Meeting Your Patient – 1st Impressions are Everything

Best Practices in Healthcare – How the First Impression during the Initial Patient Meeting Helps Set the Stage for Trust and Communication between Doctor and Patient

Part I: Looking at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota 
Stay Tuned for Part II which will show you how your practice can implement some simple things which can make a world of difference in patient care and patient perception

Obviously, there are many things that need changed within our healthcare system. But what about those times when we see organizations doing things not only “right” but setting an example that is “GREAT”.  It’s important to recognize the outstanding practices within certain healthcare organizations that work well, and to emulate those if possible within our own organizations so that we can fix the things that need fixing, and make improvements in the areas that can be enhanced.

So in today’s Best Practices in Healthcare segment, I’d like to discuss how a Minnesota Health Care Organization, The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota sets up meetings with new patients. Remember, you never get a chance to make a first impression and there’s a reason why patients travel all across the world to obtain their healthcare at the Mayo Clinic. Let’s look at some possible reasons why.

The medical offices for each clinician at the Mayo Clinic that I saw,  are standardized. This helps if you’re looking at purchasing desks or equipment, because if you’re in purchasing, buying items in bulk often makes it easier to obtain a discount on rates. And, if nothing else, having the same setup in terms of your clinician staff rooms makes it easier to standardize in terms of procedures, equipment etc.  Alright, so that’s an oversimplified view of the economics of the office setup for a practitioner. What about the dynamics of the patient’s viewpoint?

As a new patient at the Mayo Clinic, when one enters the office of a practitioner, because they are standardized, what you will find are clean, bright, and comfortable offices. Each desk is connected to a seating area, similar in some respects to a built in that you would see in some kitchens which maximizes space and increases comfort. You won’t find hard, uncomfortable chairs here, but rather, padded built ins.  Making the patient comfortable is the first step in establishing a trusting relationship and giving the patient the opportunity to feel more relaxed and therefore more likely to share more easily the details that could lead to the practitioner being able to get a complete history and therefore more accurate diagnosis.

Navigating around to different areas of the Minnesota  Mayo Clinic is also easy, there are standards in terms of how signs are used, and each elevator clearly shows which part of the building you will be taken to, making it simple for all age patients to get where they need to go, on time and without much stress.  Pictures, plants, and music are strategically placed around the clinic which also helps reducing stress and making the experience more pleasant for the patient and family members who receive care in this Minnesota healthcare organization.

In the next segment of the Best Practices in HealthCare I’ll talk about one of the other practices that the Mayo Clinic uses in their initial meetings with patients and clinicians that leaves a great impression with the patients and is easy to implement, yet is not normally done in most physician offices as a standard practice. Stay tuned and thanks for reading this edition of Great Practices in Healthcare by HospitalSoup.com