Have you ever had a patient in the chair who thought they were in a therapy session or at a cocktail party? They want to sit there and talk and talk as if no one had anywhere else to go or nothing else to do. It's interesting to see how different staff members react to a patient like this. My boss tends to get the "how the heck am I going to get out of here" slightly panicked, half-sick smile, half-helpless expression on his face while subtly doing a mini side step toward the door. Every now and then I'll take pity on him and step in and say "Excuse me, Dr. Price, you have a call on line 11." Since we don't have a line 11 he knows I am trying to save him from the deep pit of patient small talk he has allowed himself to be pulled into. Our hygienist had one of these patients today. This lady is an infrequent visitor who loves to do 3 years worth of talking in one 50 minute appointment. She talks about her favorite subject, herself. She is quite fluent in the wonders of she. The hapless hygienist was trying to be nice, but she was afraid to take her hand out of the woman's mouth for fear of having to wait out another episode of "let me tell you more about me." The 50 minute appointment lasted 80 minutes. Thankfully the hygienist had a cancellation following this patient so she had time to recover. She very proudly told me that she charged the patient for a 60 minute appointment. I asked her how she could have maintained control of the appointment. She said she had no idea. I told her that it would have been appropriate to tell the patient that she loved talking to her, but that she would have to get to work and finish her cleaning since she had a schedule to maintain and that if she didn't get busy she'd have to bring the patient back to finish her prophy. Since this would incur a second charge she didn't want to run out of time. When all that talking started costing her money, this patient would have stopped and the hygienist could have completed the prophy. We have to respect our patients and treat them kindly. All of our patients. If we allow one patient to cause disruption in the schedule, we are inconveniencing the other patients. A chronically late patient should be told their appointment is earlier than it actually is or reappointed for another time. A talker must be gently reminded of the purpose of the visit if things get out of hand. Not all patients who do these things are inconsiderate, most aren't. Some are just lonely. You can redirect the course of events kindly, but definitely. You can find other ways to make these patients feel special if that's what they need. Keep a supply of pretty cards in the office and write a short note saying you enjoyed their visit. That way you can keep things moving and still let them know they are valued. When you have someone who just loves the sound of their own voice, well, you just have to get a grip on the situation. In the end you will save everyone a lot of stress and aggravation.
Have you ever had a patient in the chair who thought they were in a therapy session or at a cocktail party? They want to sit there and talk and talk as if no one had anywhere else to go or nothing else to do. It's interesting to see how different staff members react to a patient like this. My boss tends to get the "how the heck am I going to get out of here" slightly panicked, half-sick smile, half-helpless expression on his face while subtly doing a mini side step toward the door. Every now and then I'll take pity on him and step in and say "Excuse me, Dr. Price, you have a call on line 11." Since we don't have a line 11 he knows I am trying to save him from the deep pit of patient small talk he has allowed himself to be pulled into.
Our hygienist had one of these patients today. This lady is an infrequent visitor who loves to do 3 years worth of talking in one 50 minute appointment. She talks about her favorite subject, herself. She is quite fluent in the wonders of she. The hapless hygienist was trying to be nice, but she was afraid to take her hand out of the woman's mouth for fear of having to wait out another episode of "let me tell you more about me." The 50 minute appointment lasted 80 minutes. Thankfully the hygienist had a cancellation following this patient so she had time to recover. She very proudly told me that she charged the patient for a 60 minute appointment. I asked her how she could have maintained control of the appointment. She said she had no idea. I told her that it would have been appropriate to tell the patient that she loved talking to her, but that she would have to get to work and finish her cleaning since she had a schedule to maintain and that if she didn't get busy she'd have to bring the patient back to finish her prophy. Since this would incur a second charge she didn't want to run out of time. When all that talking started costing her money, this patient would have stopped and the hygienist could have completed the prophy.
We have to respect our patients and treat them kindly. All of our patients. If we allow one patient to cause disruption in the schedule, we are inconveniencing the other patients. A chronically late patient should be told their appointment is earlier than it actually is or reappointed for another time. A talker must be gently reminded of the purpose of the visit if things get out of hand. Not all patients who do these things are inconsiderate, most aren't. Some are just lonely. You can redirect the course of events kindly, but definitely. You can find other ways to make these patients feel special if that's what they need. Keep a supply of pretty cards in the office and write a short note saying you enjoyed their visit. That way you can keep things moving and still let them know they are valued. When you have someone who just loves the sound of their own voice, well, you just have to get a grip on the situation. In the end you will save everyone a lot of stress and aggravation.