Are patients really customers?

Not all the time, says emergency physician Edwin Leap. The focus on patient satisfaction scores doesn’t always lead to optimal care, and in fact, places the doctor in difficult situations.

Appease the patient, or face the wrath of a hospital administrator?

There are other reasons the customer service model fails. The use of’patient (customer) satisfaction scores,’ it has actually caused physicians to do things that they would otherwise deem inappropriate, in order to maintain high satisfaction scores.

They may give narcotics they wouldn’t have given, in order to avoid criticism (which may lead to reprimand, loss of income or loss of employment). They may admit those they wouldn’t, give work excuses when they shouldn’t, order tests unnecessarily as a matter of policy or simply endure demoralizing abuse from individuals who should have been escorted to the door shortly after entering. Those individuals may be’customers’ to the administrators, but in person, face-to-face, they’re enormous pains to the provider. That’s a shame.