What Patients Really Want: Lessons From My First Month in Practice
When I shared my dream of opening a private practice with friends and colleagues, I was often met with resistance and statements like “that’s going to be too hard!,” “Are you really going to be able to survive doing that?,” or the one that really stung, “Patients are not going to come.” Nevertheless, I persisted and opened doors Oct 2022.
I was scared. Physicians all around me were selling their practices to corporate entities in medicine while I was doing the exact opposite. Even with the “odds stacked against me,” I knew that I was solving a problem—the lack of personalized and accessible healthcare.
In an era of healthcare where appointments are 10-15 mins long, the number of questions you can ask are limited, wait times to get an appointment are 3-12 months long, patients must desire more. Here’s what I found:
Patients want access: If someone is unwell, they want to be seen within a reasonable time. They don’t want to wait for 3-6 months! I had a patient dumbfounded that I was able to offer an appointment the same week for an endometriosis consult. She had been waiting for months at her previous doctor’s office.
Patients want a doctor who gives a sh*t: Doctors are by nature highly caring and empathetic individuals, but the systems around us have stripped us of our autonomy and cause us to practice medicine in a manner that is not patient-centered. The focus is now on staring at a screen and clicking away and seeing large numbers of patients to hit revenue goals set by an administrator.
Patients want to be heard: You may not have an answer or solution to some of their most complex problems but they want to know that you are on their team. That you are doing your best for them. I had a complex patient who desired hormonal treatment for menopause. Since I took the time to really understand her goals and I was so vested in her well being and success, I called my friend who is one of the country’s experts on this topic and was able to tailor her treatment based on these recommendations. I can tell you that I would not have had the time to do that in a corporate setting. My patient was thrilled to finally be feeling well.
I have served over 30 patients my first month both in the office and performing gynecologic surgery. My goal is 300 for my first year. I know I am doctoring at my best, on my own terms, and that has made all the difference—for me and my patients.
