You went to medical school to learn how to heal people. And when you hire a call service to remind patients of appointments, call no-shows and verify insurance, the necessary  tasks that take valuable time away from your patients,  you get back to doing what you do best: practicing medicine.

The importance of the doctor-patient relationship

If you’ve been practicing for a while, then you know how vital the doctor-patient relationship is. When it’s good, patients are more likely to:

• Be honest with you
• Feel comfortable talking to you about lifestyle issues that may interfere with their health
• Ask pertinent questions regarding medications and treatments
• Discuss side effects frankly
• Keep follow-up appointments
• Refer family members

A solid physician-patient relationship helps keep another beast at bay: the dreaded “doorknob syndrome,” where patients only really start getting down to business as the physician’s hand is on the doorknob to leave.

It doesn’t take a lot of time to get started on a great relationship with your patients. Those few minutes a day usually spent on phone calls and reminders may be enough!