Gatekeepers

Front line employees are usually the gatekeepers for a business. They are generally the face of the company, sometimes solely representing an organization.

One gatekeeper, a medical receptionist, apparently believed that patients were the enemy. A former patient called to inquire whether the doctor could schedule a test that another doctor suggested she get but didn’t have the authorization to schedule it herself.

The receptionist scolded the patient, telling her that she was not a “patient” after all because she had not checked off certain boxes of an imaginary checklist. The patient explained that she had met with the doctor virtually a few times and had tests done through this particular doctor. The receptionist said, “no, you are a new patient, I cannot schedule tests for new patients and there are no appointments for new patients for 3 months.” The patient asked what would qualify as a “current patient” and the receptionist replied that it would require an in-office visit.  Yet the office had not allowed in-person visits for the past year due to Covid. 

Now, no doubt medical offices are seeing record numbers of appointments this year, but patients are people. People who obviously have health issues otherwise they wouldn’t be attempting to make appointments. And while the medical office may not care whether this one patient returns, it should care about potential negative word of mouth advertising.

Even medical offices need customers to stay in business.