Best Strategies for Impatient Patients

No matter what office (or practice) you work in you will encounter impatient patients. Regardless of why the patient is impatient, your job is to handle them with respect and professionalism. So, the next time you find yourself in the throws with another impatient patient, here are a few tips you can use. Also, you will get a better understanding of impatience and how to deal with any situation as a professional.

Recognize how Today’s Fast-Paced Society Reinforces Impatience

We live in a world that moves at the speed of light and expect almost immediate access to most things on demand. The internet puts so much information at the tips of our fingers we can forget that people need time to work, prepare reports, and process information. We are not machines and building the human factor into life is important.

See the Connection Between Impatience, Anger and Health

Too much stress and be damaging to your own health and the health of those around you. Strive to find ways to avoid this stress when it is unneeded and not productive.

Stress can be a cause of impatience. Addressing the overall stress of a given situation can improve the environment for everyone involved and make it safer for your overall health.
Instead of arguing over the obvious impatience, look at the long-term stress as something that maybe changed.

Distance Yourself from the Situation

Getting mad or frustrated is definitely easier. However, your job is to remain calm and resolve the situation. Not contribute to it. Distance yourself both emotionally, and if necessary, physically. Step away for a few seconds to calm down if you need to. When you are ready, have a calm conversation with the patient and ask them to work with you to find a solution to the problem.

Peace with Impatient Patients

Solving this one problem may not actually be the big picture. Peace in the office – that’s the big picture! What can you do to bring the environment back to a peaceful and calming environment? This includes not spending the rest of the day talking about the incident. Your attitude sets the tone for your patients. If you bring an attitude from a past conflict into the rest of your day, don’t expect your day to get much better.

Be Mindful of the Things Making You Impatient

Most people have several tasks in their head, and they jump from thought to thought without taking the time to finish one task first. We live interrupted lives as we try to multitask, and it is frustrating when we feel we aren’t making progress. It is better to be mindful of our thoughts and the best way to understand this is to write down what makes you impatient. This will help you slow down and focus on one task at a time and remove those things that stress you out.

Learn from the Situation

Whether you directly contributed to the conflict or not, learn from it. Every moment is an opportunity to learn. This encounter will prepare you to handle conflicts in the future more effectively. You will be experienced and possibly stop a situation from escalating because now you know how to cut it off from the past. Don’t let your frustration force you to miss an opportunity to grow.

Conclusion

If you want to find out from your patients how else to better serve them, send them a survey! Our automated appointment reminders can also be used to communicate with patients more effectively and improve their experience with your office. Sign up for our free trial now to give it a try!

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