Photo Credit: HowLettery
Improving and simplifying the lines of communication between patients and providers can help patients feel more safe, secure, and confident with their care.
How easy is it to gain access to a healthcare professional when you need them? Does easy access equate with overuse or abuse of access to healthcare professionals? The answers to these questions vary amongst healthcare providers; however, my experience led me to believe that making it easy for patients to connect with healthcare professionals generates greater satisfaction with care, more peace of mind, and no overuse or abuse of the system. I may have a skewed view, but this is my experience.
A Dentist’s Home Phone Number
My father was a dentist in the days before cell phones and call centers. He performed dental surgeries and all the follow-up management, which was the standard practice. However, the nonstandard practice was giving patients his home phone number in case they had questions or concerns about their recovery. As he told me this story, he asked me to guess how many calls he had received from his patients over the years. After I guessed, he responded, “Zero.”
This surprised me. Nobody had called him? Not even one patient? Maybe he slept through a call or two and didn’t realize it. Then, I remembered the loud ringing of the phones in our home at the time. Nobody could sleep through that ringing. So, it seems he was telling the truth!
Studies on Patient Utilization of Personal Contact
It was an interesting phenomenon that has, surprisingly, been studied. In a prospective study, seven orthopedic surgeons provided their personal cell phone numbers to approximately 30 consecutive patients each and examined the extent to which patients utilized these numbers. Only 10.1% of patients called their surgeons during the 30 days following receipt of the cell phone numbers. In another study, patients showed restraint, with only a small percentage of patients making calls to the surgeon’s cell phone (17% of all calls made to the medical practice when provided with phone numbers to the secretary, surgical scheduler, and the surgeon). Furthermore, 72% of patients surveyed thought their treating surgeon cared more about their well-being if they provided a cell phone number.
Personal Experience in Pediatric Care
Over time, my experience validated these and my father’s results. Although I did not give out my home phone number, I did give some parents of patients my personal cell phone number. While I did have some parents call me, I was often surprised at the number of times that I didn’t get called. Also, when I would see a child with a borderline ear infection, I would give parents a prescription for antibiotics with instructions to fill the prescription if the child’s symptoms worsened over the next 24 to 48 hours. Often, the prescription would be left unfilled because the parents didn’t notice a rapid decline in symptoms and didn’t feel the need to start the antibiotics. Giving a prescription for antibiotics wasn’t a personal cell phone number, but it did mean something in the grand scheme of things.
Psychological Impact
Receiving an easy access method to contact their healthcare professional fosters a feeling of safety and security in patients’ minds. Just knowing that they can access someone who can help them in their time of need may give them the feeling of safety and security to not make a phone call, just as having a prescription in case you need it may encourage the same feelings of safety and security not actually to use it in borderline cases. Of course, some will utilize the phone number and possibly abuse the privilege. But, it seems as though it is not as large a proportion of people as one would think. So, maybe easy access is more about feeling safe and secure than making calls, just as my father found out.
