Our bonus at work is based on the lovely patient surveys that new pts get (formulated through CMS, blah blah blah). We had a very entitled older teenage pt and mother in the office recently who would NOT get off the phone. Pt just stared at me when I asked for name and DOB, and I had to ask mom to verify pharmacy, meds, and allergies because pt was too busy texting. (Someone had texted pt about what so-and-so had posted on Facebook about someone else's brother and they can't mess with them--the drama!). When I was escorting them out after the visit, pt and mom stated MD was very rude, had no bedside manner, and was horrible. This is our best MD, one of the founding partners of the practice, and the most popular one. Pt was still jabbing away at her phone and snapping at me about the Facebook post. When they left (after I apologized), I asked MD what happened. He'd asked pt and mom 3 different times to put the phones down so he could get the H&P and do the exam--and pt refused. Now, she'll get a survey and we'll get dinged for low scores for pt's own behavior. I HATE those surveys. We had one survey give us horrible reviews and said Dr. Smith was incompetent, and we don't have a Dr. Smith in our practice (it was that pt's cardio!). Can we make those surveys disappear, or at least be able to defend ourselves against the horrible ones? Grrr.
