dismiss patients from our practice for causing a scene in the waiting room over the least little thing (ex:a patient who arrived 5 minutes after Mrs B was called before her, etc) Most patients have no idea what goes on in a physician's office, they must think we sat around filing our nails all day. My staff and I did our best to be pleasant and accomodating, I fired several people because they were inappropriate at the front desk. But few people are thick-skinned enough to be able to work the front desk without experiencing occasional burnout.

[psalm, RN]

NO! NO! NO! Don't file your nails at work, tiny particles could get in your bonbons!! :)

The saying, "Walk a mile in my shoes" sounds appropriate to this thread...any many of our threads. No matter what is done for patient comfort and satisfaction, we have an imperfect world with emergencies that trump our expectations.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

I think everybody should be knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful!!!!

[*TK8]

As someone who works in customer service I think it's a challenge to keep your composure, especially when someone is threatening you and being extremely rude to you. In my job which right now is not in nursing, I really don't have a choice to voice my feelings- I have to be polite because there is a chance the call I am on is being recorded. The best I can say to the customer service staff is to wait until the customer/patient leaves THEN complain about it. It feels a lot better and then you can go on with your day and you can forget about it. It seems like most office staff don't have the common sense to do that...instead they transfer their feelings to the next person they deal with and then exhibit the same behavior that they can't stand to the person who is servicing THEM. It's ridiculous and it's insulting to continue the cycle of abuse. Treat others like you want to be treated. I just want to say I currently work in a line where I deal with doctor's offices on the phone every day and I'm studying to become a nurse and this is just based on my personal experience.

[RNperdiem, RN]

My mother was once a receptionist in a peds office. The stress was intense and quit after a year. Many of these doctors offices are very fast paced and see lots of patients in a day. Many parents calling have been up all night with sick kids and are not at their best when they call. I can see a downward spiral of rudeness that goes both ways.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

I wasn't rude to anyone the other day. I was trying to get information, I never yelled at any one. But I noticed that some were helpful and some were put out by my trying to find out how to get my daughter's x-rays.