The patient experience: Why I left my primary care physician after 13 years

The do’s and don’ts of customer service in healthcare

When I was 31 years old, I had been seeing the same primary care doctor since I was 18. Simple math here folks, that’s a 13-year-commitment to my doctor and her practice. I’m a creature of habit and am extremely loyal. Plus, it’s a pain-in-the-you-know-what to switch doctors. 

For a while, I liked my doctor. She was friendly, warm and seemed to care. But, then something changed.

I noticed that every time I went there (luckily not that often), my doctor started to seem less-and-less sensitive and her irritability began to increase. There was a high turnover rate at the office, and the nurses were unfriendly and short. I started to dread our visits.

Except, when I saw the physician’s assistant. The PA always made me feel like her equal. She listened to me, she seemed to care, she offered great solutions — even outside of medicine. I trusted her as much as I trusted some of my closest friends. Unfortunately, she wasn’t always available.

The last time I saw my doctor, I had a fever, a sore throat and was feeling very lethargic. It took every bit of energy to stay sitting upright on the exam room bed. I was about to lie down to rest when my doctor opened up the door. With her arms crossed she asked, “What can I do for you now?” Her snide remark almost pushed me over the edge. I felt awful; there was no need to make me feel worse. And at the very least, I was a paying customer. She had no right to give me an attitude.

Final straw

The PA called me at home one day to break the news. She was leaving the practice to raise her son with a learning disability.  Without her there, I had no reason to remain loyal to my doctor. My response to her was, “Now my decision is easier, I’m going to leave the practice, too.”

The Lesson

With 30 years of experience in hospital marketing, we’ve heard countless stories about hospitals with poor reputations backed by toxic faculty and staff.  The lesson: People like to do business with people they like.

Hospital marketers need to be cognizant of their culture and how it is affecting the patient experience. When hospitals or health systems approach us with a reputation problem, we help them first establish a brand promise and core values. If employees — from the administration to the cleaning crews— don’t live up to these brand pillars then whether to keep them around becomes clearer. It only takes one person to ruin your organization’s reputation. I am living proof of that.

If you want to learn more about the patient experience, here’s a blog post that I like written by a woman who is a cancer survivor.